February 4, 2010
Can we make parenting a seasonal activity, like baseball or yard work?
I am not a winter parent. I'm pretty good in the spring and summer when I'm happy to get out and fill up the inflatable pool or work in the garden. Or at least to sit and watch the children doing those things nearby.
But in the winter, on days when the temperature can barely push above 20 degrees and ice is caked on the ground like it was last weekend, all I want is to lie around with a book in the ridiculously expensive heat we're paying for. All I really want is for my kids to want to do the same thing.
They do not.
They want to go out and taste the ground cover, see the freeze up-close and throw it on each other. My fatherly instincts tell me that I should at least want to be out there with them, mixing it up on the lawn and putting together a snowman.
I do not ... (read more)
