child

My Child Owes Me Nothing

Lessons in Parenthood: Week 13 My husband, Luka, gets credit for this week’s topic of conversation. We are nearly adjusted to having a new baby and we’ve started to have some normal conversations again. One night last week, while having dinner, Olivia left the table, and quietly laid down next to Leia and gently cuddled […]

Knowing Where To Draw The Line

Lessons In Parenthood: Week 12 This is a big parenting question I’ve been asking myself: where do I draw the line? When do I say “yes” and when do I say “no” and when do I ignore it all? Are there certain things that should just always be non-negotiable? When do I cut her a […]

A Person’s A Person No Matter How Small: Respecting Who Your Child Is

Lessons In Parenthood: Week 9 To illustrate this week’s theme I have to tell you two stories and the first goes like this: Olivia and I were at the park and there were kids a bit older than her playing soccer with their dad. They also had a frisbee on the ground that they weren’t using […]

Why I Don’t Want My Kid To Obey

Lessons in Parenthood: Week 8 Whenever someone pushes the ideal of an obedient child I think, “No thanks, I’m not trying to raise a robot.” When I was a kid I remember obedience being one of the most desirable traits for a child. Somehow an obedient child was equal in meaning and value to a […]

When You Lose Your Child

Lessons In Parenthood: Week 7 This may seem like a dark topic for my normally positivity-centered writing. There’s a good reason behind it. Saturday, February 18th, would have been the 16th birthday of my little sister. Amelia (Amy Lou) passed away in 2003 and that became a piece of my life that will forever shape […]

Falling In Love With Your Kid

Lessons in Parenthood: Week 5 I’ve always hated those bumper stickers, banners, posts, pictures, captions, which read something along the line of, “My kid is better than yours” or even worse, “My boyfriend/husband is better than yours.” I can’t help but think, “Do you really want that?” Do you really want me and everyone else to […]

Is It Just A Phase?

Lessons in Parenthood: Week 4 There’s been a pattern running through parenthood. My daughter is pretty flipping wonderful. It’s almost bizarre. 99% of the time she’s what I would call perfect. I’m sure as her parent I’m slightly biased when I say that. That 1% of the time when she is far from perfect, I […]

Forgiving A Toddler

Lessons in Parenthood: Week 3 After spending a full day of overhauling parts of our apartment, I was tired. Being 7 months pregnant only amplifies that exhaustion. The additional problem with the cleaning and organizing is that Olivia finds it extremely fun to play with everything I’ve just organized so she tears things apart just […]

Make Them Laugh

Lessons in Parenthood: Week 2 Well, I made it to the second week of this writing challenge, jet lag and all. When your mind is struggling between two time zones on opposite ends of the earth it’s a miracle if you get anything done. I haven’t been the only one struggling either. Olivia is awake at […]

Exchanging One Challenge For Another

Concluding my daily writing challenge In November, as many of you know, I set myself a goal to write a blog post every day until Christmas. I’ve had a few bumps and it wasn’t easy, but I wasn’t expecting it to be easy. The goal was really a way to challenge myself. Some days it […]

Mariah Dolenc