When you first become a parent, the maternity nurses and staff are saints. They check frequently on your darling new baby; help the mother get comfortable with breast-feeding, if that's your desire; physically check the backseat of your car to make sure that you have the carseat correctly locked in; and even hold your hand... Continue Reading →
A fool’s fool
I’m usually the fool in my family — the challenge with living with four incredibly smart and passionate people — but one year I was determined to change things. My youngest son had been a little flip with my wife and I on submitting an excuse for a school absence. He wasn’t disrespectful, but at... Continue Reading →
Give me a warning sign!
When you come up to a curve in the road, there's usually a sign as you approach that warns you to slow down and prepare for the change in direction. When you go to the movie theater in the U.S., the Motion Picture Association of America assigns one of five ratings to each movie, such... Continue Reading →
Some Mountain State love
We had barely pulled into Morgantown for a visit with our son, a freshman at West Virginia University, when he had asked us to make a Target run. When we got back to his dorm, he pulled the shopping bags out of our SUV like they were coming off an assembly line, handing them out... Continue Reading →
Love you forever
When our kids were young, we used to read them the book “Love You Forever” by Robert Munsch and illustrated by Sheila McGraw. The mother in the story holds her new baby and slowly rocks him back and forth, singing: “I’ll love you forever, I’ll love you for always, as long as I’m living my... Continue Reading →
Parenting from the sidelines
When my daughter was young, she loved amusement parks. She had no problems getting up before the crack of dawn and going to the park to be first in line and making her way to the scariest rides, where she’d beg my wife and I to ride with her. I love roller coasters too, so... Continue Reading →
Jumping in with both feet
I felt like such a fool. My wife had given birth to our second child. We were a few months into our new life as a family of four. We thought we knew what to expect, but we both were falling into bed at the end of the night exhausted and on our last legs.... Continue Reading →
Humble and kind
I walked away with tears streaming down my face. I couldn’t have been more thant six or seven years old. I turned around to try my case before the judge and jury one more time, but my mom had enough of my shenanigans and simply pointed to my room She was sending me there to... Continue Reading →
A daughter’s trust
The little girl ran ahead of her mom in the airport, trying to catch up to her dad. She couldn’t have been older than three or four. When she ran, she kept looking all around her, amazed by the rush of people, the bright sun shining in from the high windows, and the restaurants and... Continue Reading →

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