Time fries, by Steve Brewer

If “time flies when you’re having fun,” then we must all be having a blast.

We’re all so busy — none more so than we parents who work at home — that there’s never enough time to accomplish all we need…

Eating meeting

Child-rearing experts tell us it’s important that families share meals.

Dinnertime should be a ritual, they say, a time for gathering together, sharing school news, discussing current events. A time of glowing cheeks and hot food and table settings worthy of…

You can tune a piano

Here’s a Handy Tip for those of you trapped at home with your children: Teach ‘em to cook.

Kids love all the measuring and pouring and stirring and sampling involved in food preparation. Most of all, they love the big messes…

Mother of inventions

During the recent turn-of-the-millenium binge, we heard a lot about the greatest inventions of the millenium (the printing press) and the greatest person of the century (Andy Kaufman), but it seems to me folks were looking too far afield. The…

Triage for parents

It has come to our attention here at the beehive-like corporate headquarters of The Home Front that you, the unwashed public, know as much about first aid as your average honeydew.

You may feel confident that you could handle any emergency,…

Cold War

One of the drawbacks of working at home is you can’t call in sick.

First of all, there’s no one to call. You’re it. Unless you want to inform your family that you’re ill and, believe me, they already know. (Especially if you’re a guy and tend to whine a lot.)

Secondly, there’s no such thing as a day off to be sick when you’re the parent-housekeeper-chauffeur-cook-gardener-and-chief-bottle-washer.

Marching orders from General Dad

Here’s a comforting message for all of you who have children under the age of 6: It gets easier. As children get older, parents move from the trenches to the rear guard, in charge of logistics rather than patrolling the…

Parental prattle
By Steve Brewer

Parents are easy to spot, and not just because they usually look frazzled and sleep-deprived. Their speech patterns give them away.

Even when their children aren’t around, parents talk like parents. They say things that childless adults never utter.

Parentspeak is largely a product of fatigue and distraction. For parents, life is one big conversation, a constant barrage of prodding and permission-seeking and Pokemon.

Spring Cleaning
By Steve Brewer

(Note from Doni: This column, as is true of all Steve Brewer’s columns here on Food for Thought, represents his earlier work; columns new to most north state readers.)

Now that we’re officially in the throes of spring, it’s time to…

Wallowing in filth,
By Steve Brewer

(Note from Doni: This column, as is true of all Steve Brewer’s columns here on Food for Thought, represents his earlier work; columns new to most north state readers.)

A friend gave me a pillow embroidered with this message: “My idea…