The Young & the Restless & the Bitchy

Most of the time when I take Sasha to a playground, I interact very little with the other parents. Sasha’s still very young, and needs to be watched, or to have her hand held, as she climbs up wooden stairs and yells “Whee!” as she cruises down a slide. But yesterday, for whatever reason, she …

The Giving Tree, and other philosophical conundrums

An interesting educational tidbit from the Times on a charter school in Massachusetts that is teaching philosophy to second graders: A few times each month, second graders at a charter school in Springfield, Mass., take time from math and reading to engage in philosophical debate. There is no mention of Hegel or Descartes, no study …

Dawson’s Creek or Boerum Hill?

Life in the #4 neighborhood in New York is very complicated. One day you’re hitting on the girl with the yoga mat in the local cafe, the next your 2-year-old son is trying to impress Michelle Williams’s daughter. So it goes, writes Albert Stern (“a writer, lives in Brooklyn”) in the Times‘ “Modern Love” column: …

A Week on the Wagon: When Dads attack!

DadWagon readers: Let me wax poetic for a moment and share one of my favorites by James Dickey, “The Heaven of Animals,” as I think these few lines aptly describe the tenor of our parenting blog this week: To match them, the landscape flowers, Outdoing, desperately Outdoing what is required: The richest wood, The deepest …