⭐ The Hidden Life — Growing Up Without Emotional Language Before we ever learn the words for emotions, most of us learn the feel of them. Kids watch facial expressions, tone changes, body language, and the rhythm of a family’s emotional landscape long before they understand what any of it means. But for those of…
Christmas has this uncanny way of sticking to your memory like glitter after an elementary school craft project — you’ll find pieces of it years later, in the most unexpected places. As a dad of six, I’ve seen how the season brings out joy, chaos, sugar highs, sibling alliances, and occasional meltdowns (from adults and…
The power’s out, and your phone just buzzed with an emergency alert that says “shelter in place immediately.” You hear something shuffling outside—could be your neighbor Todd stumbling home from trivia night, or it could be the undead finally making their grand entrance. Either way, your heart’s doing that thing where it tries to escape…
It’s way too early and the coffee machine didn’t start. Again. The bathroom light is staging some kind of protest, and your teenager changed the thermostat to what I can only describe as “Arctic Expedition.” Sound familiar? Look, I’m not here to sell you on turning your house into some sci-fi nightmare where the toaster…
The power’s out in the middle of the night, and my six-year-old is convinced the house is under alien attack. Meanwhile, I’m stumbling through the dark trying to remember which breaker controls what, where I put the flashlight batteries, and—oh yeah—what’s the number for the electric company again? Spoiler alert: I found none of those…
Family charging station ideas saved my sanity. Let me paint you a picture: six kids, one dad, one mom, and approximately fourteen different cords tangled like spaghetti behind our couch. iPads for school, phones for teenagers, Nintendo Switch controllers, Kindles, earbuds, my own laptop, my wife’s phone for lesson planning… chaos. It only took one…
Why We Needed a Calm Corner (Before Someone Lost It) Tuesday, 4:47 PM. Six kids ricocheting between rooms like caffeinated pinballs. Our Labrador’s claimed my yoga mat as his personal nap throne. A teenager just taped a “QUARANTINE ZONE—ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK” sign on her bedroom door. And there I am, frozen in the…
Last Tuesday, I walked into the kitchen to find my 13-year-old asking Alexa for homework help while my 6-year-old negotiated bedtime like a seasoned lawyer. My wife looked up from grading papers and said, “Welcome to 2025.” She wasn’t wrong. The landscape of raising kids has shifted in ways that would’ve seemed wild even five…
Here we go again. I’ve stepped on a squeaky toy wearing only socks, our Australian Shepherd has knocked over the water bowl (again), and somewhere in the house, our cat is using the couch as his personal scratch-off ticket. Spoiler: he always wins. Living in a house with six kids and pets means our home…