Penny had surgery a few weeks back. It all went well. But in the recovery room, as Penny slept, with her hair matted to her head, an IV dripping fluid into her arm, her nurse started telling us about how the doctors often give different instructions to parents than they do to ...

As those of you with young children already know, last week was Dr. Seuss' birthday. Penny's teachers celebrated by inviting all the parents in her class to sign up to read. I was slated for Thursday and Horton Hatches an Egg.

William soon picked up on this development, so he ...

Lisa Belkin posted a really interesting piece about how having money relates to being a good parent: "Money is the Root of all Parenting." It's a great summary of a recent study that explains how difficult it is to try to raise kids in poverty.

In the same news cycle, I learned ...

I'm working on an essay about recent developments in the national conversation about prenatal testing. I'm not quite done yet, but I thought you all would appreciate reading the conclusion of Joe Klein's essay in Time Magazine this week. Joe Klein is a political moderate who ...

It might seem odd, but I don't read very many blogs. I read magazines in the good old-fashioned way, and I read articles from the New York Times on my phone, but blogs kind of overwhelm me. There are too many out there, and I just can't keep up. So I generally stick to Time, ...

I should begin by explaining that our kids have initiated a new bedtime ritual. It started at Christmastime. We differentiated between Christmas songs like "Santa Claus is coming to town" and Christmas hymns, which my kids named "Christmas church songs." And William began to ...

I think my interview last week with Drew Marshall as his weekly "God blogger" might have been my favorite interview ever. Not only did he acknowledge the fact that my name is just plain difficult for interviewers–they either stumble to call me Amy Julia or they shorten it to ...