Once in a huge and serious pillow fight—when she was thirteen and I a mere lass of thirty-four—she belted me a good one and hollered, (bless her heart, I’ll never forget it) “You old sow!”…

Sorry i didn’t have a chance to say hello at CommunityNext. Your talk got me in a pleasantly ornery and contrary mood, so i just posted a little exception i took with the idea of embracing chaos, when i think the idea of nimble organizing in the face of chaos may be more illustrative.

good luck with an amazing schedule.

Seems like what I meant was not able to make it thru the steam What I was trying to convey is that even when our teens are pushing us away they really want us to hug them tighter.

May seem obvious to some, but it bears repeating, especially during the tough times with our children.

You had to “conduct interviews” to learn this?

Where, oh where, did we go wrong. In the Sixties. Are you young enough to be my child? My kids are not clueless parents.

But wait – I was one of the few hippie moms who actually behaved as a parent. An “old-fashioned” parent, it was called. Hell-o? It was clear to me who the children were, and who were the (stoned, drug-addled) grown-ups. It was very fashionable to let your kids Do Anythiing. Tres cool.

Like most such trends of cool, this made life easier for said grown-ups. They didn’t have to be Adults. You know, like doing the right thing, making unpopular decisions and such work, all by your lonely self.