Author: Ayelet Waldman

Success

Look if you ask a child 'Would you rather have a fulfilled mother or a stay-at-home Sylvia Plath' they'll pick Sylvia Plath every time. But I think it's really important that children don't feel their parents' emotional lives depend on their success.

Ayelet Waldman

Look if you ask a child 'Would you rather have a fulfilled mother or a stay-at-home Sylvia Plath' they'll pick Sylvia Plath every time. But I think it's really important that children don't feel their parents' emotional lives depend on their success.

Romantic

Is Valentine's Day a day to make cupcakes with your children? No Valentine's is supposed to be a day about romantic love.

Ayelet Waldman

Is Valentine's Day a day to make cupcakes with your children? No Valentine's is supposed to be a day about romantic love.

Romantic

So many women today have become so focused on their children they've developed these romantic entanglements with their children's lives and the husbands are secondary. They're left out. And the romantic focus is on the children.

Ayelet Waldman

So many women today have become so focused on their children they've developed these romantic entanglements with their children's lives and the husbands are secondary. They're left out. And the romantic focus is on the children.

Power

I always tell my kids that as soon as you have a secret something about you that you are ashamed to have others find out you have given other people the power to hurt you by exposing you.

Ayelet Waldman

I always tell my kids that as soon as you have a secret something about you that you are ashamed to have others find out you have given other people the power to hurt you by exposing you.

Power

I have two daughters and I have done everything in my power to prevent them from assimilating even being aware of my idiocy about my weight.

Ayelet Waldman

I have two daughters and I have done everything in my power to prevent them from assimilating even being aware of my idiocy about my weight.

Nature

I pity the young woman who will attempt to insinuate herself between my mama's boy and me. I sympathize with the monumental nature of her task. It will take a crowbar two bulldozers and half a dozen Molotov cocktails to pry my Oedipus and me loose from one another.

Ayelet Waldman

I pity the young woman who will attempt to insinuate herself between my mama's boy and me. I sympathize with the monumental nature of her task. It will take a crowbar two bulldozers and half a dozen Molotov cocktails to pry my Oedipus and me loose from one another.

Nature

There are times as a parent when you realize that your job is not to be the parent you always imagined you'd be the parent you always wished you had. Your job is to be the parent your child needs given the particulars of his or her own life and nature.

Ayelet Waldman

There are times as a parent when you realize that your job is not to be the parent you always imagined you'd be the parent you always wished you had. Your job is to be the parent your child needs given the particulars of his or her own life and nature.

Mom

Well you know I was raised by a 1970s feminist. My mom had a consciousness-raising group. I used to sit at the top of the stairs and listen to them.

Ayelet Waldman

Well you know I was raised by a 1970s feminist. My mom had a consciousness-raising group. I used to sit at the top of the stairs and listen to them.

Humor

I'm sure there are people who survive tragedy without humor but I've never met any of them. Nor would I be particularly interested in writing about them if I did meet them.

Ayelet Waldman

I'm sure there are people who survive tragedy without humor but I've never met any of them. Nor would I be particularly interested in writing about them if I did meet them.

Food

I feed my kids organic food and milk but I've also been known to buy the odd Lunchable. My kids are not allowed to watch TV during the week but on weekends even the 2-year-old veges out to 'The Simpsons.'

Ayelet Waldman

I feed my kids organic food and milk but I've also been known to buy the odd Lunchable. My kids are not allowed to watch TV during the week but on weekends even the 2-year-old veges out to 'The Simpsons.'

Fear

Another parent's different approach raises the possibility that you've made a mistake with your child. We simply can't tolerate that because we fear that any mistake no matter how minor could have devastating consequences. So we proclaim the superiority of our own choices. We've lost sight of the fact that people have preferences.

Ayelet Waldman

Another parent's different approach raises the possibility that you've made a mistake with your child. We simply can't tolerate that because we fear that any mistake no matter how minor could have devastating consequences. So we proclaim the superiority of our own choices. We've lost sight of the fact that people have preferences.