16 Things I Want My 16 year-old to Know on Her 16th Birthday

Today my fourth daughter, my baby, Mataya, turns 16. And my oldest daughter has her 21st in just a few months. Both huge milestones in a person’s life. Milestones I remember so vividly that it terrifies me that humans to which I gave birth are now on the cusp of making their own memories about […]

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8 Myths about Gymnastics Judges Busted

Can you write in a wholly unique symbolic shorthand language, without once looking at the paper, while watching a moving target and having music blasted in your ear? And can you do that while keeping in mind the specific rules and requirements of the 140 different sets of policies that might be applicable to that […]

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What a Headache Taught Me About Procrastination

My head is throbbing. My neck hurts. My eyes are sensitive to light. My shoulders are tight. Yes, I am suffering from the common malady: a headache. It’s not my first rodeo. In fact, I know exactly what I can do to help it go away. And they are all pretty simple to do: take […]

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Conquer Fear with These Five Words

Something almost no one knows about me is… …that I am incredibly shy. Public speaking terrifies me. Making phone calls is difficult and leaves me feeling exhausted. I don’t even like making doctors’ appointments and am relieved when things that ordinarily require speaking to someone can be done online. My base personality skews strongly toward being […]

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What Brussel Sprouts Can Teach You About Perseverance

  Sure you can try the “one bite rule,” or allowing the child to drown food in ranch, ketchup or BBQ sauce, but most nutritionists agree that the best way to get a reluctant eater to try a new food is to give it to them over, and over, and over. That’s right, when it […]

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20 Things I Have Learned from 2 year-olds

  I’ve raised four of them (that picture is of my third daughter Carissa at age 2). And I see over a hundred of them a week at JAG Gym. This I will say about 2 year olds: they can teach us an awful lot about what it means to live a good life. Here are […]

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My Fit Bit and Me

What gets measured gets improved. What gets measured gets managed. What gets measured gets done. These ideas or variants thereof populate management, education, sports and even personal development. The basic idea is that if we quantify X, then we will achieve the desired outcome, goal or performance that we want. If you want to increase […]

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The Gift of the Rip

In her wonderful and wise book The Blessing of the Skinned Knee,  Dr. Wendy Mogel talks about raising resilient children in an age of entitlement. I love the book, and I love the title even more. Blessing of the skinned knee: taking what seemingly is unfortunate, even damaging, and using it as a moment to […]

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How an Emotionally Charged Child is Like a Car Wreck

My attention was immediately grabbed when I came across an article with the title: Is it good to let kids screw up? “Yes! Of course!” I screamed (in my head, thankfully, as I was sitting in Starbucks and out loud screaming would have been really awkward). And I loved the advice (and not just because […]

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