My mom was right after all: We really should do everything we can to keep babies from getting sick. When I was close to the due date of my first child, my mom warned me not to pass around the baby to people or let lots of people into the house
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A Puff of Absurdity: On Expectations of the Season
Today is often a difficult day for many people who celebrate Christmas, and it’s been made worse with the prospect of walking into a family dinner with Covid in the air. Not all of us are surrounded by the people we love today, which can make the day all the
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Strong Parenting Embraces Exclusion and Rejects Inclusion
Many thanks to Courage is a Habit on “X”. “Strong parenting is fundamentally about exclusion, and the imposition of boundaries becomes paramount. From the moment our children are born, it is our duty as parents to build formidable barriers that protect their growth and development. We do
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: The Daycare Years
Many of our ideas of virus transmission haven’t changed in decades, for better and worse. Almost 30 years ago, I ran a daycare out of my home for a little over three years. I wanted to have more time with my kids while they were small, but I also financially needed to
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Learning Loss
A New York Times piece discusses, again, learning loss from the lockdowns of 2020, but a new study shows the lockdowns actually improved some skills. The Editorial Board of the NY Times wrote about the “Startling Evidence on Learning Loss” insisting that school closures “may prove to be the most
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: How It Began
When it all started, I immediately started reading news from China and Italy, figuring that what was happening there could easily happen here, and we should be prepared. Esther Hopkins did the same thing. She wrote an excellent thread about it, which I’m saving here. She’s in the UK, where
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: If It Can’t Possibly be Both, then Either Give us Masks OR Accommodations
If masks are a choice, then shouldn’t being protected from a virus also be a choice?? The freedom to go maskless is butting up against the freedom from getting infected, in the worst way. AVOIDING INFECTION IN UNIVERSITIES Earlier this year, I raised some concerns with Covid as we removed mask
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: The Dream Logic of Parenthood
Storyteller, writer, and podcaster, Jay Acunzo, has a great thread up on parenting. “I just spent 3 days with dear friends, all of whom have kids ages 8 month to 4 years. Something I need to get off my chest about being a parent of young kids and the culture
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Neurodivergent with Hindsight
Maybe because I finally have some time to just exist without anything to plan or prepare, or maybe because I’m back in school as a student, whatever the reason, many childhood scenarios have been resurfacing, playing out in my head, and I’m all, WTF? No trigger warnings necessary – nothing
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Why Take the Risk?
If you read my blog and still don’t take Covid precautions, why not? Justin Lee posted a list of his guesses of what people might be feeling when he asks them to take precautions (test, mask, maybe open a window) before in-person meetings. His list is slightly tidied up and
Continue readingThings Are Good: You Won’t Regret Not Having Kids
People with kids put a lot of pressure on couples without kids to procreate, which is obviously rude but happens anyway. This could lead to people thinking they want kids when really they don’t. In some places there is even social stigma around not having a child. If you’re in
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: SARS #1 and Collective Amnesia
SARS #1 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) was a deadly coronavirus that hit Canada in February of 2003. It started in China in November 2002 then entered Toronto in a traveller flying in from Hong Kong. SARS #1 differs significantly from SARS-CoV-2 because the OG killed people faster, so it was easier
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: What To Do If Our Classrooms Aren’t Safe
I’m getting these types of questions over and over: What should I do if other students and the teachers won’t wear masks? What do I do if my child gets Covid? It’s the hardest question to answer because there isn’t a clear solution when people in charge are ignoring or
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Love and Sorrow
I’ve recently started reading Martha Crawford’s blog and following her on Twitter. She’s a therapist in remission from cancer. I want to keep this particularly beautiful and timely thread to revisit from time to time: “I try not to participate in war and game binary metaphors of victory and defeat,
Continue readingThings Are Good: Kids Taught to Think the World is Nice are More Successful
Children raised with a positive world view are more successful than children raised with a negative one. A negative instruction about the world given to kids could be to distrust strangers despite the evidence that a child isn’t likely to be harmed by someone they don’t know. It turns out
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Trevor Herriot and Cathy Holtslander write about the Saskatchewan Party’s climate position which can’t be treated as anything but implicit denialism. John Woodside points out that the Libs’ fuel regulations seem designed to lock us into decades of avoidable fossil fuel use,
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Juris My Diction Crap
This Matrix clip has been at the front of my mind since I started looking into how to get a booster for my youngest, who’s 17, because I question if recent orders around delaying boosters for the 12-17 and around getting kids back to school in nine days are really for
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Parenting in the Time of Covid
He was on his way out the door, to walk around with a new friend outside. Me: Rapid test, masks, or walking 6′ apart? Which are you doing? Him: It bothers me that you ask. I shouldn’t have to live with your anxieties. You just ask because you’re anxious about
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On "Fixing" ASD
I watched a course-load of videos by Dr. Alok Kanojia (@HealthyGamerGG) this past summer. He’s a therapist specializing in addiction in his day job and focused on gaming addictions online, but he has broadened his videos to encompass many other issues. He doesn’t do therapy online but “coaches” people instead.
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: PARENT TO PARENT: Learning to TRANSITION
A few weeks ago, I came across this wonderful piece on transitions by a parent of twins, Marquitha Gilbert. I contacted Marquitha and we had a rich conversation about parenting, writing and the many transitions that we experience with our children over time. I am so grateful to Marquitha for
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