Love The One You’re With A former neighbor and dad friend popped into my head the other day. Not sure why I thought of him, yet later it was revealed to me when my wife said, scrolling her social media feeds, “Guess who had another baby?” I paused and thought. Who had a lot of…
When The Masks Come Down
Life @ The Intersection of Socio-Politics & Parenting
Playing It Cool For years I’ve bought my computers refurbished from a local shop in a hipster neighborhood in my city. The proprietors are young, slick-looking guys that wear flip-flops to work. They’re so cool I sometimes wish they were my friends. Recently, I went in for a machine upgrade and chuffed up my dad…
Mat Leave
Life @ The Intersection of Socio-Politics & Parenting
Future Me? A few weeks ago, I was talking with my aunt—mi madrina—who several years ago made a massive transformation. After a couple of decades overseeing laboratory operations and prior to that running an asbestos removal company, she hung up her hard hat and left the site safety field. She then took up anatomy and…
The Trauma Lasts
Life @ The Intersection of Socio-Politics & Parenting
This Novel Season Living, working, and schooling two kids under 10 years of age at home for almost 18 months has revealed a lot about our family. For one, my wife and I are not very good teachers. Two, her saintly patience isn’t as unbending as I once thought. And three, while I show up…
Stuff, Stuff, Stuff
Life @ The Intersection of Socio-Politics & Parenting
Making Space In a very rare turn of events, I spent an entire week at home. Alone. My wife and our boys went out of state for her property management work, and while I advocated for her to leave the kids so she could focus on her tasks, she thought it better to take them…
Joining the Herd?
Life @ The Intersection of Socio-Politics & Parenting
Hell-to-the-Yes! Aside from being the day we celebrated my wife as the amazing and wonderful mother that she is, this past Mother’s Day also marked another milestone for my wife and me. No, not our wedding anniversary, nor a fitness or food goal. This moment was the end of our two-week window after taking our…
I Had A Dream
Life @ The Intersection of Socio-Politics & Parenting
Go Along to Get Along? Last night, I had a dream. Mine are usually in snippets—not the sagas my wife and eldest son wake up with most mornings. No, mine are more like bite-sized scenes, most of them imbued in symbolism, and upon analysis, they’re premonitions of the not-so-distant future. In this one, I was…
My Racist Teacup?
Life @ The Intersection of Socio-Politics & Parenting
Time for Change Recently my sons had a future vision of returning to Disneyland in which they exclaimed their desire to ride Splash Mountain once more. Splash Mountain is one of our favorite rides. It became my youngest’s supreme ride once he was tall enough, riding it seven times in one day. I’ve always loved…
I Need Help!
Life @ The Intersection of Socio-Politics & Parenting
Heroes Have Feelings, Too The moment I realized I needed help remains distinct in my mind: my son was in my office space, resisting being on camera for his morning Kindergarten Zoom session, and I was trying to get on my next Google Meet. My son was melting down, and so I forcefully placed him…
Elegy to Tragedy
Life @ The Intersection of Socio-Politics & Parenting
Aging Our Souls “It wasn’t snowing, and then it was…” -From Dorianne Laux’s poem, Snow DMX the rapper was here, and then he wasn’t. The Prince (whoever he was) was here, and then he wasn’t. My first cousin, only weeks away from her fifty-fifth birthday was here, and then she wasn’t. I was feeding my…
Caused by Your Own Negligence
Life @ The Intersection of Socio-Politics & Parenting
Kindness in Tow Last week, the day after my birthday, I went out to the street to begin packing the car for a short family trip to Joshua Tree National Park. Dads: you know how this goes. Packing the car is our job. Do I speak for many of us when I say we derive…
The Toxic Contagion
Life @ The Intersection of Socio-Politics & Parenting
Caution! Sunday was a doozy. Everything had started out wonderfully. The kids were playing. I had just finished my yoga practice, and my wife was sleeping in. Then all hell broke loose. The boys began fighting about something, as they are prone to do. Their fights these days are not the cute horseplay they used…
Technicians of The Future
Life @ The Intersection of Socio-Politics & Parenting
The Same Wonder Clearing out the garage, I found a box of my old View Masters and the reels that came with them. I had an array of reels. Disney classics, the Peanuts, Casper the Friendly Ghost, The Muppets and the National Parks. I shared them with my kids, eager to see their wonder and…
Meet Me at the Club
Life @ The Intersection of Socio-Politics & Parenting
The “Un-Conference” Call A strange thing happened to me on social media this week: After using an app, I walked away empowered. I didn’t waist tens of minutes scrolling pithy statements trying to feel something. I didn’t peruse people’s pictures of their prettied selves or their latest meals. I didn’t like or retweet just…
Boys Try, Men Do
Life @ The Intersection of Socio-Politics & Parenting
Mask Up! Since this whole thing began just about a year ago, there have always been naysayers. I’ll admit I was one early on. But as the gravity of the situation grew, I realized I had to do my part. That included wearing a face mask, and wearing it properly. Sure, our family experimented with…
Trying to Be A Good Dad
Life @ The Intersection of Socio-Politics & Parenting
Can(cún) we, Dad, please??? When we were very young, we used to go to this pizza parlor in Albuquerque called Pistol Pete’s Pizza. At Pistol Pete’s, you placed your order, they gave you a giant playing card to serve as your order number, and then you went off to play the arcade games while you…