Category: Single Parenting
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What We Take Up the Mountain—and What We Leave Behind
The first time we went up “the mountain,” it was early fall—just a couple of weeks after we moved into separate houses. “The mountain,” in reality, is a local ski hill (and yes, mountain is a generous term) that offers ski lift rides in the fall for leaf viewing. At the top, you get a sweeping view…
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The Birthday Present: Experience Gifts for 9-Year-Olds in Ontario
There’s no way around this—when I turned nine, my parents had it easy. All they had to do was pay attention to what cartoon I was watching that week, and they nailed it. I’ll argue with anyone that the best present a nine-year-old boy could get in 1986 was Castle Grayskull. Looking back now, it’s…
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Surviving the new normal: Divorce and the first day of school
This is a story about accepting the new normal—and not looking back. I was the one who dropped my son off for his first day of school. He started kindergarten during COVID, and his small country school had created an elaborate system to keep the younger kids separated from the rest of the population. What…