I admit it: My kid gave your kid lice
When I picked up my phone at 10 o’clock on a Monday night, I heard a familiar voice whisper, “Julie, help. . . . I think we have lice.”
“Hang on,” I reassured my friend, a mother of three. “I’ll be right over.” I threw a coat over my pajamas and grabbed my metal lice comb. Just as I was getting into the car, she called back. “False alarm. I think it’s just dandruff…”
Would You Let This Boy Play Football?
For the eight years since my twin boys were born, I assumed that if they asked to play football, I’d simply say no.
It’s not that I wanted to swaddle them in bubble wrap until they were 18. I’m not that nuts. I just wanted to make sure that they got to adulthood in one piece. I’ve seen the look of pure joy on Emmett’s face as he scaled a rocky ledge, or Finn’s excitement as he pedaled his bike at top speed down our street…
In Praise of Mediocre Kids
Last year, my son Finn came home from school and announced that he wanted to play the French horn. Naturally, I signed him up. A few weeks later, we got an email from the music director politely letting us know that Finn would benefit greatly from a tutor: The French horn is a tricky instrument, and it’s difficult to match the correct tone of the instrument to the notes…
We lost our dear friend to breast cancer: We wear her clothes and remember
How do you tell your best friends you’re dying? My witty, vivacious, larger-than-life friend Cassie, diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer on Christmas Eve of 2017, did it the only way she knew how: “Someday — while I am alive or gone,” she wrote in an e-mail to a small group of friends from childhood, school, and camp, “I would love you all to come to my closet and pick out things you would like. Pieces of clothing that would mean something to you…”
How a Verizon Cell Tower Began a Furious Debate in Wayland
On a cloudless morning last December, I found myself walking around the Oak Hill Road neighborhood in my hometown of Wayland with resident Tom Gulley, who was snapping photos of an orange balloon swaying gently in the wind, head and shoulders above the tree line. Despite the calming warmth of the sun, Gulley was fuming…
Six reasons to send kids to overnight summer camp (that are good for parents)
A few years ago, when my twin boys were 12, I found myself waffling over whether to send them to a YMCA overnight camp on Lake Winnipesaukee for two weeks. The camp offered activities I knew they would love: sailing, water-skiing, tennis, ropes, woodworking . . . and yet, I couldn’t seem to pull the trigger. My friend Lisa, whose son had spent five summers at the camp, asked, “What’s your hesitation…”
Julie Suratt 