Michael Ann Dobbs's discussions

Swim Instructor Here: DON’T BLOW IN YOUR BABY’S FACE! Read more

This. Thumbnails and “the look” of a given genre drive the cover market. The fact that these could all be described as “slipstream” “literary” and “new weird” means they’ve got to have similar-ish (serious, but odd; stark, but complex) covers. The fact that they’ve got to be visible as a tiny picture on your phone… Read more

Poor girl. I remember feeling like I had a low grade flu for a month (also the first month I went off it), it was pretty rough on me as a college kid. Read more

A note on those hospital grade wipes (and also on Clorox and Lysol ones): there is a time requirement for them to kill germs. Read the package, wipe down and then leave the wipe on the surface for the total time. We don’t have any in the house, or I’d post the time, but I believe it was 4 minutes. Read more

Nah, you’re not curating the kids... you’re curating the non-helicopter parents. Who cares if  the kids get along as long as the parents aren’t going to call the cops. Read more

This study doesn’t talk about parental ages, but there’s lots of evidence that children of older parents gain all sorts of economic benefits that can translate to educational benefits. Like if young parents are broke they may be okay with more television or childcare swaps in the summer, while older parents could… Read more

We live in Brooklyn and my kid knows that she has to hold me or the cart or stroller or the handle of her balance bike when we cross the street. Pushing the laundry cart takes two hands and kiddo likes to demand both the bike and the stroller on long walks and I won’t let her bike across streets, so pushing stroller… Read more

You know, in Sweden everyone has free health care AND free catastrophic insurance. Schools there let kids go sledding and ice skating on school grounds, most schools have the equivalent of mini adventure playgrounds as their outdoor space. Their equivalent of Scouts gives children as young as four knives and lets them… Read more

I’ve seen zweibeck in the baby food sections of NYC grocery stores. It used to be a popular teething cracker. But now they have those fruit melt things that have the consistency of foam paper and zweibeck’s harder to come by. Read more

That Reddit dad has medical PTSD — flat affect like that is a major tip-off that he should be seeing someone. “Not bonding” is different it means you don’t have that “overwhelming parental love” for a kid. That’s not this. Read more

I think one of the points of KonMari is that you are confronted by your big pile of stuff from all over your house and you HAVE to deal with it. Her system basically sets up shock therapy for stuff. One of her arguments in the book is that if you just do a regular declutter (by room or a few things at a time) you will… Read more

Meds are super important, but they should always come pretty late in the decision tree. First some talk therapy and mindfulness, then some cognitive behavioral therapy or some dialectics, then meds. Unless you’re having panic attacks I don’t know any adults who jumped straight to meds. Read more

Absolutely! I teach swimming lessons at a place with a very good swim team. It’s tough for parents sometimes to realize that they are a cheerleader — the kid already has a coach (or four). We have kids as young as 6 on the team and they can be capable of handling themselves, being on a team etc. if the parents give… Read more

Yes. Park Slope is not what it was even ten years ago. When I moved to Brooklyn (03) it was still a crunchy, lesbian, family-friendly, sort of place (New York-y but with a dash of old San Francisco? There was a baby/maternity store with a sign that read “at your cervix.”) But it’s become cool for finance people to… Read more

Yes. Park Slope is not what it was even ten years ago. When I moved to Brooklyn (03) it was still a crunchy,…

Because Shawn, having heard of Simone will arrange for her to die and end up in the experiment. (I’m like 90% sure). Shawn wants the originals too and will come up with ways to use their fallibility against the experiment. Read more

Yep! I went to college in NYC (still here, in fact) and lots of people made the commuter-shoe-look cute. I just embraced it as an all day kind of thing.   Read more

I became a lot more comfortable wearing skirts only once I got to college and embraced the idea that skirts and dresses can be worn with sneakers. This was a major revelation. Full skirt, plain t, sneakers and I was suddenly way more dressed up.  Also learning to embrace layering shirts and a couple of casual-dressy… Read more

I don’t know where you live, but if you put a box of books outside in Brooklyn on a nice spring day, everyone takes them away. You’ll have no books in a few hours. Books on the curb are an invitation! Read more

If your wife tidies your stuff that’s AGAINST KonMari.  Read more

You can take the comics to any comic store with a resale section. Most have them.  Drop them off and if they’re in good condition they’ll find new homes! Ephemera like that ought to be kept in circulation until it falls apart. Read more