My essay in the April issue of Parent:Wise Magazine:
All right, I admit it. I was that kid who kept a rubber-worm fishing lure as a pet, set traps for aliens forged from empty TicTac boxes, wrote sci-fi stories I tried to sell door to door for a quarter, and invited to my birthday parties one special friend … of my mother’s choosing. About a week before, I’d find Mom quietly chirping into the phone with her Sunday-school rolodex flipped back on her lap. I’m sure she was saying something like, “I just thought it’d be nice to get our two shy girls together sometime,” because my birthday attendee would always turn out to be “that kid” too – with a variation. Maybe she had a collection of rainbow suspenders or a habit of laughing with her mouth closed. Sheet cakes and streamers and That Kid who refused to take off the H.R. Puffinstuff costume – ah the memories. Read More Here