Parenting

Paper Bags It Killed Me to Throw Away

Paper Bags It Killed Me to Throw Away

Families Scramble for Childcare Amid Staff Shortages, Declining Funding and 4-Day School Weeks

Families Scramble for Childcare Amid Staff Shortages, Declining Funding and 4-Day School Weeks

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Opinion: Without Action, School Anti-Bullying Policies Feel Like Gaslighting

By Jef Rouner
Dec 28, 2022

Every day, the Kid With One F comes home from their Cy-Fair ISD school and hangs their ID on a thumbtack near the stairs. On the back is information for the National Suicide Prevention Hotline and the Harris Center Crisis Line. By my count, the kid has called those numbers...
How to Handle a Kid’s Birthday Around the Holidays

By Jef Rouner
Nov 23, 2022

I married a woman whose birthday often falls on Thanksgiving, and she’ll be the first to tell you it royally sucked when she was growing up. Having a birthday during the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas often means children don’t get the kind of attention other kids do because so...
Opinion: The Terror of Texas’ Teen Abortion Trap

By Jef Rouner
Apr 27, 2022

Whenever a post-menstrual person comes into the emergency room with localized abdominal pain, the doctors are going to require an ultrasound and a pregnancy test. Even for a 12-year-old. When that happened to my family, every cruelty the state has instituted into reproductive health came crashing into my head at...
How to (Sanely) Christmas Bake With a Toddler

By Jef Rouner
Dec 22, 2021

Baking around Christmas is a big deal for my family, and it usually takes several days before all of it is done. My kid is nearly a teenager now, which means that they are actually useful instead of a walking burn risk and collection of different pouts. If you want...
Diary of a Pandemic Holiday

By Jef Rouner
Sep 1, 2021

May People are getting vaccinated, restrictions are being lifted, and deaths are going down. For one brief month or so it looks like there might finally be some hope. I very hesitantly book the safest vacation I possibly can just in case things go south. What could be lower key...
I Can’t Believe I Have to Worry About School Dress Codes in a Plague

By Jef Rouner
Aug 26, 2021

I took the Kid With One F shopping for some back-to-school non-binary finery this past weekend, and as frustrating as that always is it was made even more maddening by the fact that adhering to school dress codes in the middle of a pandemic seems more ridiculous than toothpaste-flavored chips...
Don’t Mourn Your Child Growing Up

By Jef Rouner
Jul 21, 2021

There’s this parenting piece by Laurel Anne going on around on Facebook that’s been shared over seventy-thousand times about how you blink, and your children have already grown up. A sample: Whether you are enjoying where you are in motherhood today or not, don’t blink. Don’t wish for anything to...
I Think COVID Might Have Irreparably Damaged Our Kids

By Jef Rouner
Jul 6, 2021

Every Independence Day since my child was three, the Kid With One F has spent the night with my mother. Mum lives out on a big plot of land just outside Channelview where no one cares that the night will be filled with fireworks. Combined with my stepdad’s love of...
Black Children In Harris County Are Seized By CPS 3.5 Times More Often Than White Kids

By Schaefer Edwards
Jun 28, 2021

Renequa Burch still wonders why exactly Child Protective Services moved so quickly to take four of her five kids away from her in the summer of 2018, but she’s convinced the fact that she and her children are Black had something to do with it. A social worker and mother...
I Will NOT Make My Child Go To School Sick Even if She’s Just in Her Bedroom

By Jef Rouner
Apr 28, 2021

One of the more frustrating things about the remote learning process over the last year is that my daughter’s school district has never really addressed what the hell to do when she is ill. Luckily, she’s been pretty healthy (turns out your kids gets sick a lot less when they...
Discovery Green Opens Revitalized Playspace

By Jef Rouner
Apr 7, 2021

With Spring in full bloom and most of us still confined to outdoor activities despite the lifting of the occupancy restrictions, Discovery Green has just given us a fantastic reason to visit. The John P. McGovern Playground has finally finished its $2.3 million renovations and is open to the public...
CoolXDad Supports History, Art and Family Ties

By DeVaughn Douglas
Mar 3, 2021

Sitting in the lobby of the Dakota Lofts downtown your eye is immediately drawn to the black and white floor that resembles a giant chessboard. A small group of people mill around the life size board as they await instructions. Before anyone has a chance to start creating their own...
What Is a “Cool” Parent?

By Jef Rouner
Jan 6, 2021

For our daughter's eleventh birthday, my wife and I took the Kid With One F to get her hair colored pink. It was something she asked about for years after watching the way her mom switches up hair colors regularly. Since the birthday we’d planned for her was consumed by...
Children's Museum of Houston Shifts to Virtual Learning For Fall After Summer Reopening

By Schaefer Edwards
Sep 10, 2020

In the middle of a contagious disease outbreak, operating a safe haven for families that caters to curious children who are encouraged to get up close and personal with hands-on learning is no small task. Children’s Museum Houston has been grappling with the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic for almost...
The Five Stages of First Day Remote School Emotions

By Jef Rouner
Sep 9, 2020

School is very different here in the Plague Year. Virtually every school is offering some form of remote learning in the hopes that kids will continue their educations while not becoming vectors for the continued spread of the coronavirus. Tuesday was the first day of school for my child and...
We've Eaten Baby Yoda — And You Can Too

By Cory Garcia
Aug 25, 2020

There are a lot of pop culture rites of passage, but few are as interesting as the tie-in breakfast cereal. Imagine how much of an impact you have to make to believe that people will want to eat the sweetened grain version of you. Mr. T had a cereal. Steve...
Whining and Dining: Beating the Crowd at Coltivare

By Brooke Viggiano
Feb 4, 2020

Life has changed for this food writer. As a brand-new mom, poppin’ bottles has taken on a slightly different meaning. But while I find myself seeking out diaper changing tables for the first time ever, I’m still on the hunt for all the awesome happy hours, exciting menus and H-town...
All Girls Should Learn Jiu Jitsu In a Rape Culture World

By Jef Rouner
Jan 23, 2020

One of my most popular pieces of all time was called “Teach Your Daughters to Hit People Who Touch Them,” but I have to confess that I no longer actually tell her to hit people. I tell her to put them on the ground. Hard. That’s why I enrolled her...
Whining and Dining: A Fresh Start to the New Year at Vibrant

By Brooke Viggiano
Jan 21, 2020

Life has changed for this food writer. As a brand-new mom, poppin’ bottles has taken on a slightly different meaning. But while I find myself seeking out diaper changing tables for the first time ever, I’m still on the hunt for all the awesome happy hours, exciting menus and H-town...
Whining and Dining: (Early) Family Date Night at Squable

By Brooke Viggiano
Dec 10, 2019

Life has changed for this food writer. As a brand-new mom, poppin’ bottles has taken on a slightly different meaning. But while I find myself seeking out diaper changing tables for the first time ever, I’m still on the hunt for all the awesome happy hours, exciting menus and H-town...