Book: Sarah, Plain and Tall

Sarah, Plain and Tall was written by Patricia MacLachlan, published in 1985 and awarded the Newberry Medal. The thin paperback was part of my book collection for more than 25 years (that long? really???) before I finally plucked it from the masses and started turning the pages last weekend. I suppose it was fate- I hadn’t read it until I could understand much more of it. And now I can share it with you.

Continue reading

Guest Post: Being Blood-Related Doesn’t Preclude a Family Bond

Today’s post is brought to you by Jenny Ellis, who contacted me a few weeks ago with a request to write something for Relative Evolutions. After some discussion regarding content, Jenny agreed to write a piece discussing the bonds that can exist between family members who aren’t related by blood. As Stepmother’s Day approaches, I thought the timing was perfect. Here’s Jenny…

Continue reading

Movie: Mrs. Doubtfire

I saw Mrs. Doubtfire in the theater when it was released in 1993. At that time, I watched the story through the eyes of a child with divorced parents. I thought it was a nice story, and a funny one. But there was a lot that I didn’t understand. Yet.

Continue reading

What is a Mom?

During our debate yesterday, a commenter at Now Is Good suggested that a father’s significant other could “play mom” and therefore invade Mom’s territory or otherwise strain relationships. I responded in the comment thread, but I thought this might be worthy of a full post, so here it is…

Continue reading

Single Parent: True Title?

…Continuing on the topic of words I don’t like, the more I think about it, the more I don’t like the phrase “single parent”. I know I’m guilty of using it. I think we all are… but today I was bored in a meeting and started really examining the usage and implications of this phrase.

Continue reading