So my column Sunday really touched a nerve — I have gotten lots of responses (a few below) to my observations about how Barack Obama’s Inauguration has changed the way our kids will see the world. I hadn’t really thought of it as a confession, but now that I think of it … it was. And I can’t agree with CLJ, below. Even if we eventually leave Memphis, the things we’ve learned here have literally changed our lives. Read the rest of this entry »

Thanks to everyone who has called or written me to tell me how much they enjoyed my column Sunday about my pal Lydia and her struggle to understand her autism; I’m sorry it has taken me so long to post about it. As I wrote, ballet is Lydia’s passion, and fortunately her parents have found a wonderful teacher, pictured here, to keep Lydia dancing. Pointe shoes, for those of you who know about dance, require more strength than Lydia probably will ever have, so she’ll only dance en pointe with help. But one look at her face, and you can see just how much it means to her.

As you know, autistic kids aren’t stupid, and are often quite a bit more perceptive than we might think. Lydia wrote the following story the week after the incident I described in my column. Her mom added some punctuation to make it more readable, but the story is all hers. (FYI, Yakko Warner is a character on the cartoon Animaniacs.) Read the rest of this entry »

OK, moms, you know we get scary e-mails all the time about dangers to our kids, recalled products, etc., etc. But this one is real, and given that Halloween and Hanukkah are coming up, really scary. Seems that the Sherwood brand Pirate’s Gold milk chocolate foil-covered coins come from China, and contain the melamine that has been sickening (and killing) Chinese babies this summer and fall. These coins are sold in bulk and individually at dollar stores and variety stores, mostly in Canada, but also in the US. Find more details here at Snopes (a favorite rumor-debunking site). And look through that Halloween candy with an extra-careful eye.

It seems like the only political story breaking to me, but how important is John McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska, to you, and what parts of her story have affected you most?

I have to say that I’m particularly focused on her family choices. Since she (and the McCain campaign) brought them up — her infant with Down syndrome, her eldest son shipping out for Iraq, her status as a “hockey mom,” and (eventually) her pregnant teenage daughter — what do you think? Can you raise five kids and have enough time to be Vice President? Leaving aside her experience and political views for a moment (we can talk about them later), does the shape of Sarah Palin’s family, and the attention it requires, affect your opinion of how much time she can/should spend on politics?

I’m still thinking about whether it’s a good idea to buy Boy Wonder (maybe I should just call him BW) a Nerf Longshot, the brightly colored gun that shoots foam bullets I wrote about in my column this weekend. What I’m REALLY wondering about, though, is how an Airsoft gun is good for any kid. Thoughts?