Things in My Pocket - Adventures of a formerly reluctant parent

I was sure I never wanted to be a parent. I was happily single and child-free by choice. And now my pockets are filled with kid crap—a Lego head, a sticky gum wrapper, a crumpled up dress from an abandoned Barbie doll.

It’s Kate’s fault. I fell ridiculously in love with her the first time we met, on a blind date in the middle of a March snowstorm. Kate, the love of my life … who just happened to have a two-year old, and was hell bent on having child #2. It was a package deal, take it or leave it, all or nothing, you’re in or you’re out.

I agonized. I fretted. I abandoned my logical, rational beliefs and consulted a psychic–who told me it would never work. I ran away to Bali to get away from it all.

In the end, I listened to my heart.

Things in my Pocket is about the unexpected treasures I’ve found along the way.

Other Life Stuff Parenting

Talking About Barbara

November 23, 2019November 23, 2019 Veronica Beck 7 Comments breaking generational patterns, compassion for yourself as a parent, family history of suicide, mental health, parenting solution, talking to your kids about suicide

“I’m sad today,” I said to my kids.

I didn’t want it to be a big deal. I wanted it to be like one of Kate’s thousand little conversations, casually mentioned and repeated over time so that the lesson gradually and naturally sinks in.

But a thousand little conversations have to start somewhere.

Bulletin board with many chore papers attached

Parenting

Four Strategies to Keep the Chore Momentum Going

November 18, 2019November 18, 2019 Veronica Beck 4 Comments chore charts, compassion for yourself as a parent, kids and chores, parenting solution

If you’ve ever started a new exercise program, you knows it’s one thing to begin an undertaking … and quite another to keep the wheels turning.

After many false starts, we’re in a pretty sweet spot where my kids do their chores consistently, without too many reminders or much complaining.

How did we get here? Read on for four strategies we use to keep the chore momentum going.

Parenting

Three Tricks I Use to Wrangle My Kids into Doing Chores

November 4, 2019November 16, 2019 Veronica Beck 6 Comments chore charts, kids and chores, parenting solution

Do you make amazing, elaborate, beautifully-designed chore charts … that your kids completely ignore? Or do you manage to get your kids’ buy-in to your new chore chart system, only to find yourself doing all of their chores, AGAIN, after just a week or two? Or perhaps you’ve never made a chore chart and don’t know where to start, or why you’d even want one.

Parenting

In Search of the Elusive, Perfect Chore Chart

October 21, 2019November 6, 2019 Veronica Beck 2 Comments chore charts, compassion for yourself as a parent, kids and chores, self-compassion

I have an obsession — some would call it a weird obsession — with chore charts. I make lots of them. Simple ones and complex ones. Ones with hand-drawn pictures and ones with words and bullet points and diagrams. Ones in painstaking detail for each portion of the day, and ones that show a sweeping overview of the entire week.

Parenting

How Old is that Dog Poop, Anyway??

October 7, 2019November 6, 2019 Veronica Beck 6 Comments kids and arguing, kids and chores, parenting solution

Dog poop. It’s one of the less rewarding aspects of dog ownership. In our house, my two kids take turns scooping. And of course, being siblings, they argue. Or at least, they used to …

Not about whose turn it was that day (we keep track of that with my handy dandy chore charts–more on chore charts coming soon!) No, they used to argue about which piles of poop were OLD, and therefore, their sibling’s responsibility.

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