Journalist – Historian – Speaker
My 9yr old complained to @LEGO_Group re mag she was sent,reply was useless. Re-registered as ‘John’.Big difference. pic.twitter.com/Tbdo1X39zc — Jacky Wafflewaitress (@Wafflewaitress) November 22, 2013 I think about toys and gender a lot because of the ways that early experiences shape our brains. My daughter gets invited to a lot of parties – because almost …
Earlier in the week, the Australian writer Catherine Deveney published a piece on motherhood and discourse in The Guardian. It mirrors some of my own arguments about the ways that our emphasis on motherhood is bad for women and men, albeit in different ways. She opens by talking about the line, “Motherhood is the most …
Last Monday, I posted a clip from a talk that I gave at Northwestern as part of a workshop on work/life challenges. Hosted at a place of employment, I set out to talk about these issues through the lens of how we can make our work environment fit into the rest of our life. On …
I’m at a convention and in a hotel with the whole family. Leaving home with the kids is exhausting so I’ll be brief today. But while in the restaurant with my children, I had this thought (again. I’ve had it before): When you see children acting terribly in public, do not judge. It’s not that …
Last week I was privileged to be the keynote speaker at two workshops on “Work/Life Challenges – It’s Not Just for Women Anymore.” I spoke for about a half an hour on my experiences, the challenges my wife and I encounter, some of the strategies we use to meet those challenges, and the broader issues …
Not long after our son Nico was born and diagnosed with Down Syndrome, we began sharing the news with our community of friends and family. Frequently, people found a way to express their concerns by talking about bullying. I’ve spent years thinking about why that is, how the mental space occupied in people’s minds by …
Today is the first day of the new semester and my wife is out of town (she left at 4 AM). I rose at 6, woke up both my kids, snuggled them for a few minutes in my son’s bed, then went to the kitchen. I assembled breakfast for each, got my daughter onto the …
Nico was awake at about 6 AM. I could hear him rocking around in his bed, so came downstairs and climbed him with him. Around 8:45, he woke up, rolled onto his back, peered at me blearily, crossed his arms over his chest, and said, “Love.” I have many new followers now, thanks to the …