Living a Dream

As a warning, I would've written this same thing before starting to teach, but it popped into my head today after a quick lesson with a youngster. Bear in mind that these lessons with kids are not as simple as they would be if we both spoke the same language, so the Italian-to-English hurdle surely gives rise to some less-than-ideal conditions for the kids, which makes them more apt to act out. I have parenting advice. I mean, I have for a while, and I have lots of pieces, and I know that I won't be the perfect parent (although I'll be a hell of a lot better than some of the monsters I've come across in my life), and I'm not pretending to have all of the answers. I'm shooting for one big one right now. Teach your effing kid to play fairly. If for no other reason than it preventing his or her English tutor from getting real pissy and writing a blog post immediately after a lesson. This little kid is actually really adorable. The first fifteen minutes was as...

Whoa. They're bananas. And if you think yours are bad or chaotic or the best or the worst, just know that someone out there probably has you beat. If you've been watching Maury for years, you know this already, but if you're under a rock and just kind of passing the time, let me tell you some tidbits about the kids I've met recently. One family has four boys between the ages of six and nine. That's a nine-year-old, a seven-year-old, and twin six-year-olds. So mom and dad were thinking of trying one last time for a girl and got two boys. They are boys, which means they like to pound each other's faces and bodies at all times. It harkens to all of those adages about moms being the best or moms having the hardest jobs or blah blah blah. If it were that hard, how come like 3,000,000,000 people have that job?? (But seriously, that mom is a hero) One family has two daughters, aged 11 and 14, who are clearly smarter than me. They speak four languages, read books ...