Last night was pretty much the worst bathtime ever. It was time for the twice-weekly shampooing of Sasha’s hair, and she was having none of it, taking multiple timeouts before finally agreeing to walk into the bathroom, disrobe, and be cleaned. Only, I made a mistake. After squirting some shampoo in her little hand, I …
Author Archives: Matt
Dubious Milestone no. 53: Bilingualism
As even casual readers of this blog know, Jean and I have been trying to bring Sasha up speaking both English and Chinese. The kid, now 2 and a half, has been going to a bilingual preschool, watching Dora and Spongebob in Chinese, and listening to children’s songs in Chinese. For a long time, it …
She Shat in Anger, and Other Failures of Potty-Training
Is there any early-parental activity as fraught as potty training? Breast-feeding, maybe, but the anxiety that entails usually engulfs just one of the parents. No, getting your child—who might be a year old or 2 or 4—to micturate and defecate in the appropriate place can be maddening, and success or failure seems to dictate what …
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Today in ‘Things That Suck’
So, I’m one of the 3,000 cyclists who each day ride back and forth over the Manhattan Bridge, crossing onto the island to pick my kid up from day care, returning to my office in Dumbo, and screaming in Chinese at the clueless pedestrians who endanger everyone by walking two abreast in the bike lane. …