ikoniWe’ve had rather an interesting conversation in the comments of my most recent post on parental anger. If you haven’t been following it, do pop over and take a read. Essentially, I wrote that I was angry with the boys. Beat said that he almost never gets angry with kids and doesn’t understand it in [...]

A theme I keep coming back to in this blog is the disconnect between my work ethic and the boys’. I am a workaholic. Plain and simple, I’d rather be pursuing a task than sitting still. The older I get, the more I want to be completing things. Don’t tell the boys, but I’ve been [...]

The older boys have been complaining about our insistence that they go to Scouts every week, and also that we expect them to participate in Tae Kwon Do. When I ask what’s so terrible about either of these activities, there’s not much of an answer. The Mercenary told me about 6 times today: “All we [...]

I went to bed at 11:30 the last two nights in a row. (Waits while people who know my usual habits pick themselves up off the floor.) It’s true: I am a creature of the night. Going to bed that early is not something I’m used to. Although I have in the past maintained a [...]

I think one of the MOST difficult aspects of parenting (for me at least) is knowing how and when to set limits. Just like the piano battles I mentioned the other day…there are also other areas in which I find conflict with the boys. It’s always been very important to me to create an environment [...]