Just Around The Corner
There’s a giant free home entertainment center waiting for your family to claim ownership. Well, that may be a slight exaggeration because you and your kids only get to take hold of it as a loan. But there shouldn’t be any…
Shopping Sense vs Shopping Cents
This time of year, most parents will spend more time and more money shopping for what their offspring will wear to the school house than they will spend determining how to get the best educational plan for their children. It just…
Back From Quiet
I think the old expression is “Gone but not forgotten.” I’d like to think it; however, I’m sensing that not only have I been gone, but, sad to say, it seems I’ve been pretty much forgotten.That’ll get some kind of response.…
Trying To Figure Out The Math of Justice
Maybe I'm not getting the facts correct, but I've been known to misunderstand things, so this confusion I'm experiencing isn't exactly an anomaly.Readers will no doubt set me straight, as they often do, even when I have a clear vision…
A Country-Time Graduation
“Hm, mmm,” said the kinda-country folk who were sitting way up front attending the first college graduation ceremony in their family.Yup, they were there to witness this momentous occasion. The relatives had come into the city from what seemed like…
The Ability To Breath is Not Promised
Asthma kills," said the doctor with a slow, deliberate, steadfast and extremely serious gaze in his eyes that were staring directly into mine. He never blinked. Brandi said she had a sore throat. "Is it asthma?" I asked, like I…
Mother’s Day is Here
Nope, I'm not going out for brunch or dinner at a favorite restaurant. I'm also going to pass on getting dressed and taking in a theatrical performance. The cast of "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" playing at the Mark Taper…
Jodi Arias Trial Raises Parenting Questions
Thanks to Jodi Arias — the confessed murderer who is on trial for the brutal killing of her ex-boyfriend — Pasadena is known for one more thing. Granted, the idea that Arias filled up a few gas cans at a…
Am I Who My Kids Are?
I've got some highfalutin' friends — pretentious wannabees — who think their kids are too high and mighty to attend Pasadena City College. Uh, no, these darlings weren't accepted at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford or any of the other top…
Parenting is a Different Ballgame
A closely-held secret month of celebration is March which has, in some states, been declared Parenting Awareness Month.If you live in Texas, you might well be in the dark about this yearly focus, but if either Michigan or California is your…
Uh, Wal-Mart?
The strawberries, in the regular plastic box with a lid, were 99 cents for the one-pound container. Ah, yes, they were fresh with bright green tops and they cost me half the price I would have paid had I bought…
You Wanna Take This Outside?
A perfect story for this March, which has been designated “National Parenting Awareness Month," is the South Central Los Angeles mom who, with her two daughters, assaulted the younger daughter’s teacher on the campus of John Muir Middle School. Kiki…
Being Tough Gets The Job Done
Juan Martinez, the prosecutor in the Jodi Arias murder trial, ought to be seen as a role model for every home in America where parents are raising children. “He don’t take no stuff,” remarked the young adult in my household…
Parenting Horror Stories
Some years ago, an audience participant on our Talk About Parenting with Shirlee Smith Cable TV show proclaimed, “ You need a driver’s license to drive. You need a license to own a dog. . . “ Of course she went…
Black History Marches Through Your Town
It’s not real smart for today’s black parents to rely on February as the month their children get to find out who they are, and, most likely, the scant amount of information the kids get exposed to isn’t coming from their…