wisdom commons

Ophelia takes care of her neighbor Anne’s four-year-old son Joey along with her own son Brian, also four.  The two boys squabble a lot, and sometimes their fights get physical. Yesterday Brian came screaming into her room with scratch marks bleeding on his face and Joey hot on his heels.  Joey was yelling that Brian [...]

At age 8, Helen was stubborn.  Any criticism was met with a defensive retort and she needed the last word in every argument.  Her mother Gena was not looking forward to adolescence.  To her surprise, things got easier rather than harder as Helen entered her teen years.  The big difference?  Helen developed a wry sense [...]

Helene feels like she’s been out of sorts lately.  As she sat talking with her friend Francis over coffee she was finally able to put it into words.  Dani, her youngest is in kindergarten, and even though the four hours seem to disappear, Helene doesn’t feel like she’s doing anything substantial—just frittering the time away.

As Darcy was growing up, she often helped her mother to cook or clean while her brother, Peter, was off in his room.   She feels like Peter has paid the price since, that his tendency to opt out rather than pitching in has cost him in his relationships with housemates and women.