"How could anybody not like you?" - Helen Seinfeld

At the intersection of parental overshare and the window-of-opportunity problem: the Princeton University mom who wrote a letter to a Pri...

Six

When I've written about parental overshare , my focus has been on published articles and memoirs written by the parents themselves. It...

Middle school and the neurosis of narcissism

As I sit waiting for commenter Caryatis's mystery " suggestion  about" my "writing style" (about which I'm of co...

"'Another gem'" UPDATED

Do your teach (at any level)? Do your friends teach? If so, half of your Facebook feed probably consists of anecdotes from class, cute snipp...

"[W]hen the privacy at stake belongs to that writer’s teenage children, the equation is different"

To put parental overshare into perspective, it's useful to remember how we-as-a-society treat other forms of overshare. Such as: a gynec...

Weekend excitement

From the newspaper : -The awfulness of Penn Station is difficult to convey, but Lawrence Downes has done a fine job of it . -One step forwar...

Almost finished I promise

OK, so I'm mostly done investigating my own navel, i.e. discussing the response to my parental overshare post . But, two things. Thing o...

Sharing is caring

Normally, when I write something  formal , and often informal as well, I include counterarguments. But when writing that post on parental ov...

Consider the nerve hit

How timely! The notorious "Vogue mom" is back, selling a memoir about putting her 7-year-old on a diet. (To the nitpickers: At le...

On writing for those outside my immediate family

So, I have a post  about parental overshare at The Atlantic, on The Sexes, which is their gender section. Woohoo! I'm going to use this ...

"The first piece you write that your family hates means you found your voice, I warn my classes. If you want to be popular with your parents and siblings, try cookbooks."

While Literature used to mean subtly alluding to anything racy, we're now in the age of Real Housewives on toilets, of Lifetime Movie fi...

And now, the outrage

OK, so while everyone I've shown Jillian Keenan's post about parental overshare to (people who may have been hearing me go on about...

"[T]he media has an important responsibility not to republish gratuitous material that could damage a child’s long-term personal or professional prospects."

It looks like the national conversation emerging from the Newtown tragedy is one I've actually been going on about for some time  (that...

The parenting-a-sociopath question

So everyone has decided to share an essay by a mother about her 13-year-old son and her fears that the boy will* commit one of these notorio...

"Exotic" Jews and more

-Electricity returned, Obama won. Lights are now flickering again. Is Romney, too, planning a surprise return? -A friend forwarded me Roy Gr...

Electricity, snooping

First, the lights came back on. Last night, just over four full days since they'd gone out. It was unreal. Then, a few hours later, the ...

Still against "holistic"

To new readers, to readers not as tuned into the inner workings of my mind as I am: When I say I'm not a fan of "holistic" in...

Own-damn-self

One of my favorite bloggers has returned for a moment, to express her dislike of the phenomenon of women posting a photo of their kid - not...

Grows on trees

It's now accepted wisdom that modern children's ignorance as to where their food comes from is something in desperate need of a rem...

Reflection

This series that involves my calling out egregious examples of parental overshare leaves me a bit conflicted. Basically, I don't like th...