“You’re such a squeam,” my mother snarls. I can’t help but laugh at this, and her anger deflates a little. As it should. She is angry because I won’t buy her two cheese bagels. She can’t eat solid food. She will choke on it. I’ve already been reprimanded by the staff for letting her use […]

My teenager would like nothing more than to vote on Tuesday. Of course he is not allowed to vote, and there are good reasons for that, I suppose, my son being the exception that proves the rule. He is a bona fide political junkie who understands more about this election and what rides on it […]

There is a grown-up party downstairs. I am little. These adults — their tinkling laughs, their clinking glasses, their swells of convivial sound — tell me just how small I am. I need my mother right now, but she is one of Them, these party-goers. She doesn’t smell like herself. She doesn’t look like herself. […]

He is fifteen now. He is fifteen now, and I am upping the ante. For your birthday present, I grin, I will be teaching you to do your own laundry. He snorts: Some birthday present. But I am not joking. Oh, sure, I’ll wait a few weeks, but this teen will be washing, drying, and […]

I start to pull in to one of the bays at Valvoline as I check my watch. It’s all about time these days. There’s never enough. I calculate. Will I be able to have the oil changed before my kids get home from school? I decide that yes, I will, although it will be tight, […]