True Story

If I only had the second and fourth of my four children, I would be the most smuggest mother. From the start, my “Blondies” (a girl and a boy, both with light blonde hair) were what you’d call “easy babies.” Compliant. Cooperative. Sunshine-y. Empathetic and eager to please. Sleep training? A painless couple of nights […]

In April, Alice Dreger—mom, bioethicist, activist, and professor at Chicago’s Northwestern University—sat in on her son’s abstinence sex ed class at East Lansing High School in Michigan. The misinformation being delivered by the visiting “educators” was so shocking, she began live tweeting it—and her outraged missives quickly went global and started a national debate on […]

“Mommy. Mommeeeeee! I needed a wipe and you didn’t listen!” My five-year-old daughter has backed her naked bottom up to me, waving a wet wipe. Once again, I’ve been busted for shirking parental duties while listening to a steamy romance audiobook. This one’s about a young woman whose family died in a flaming car crash, […]

The La Quinta Inn in Bryan, Texas, is pink stucco. The Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas, is khaki stucco. The La Quinta employees wear uniforms with name tags and the customer is always right. The employees at Bryan Federal Prison Camp wear uniforms with name tags but the customers are always wrong. My brain […]

By the time my daughter was born, I’d broken off my relationships with two other women, neither of whom were her mother. But by then, it was too late. Because of my foolishness, I found myself in the middle of an emotionally untenable quagmire; one that would ultimately destroy my dreams and visions of fatherhood […]

I never really considered myself a feminist. However, as the mother of two young boys, I’ve made it my mission to instill in them an understanding about women—in particular, women are amazing, wonderful, strong, high-achieving providers and successful people who kick ass! Most important, it’s essential for my boys to learn and understand that women […]

It’s normal to develop anxieties when it’s necessary to move and put your kids in a new school. But when my family moved to Jerusalem (the capital of either Israel or Palestine, depending on who you ask), I had additional worries: Like maybe zealots would be offended by my appearance and pelt me with stones. […]