The Luxpats

Tag: parenting

  • Read About Giving Birth in Guanajuato, Mexico

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    The long wait is over. Now we can tell you all about giving birth in Guanajuato! After touring the birthing ward at Plaza Mayor and paying the 5,000 peso deposit, we settled in to wait out the last days of the pregnancy. At 38 weeks, I was as uncomfortable as I’d ever been: sleepless with swollen…

  • More Nomad Baby News: Big Changes

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    We’ve had an interesting past couple of weeks, and some new nomad baby news to share. I’ll tell you right now that both baby and Mama are fine, except for my sore leg from a gnarly charlie horse last night and a certain amount of annoyance about constant insomnia. So it goes. The third trimester…

  • Of Heroines and Heroes: Three Stories

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    In light of the Stanford rape travesty, I’d like to share three true stories about heroines, heroes, and villains, and the stories we tell our children about them.   The Campus On a sunny day in May, Sinead was walking to class when a friend materialized out of the crowd of students and began to walk…

  • Nomad Trade-Offs: One Day, Two Ways

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    You’re a middle class stay-at-home Mom. What is a typical spring day like for you, at home and on the road? What are the nomad trade-offs? It’s interesting to me to compare the benefits and difficulties of both lives–the trade-offs, habit changes, and general trends. This is my entirely personal comparison of the ups and…

  • This is Not a Parenting Article

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    You know those parenting articles with titles like “5 Things Parents Shouldn’t Say to Childless Friends,” or “6 Ways Non-Breeders Can Relate to Parents”? This is not that kind of an article. You will not find a list of #parentingfails here, or a list of “ten ways you didn’t know you were emotionally stunting your kid,” or inexpert but strident views…

  • That Kind of a Woman

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    I asked my mother if she ever thought she’d find herself sitting naked on a toilet in Africa with a shaved head and a tattoo on her hip. She thought about it. No, she hadn’t, she said. She and Dad have come to visit us and their grandson for three months. Her head was not…

  • The Carousel of Houses: Part III

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    In the afternoon we sat together on the couch, waiting to move again. Including hotels, it would be the fifth and hopefully final move in two months. We fanned ourselves in an amicable silence. We don’t always analyze our fights anymore, at least not right away. Before Spencer, we performed constant maintenance. Ours was a…

  • The Carousel of Houses: Part II

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    Green Point, where we’d been living, is an upmarket little neighborhood that slopes gently up from the beach. Cool breezes dry the sweaty foreheads of its residents as they enjoy sundowners on their porches, and there is little real wind there. In Vredehoek, where we moved the next day, you are perched upon the steep…

  • Nannies: The Thaw

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    My paranoia about A’idah kidnapping Spencer got worse and worse. Every day, I’d be in a good mood when she arrived in the morning and a black mood when she left to go home. I was surprised to acknowledge, however, that I didn’t dislike A’idah. In fact, she and I got along wonderfully all day,…

  • How Long Would You Wait at a Free Clinic?

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    When I walked into the hall at 8:30, I was given a number and a piece of paper to fill out. The man who handed it to me wore a surgical mask. I sat next to a young woman, who leaned over conspiratorially and said, “They don’t care about us. It’s all about them. It’s…