Driving to my friend Jen’s baby shower Emily, my daughter, turned down the radio and asked, “Why do they call it a baby shower, anyway?” Good question. “I think it’s because when you become a new mom you don’t get to take very many showers. So we throw mommies-to-be one big shower before the baby comes. Ba dum chhh. Nothing. She just blinked at me. “Okay
Read MoreThis month’s issue of OC Family is all about dads. I knew I wanted to write about dads but wanted to spotlight the less talked about dad. The unsung hero of fatherhood. The Mike Brady prototype. The stepdad. I got myself a brand spankin’ new stepdad when I was nineteen-years old. My mom married Glenn just as I was taking my first steps into adulthood, so
Read MoreThere are a few sure signs that you have entered the land of grown-ups– paying taxes; treating your parents’ to an expensive, swanky dinner; or even listening to Neil Diamond without shame. But, you know what really makes you feel like you’re firmly an adult? Speaking to your kid’s class about what you do for a living. So when my daughter’s third grade teacher asked
Read More“I’m just so frustrated!” my girlfriend said as she wiped her son’s perpetually runny nose. “He just won’t listen to me.” She has been unhappy with her pediatrician for over a year now. It’s almost (almost) comical the litany of blunders, rude behavior from staff and misdiagnosis this doctor has cast upon my friend. I say “almost” because it’s not really funny when your kid
Read MoreI lie to my kids all the time. I know I’m not supposed to lie. I teach my kids not to lie. But it’s completely impossible to navigate the murky, treacherous waters of parenting without inserting a doozie of a fib every once in a while. I’m not talking about the little white lies we tell to ease the pain of a lost pet (“Pumpkin ran
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