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Why We Stopped at Two Children
Deciding how many children to have–or whether to have children at all–is such a personal decision (and it’s important to acknowledge that deciding whether to have children is entirely separate from actually being able to have them).
Initially Matt and I were going to stop after one child. For me it was about freeing up space in my life to give birth to other things, like a network of public Montessori schools in diverse communities nationwide. I added books to my wishlist about raising an only child.But after Henry was born, I felt drawn to add another child to our family. I wanted to bring another independent being into… Read More -
Montessori: The Crisis of Self-Affirmation (aka the Terrible Two’s)
Last week felt it like something
was terribly wrong with Tate. He seemed to have shed his cheerful self and
revealed an irritable, demanding, dissatisfied little tyrant.For example, he became obsessed
with wanting the cleaning spray bottles. When I stuck firm to the boundaries
that children are not allowed to have the cleaning spray bottles because they
have chemicals in them, he threw terrible, protracted screaming and crying
fits.Things that he used to do easily… Read More
(like take a bath and eat meals with the family) became battles. Putting him to
sleep at night went from kissing him on the cheek and closing the door to 1.5
hours of -
All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood
I was fortunate to be able to attend the American Montessori
Conference last weekend in Philadelphia. It was exciting to connect with
friends from around the nation (hi, Megan!).I also had the opportunity to listen to a keynote lecture
from Jennifer Senior, the author of All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood. Her entire talk
resonated with me deeply and left tears in my eyes.She started by talking about the conflicting advice we… Read More
receive as parents. I definitely felt the push and pull of conflicting advice
when I had my first son in 2011. I knew that I wanted to try for a
