Fiction writer Patti Callahan Henry tells a story cataloguing the ways she's screwed up as a mom, and how these moments become stitched, along with others, into the tapestry of the experience of parenthood, or what she calls "the daily-ness tha

Episode 13: The Story of my Miscarriage

Jun 21st, 2017 20m 27s

We rarely talk about it, and yet it happens to so many of us, and often when it does, it wounds. In this episode, Soniah Kamal tells about a miscarriage that hit her hard. Alison and Kate talk about why, exactly, there is such a cultural taboo

Episode 12: Travel Tips

Jun 1st, 2017 19m 5s

In this episode, Megan Sexton tells a story about families on the cusp of change, and road-trip hotels from hell.Speaking of cusps, Kate and Alison talk about how parenting has divvied their lives sharply into before and after.Have a thought

Episode 11: Squeaky Wheel

May 17th, 2017 25m

In this episode, Susan Rebecca White tells a story of raising her kid to raise hell in an unfair world. Her story includes perhaps the world's greatest mother-in-law, with the world's greatest line: "That man don't have a heart; he has a thumpi

Episode 10: Hush, Little Baby

May 3rd, 2017 22m 35s

Bedtime rituals. Friend or foe? In this episode, Kate Tuttle tells the story of how her child's preferred bedtime routine grew and grew, from a simple tune involving a mockingbird, to a complicated performance involving a cornucopia of unlikel

Episode 9: Oh. My. Gosh.

Jan 3rd, 2017 26m 2s

Kids and religion. A lapsed Southern Baptist takes his Jewish wife and kids to breakfast with a not-so-lapsed family friend. In this episode's hilarious story, Jack Walsh navigates how complicated it can get talking with your kids about religi

Episode 8: The Universe Has Got a Wicked Sense of Humor

Dec 6th, 2016 31m 15s

Mean girls. Sometimes they don't magically disappear after adolescence. Tricia Sterns tells a story about dealing with the grown-up variety, while her daughter is dealing with a whole middle-school mean girl army. It's witty, poignant, and lo

Episode 7: Chill Time is Officially Over.

Nov 22nd, 2016 32m 30s

"Parenting is never so simple as it appears in a Chevy Silverado commercial." This from Adult Swim's Matt Hutchinson, who parses the differences between TV-ad fatherhood and the real thing. Matt tells the harrowing story of teaching his six-yea

Episode 6: X + Y = A Healthy Family

Nov 1st, 2016 30m 38s

What exactly does a child need? Some real talk about organic paints, yoga for toddlers and other things promised us by the daycares we covet. When does important shaping of early development become fetishism of childhood? Also, when kids eat ca

Episode 5: She Has Never Been Mine.

Oct 18th, 2016 20m 54s

…in which Alayna Huft Tucker tells a story about the physical bond we have with our kids, and something that happened very early in her daughter's life that threatened to break that bond. (Folks looking to avoid stories about real bad stuff, yo

Episode 4: She Potties all the Time.

Oct 4th, 2016 24m 59s

…In which we discover parents can be divvied into two types: those who cut our kids grapes in half…and those who go for fourths. Elizabeth Lenhard tells a story about her own unending list of parental worries and how she copes with 'em. Also,

Tantrum! Bonus Episode: The Tiniest.

Sep 26th, 2016 59s

When you're recording a podcast, you want a small soundproof space--preferably, colored in the bright scrawl of your children. In this, the shortest of short bonus episodes, Kate and Alison tell how they came up with a venue for recording the f

Episode 3: Dude! Stop Licking My Pants.

Sep 20th, 2016 19m 24s

Rebecca Kaye tells a story about how she's chosen to manage the tough dance between protecting your kids, and over-protecting them. We also learn that your child won't die from mouthing a nasty thermometer. Maybe. Are we giving medical advice n

Episode 2: Cannonball!!

Aug 30th, 2016 24m 12s

Who's the real hero in a story about a stultifyingly hot summer day, a dead American writer's radiant swimming pool, and a choice made that cannot be unmade? Jamie Allen takes the plunge this episode, and shows us how ordinary moments become fa

Episode One: Parenting is Blindly Flinging Food at People.

Aug 15th, 2016 25m 14s

...In which writer Laurel Snyder shares her hilarious/poignant story about how a toddler, a newborn, and the filthiest bathroom on the east coast changed her mindset about parenting forever. Also, Parental Moments of Glory about (gasp) cursing

Rate