I skipped my Thursday blog post this week, and I don’t really have an excuse. Actually, that’s not true. I do have one excuse, which is that my dictation software is such a pain in the ass that everything I’ve written so far is wrong and I have to go back and correct it. I should just leave it the way that it is so that you can see how little my computer understands my very clear speech patterns, but I wouldn’t do that to you because it would be like reading the inside of my dog’s brain. Literally none of these words make sense together.

Ah. Now they are corrected and I feel much better. But my hands are tired.

The other reason I didn’t blog yesterday is that I spent the morning at scoreless (Scarlett’s!) school instead of writing. The writer and educator Jessica Lahey was there to talk about her new book, the New York Times bestseller The Gift of Failure. The book focuses on how to foster resilience in kids through intrinsic motivation. I found her presentation illuminating for a lot of reasons, mainly because at the moment I feel like I am exclusively focused on parenting through extrinsic motivation. As in punishment and reward. As in get dressed for school or you cannot use my iPad. As in stop abusing the dog or there will not be a play date tomorrow. As in dear god please acknowledge my existence and the fact that I’m talking to you and I will probably give you a popsicle. Read More>