What is it about Superheroes? Kids just LOVE them. What’s not to like? How cool would it be to have super powers? Super strength, X-Ray vision, incredible healing capacity, the ability to fly? You could do what you like, with no fear of repercussion. You…
Yesterday Sebastian turned six. What a ride so far. When he was born we were subjected to a torrent of baby gifts and greeting cards. One of the cards stood out to me at the time. “Have a magical childhood, Sebastian!” it read As I…
Plenty of digital ink has been spilled on the subject of helicopter parents, free-range kids and the general overbearing nature that modern parents bring to the task of childcare. I am interested discussing one small discreet moment within this larger macro: when your kid falls…
Long before I met Mario, or slipped my first grubby quarter into a Dig Dug machine, or sat down to master the finer arts of Ms. Pac Man, I loved playing games. Board games, card games and run around outside games like tag and capture…
I hate losing. It consumes my body: diaphragm, clinched teeth, muscles tensing up underneath my flab. My son Sebastian hates losing even more than I do. In fact, losing resembles a small death the way he reacts to it. When he loses a game, any…
It seems sacrilegious to even say so, but it’s true. We have all reached that special moment in time when all the sun, the fun, the play and the games come home to roost. The ice cream: peppermint stick and rocky road and bubblegum and…
If I were smart, I would have long ago fully outsourced the task of teaching my kids to swim to a professional. Then I could sit poolside, comfortably dry and smiling supportively as some other poor bastard cajoled and grappled with my two sinking monkey…