grow older better

Tag: kids

  • When I Was Young, I Wanted To Be A ……

    reading_a_book

    Me?  I always wanted to write.

    When I was a kid, I used to write books for children.

    They were usually about horses and/or dogs.

     

    Anyway – I grew to be an adult who did write [and talk] about children because I was in the field of early childhood and developmental psychology – but I kept thinking about books for children.

    Then somewhere in the early 70s I started writing some books, but in those pre-computer days it was typewriters, carbon paper, and sending manuscripts and queries to children’s magazine and book editors.

    Never had much interest shown, but I still kept writing things for children, and things for adults. The adults ones, text books and Kindle books, were published and that was good.

    BUT….I still wanted to write books for kids

    Then a few weeks ago I thought okay – I saved all of these old type written papers and I looked and found them.

    All sorts of writings. For children, adults, text book ideas, etc.  With all my many moves, it was remarkable that the old files were not lost over the decades.

    So now I am going to use the advent of technology to put these ideas into books for Kindle.

    Even in the pre-technology days, somewhere in my head I always wished there was some way that would make it easy for me to put my words and my pictures together and you that day has arrived.

    I am so happy that the world of technology has finally caught up with all the things that I’ve always wanted to do!

    So – I am going to write some children’s books

    When you are young, what did you want to do? Did you? Will you?

    Comments?

    Thank you.

  • When Kids Move Back Home

    my son and I in Chicago

    For many reasons, largely economic, grown kids are moving back home.

    I’ve not experienced this for myself – but soon I will.

    My son and daughter-in-law have decided to leave Chicago and move to Portland. While this has never been his “home” they will be staying with me for a while.

    I moved to Portland well after my son had left home – and the home he left was not any of the ones he grew up in. So our story is already a bit different than kids returning to their original nests. But – although the nest is different, I am still his mommy and he is still my kid…and it is that relationship that will go through interesting variations.

    He has visited me as an adult, even staying for a few months one summer. But even that was different as that's when he met the woman who is now my daughter-in-law and he spent a lot of time at her place.  And i have been to Chicago and stayed with them.

    But now we will be spending more time together than we have done in 14 years! We will share meals, cooking, household chores and fun times.

    I’ve written about issues that arise at holidays when one goes to a parental house for say thanksgiving and one is again treated as a “child.” But over the years my son and I have racked up hours of phone conversations, or in person conversations, and we have been able to pretty well negotiate that shift from parent-child to two equally stubborn, talkative political minds.

    And now there will be another person in the mix, my son’s wife, adding to the intrigue. She’s stayed with me when she’s come to visit her friends and family but we have never had all of us together for a stretch of time.

    It’s great having a child who knows you write about his life….as he said when referring to You Can Totally Screw Up As A Mom And Still Raise Great Kids “it’s my life but you are part of it too”

    It won’t all happen til Fall and I’ll keep you posted about how we manage.