As the non-cooking partner in our home, I was excited to get a book for Christmas that was less about preparing food and more about arranging it attractively (much more my speed). I haven’t actually assembled one of the snack boards pictured in the book yet—they’re somewhat extravagant and meant to serve large-ish groups, lol—but it did inspire me to try implementing something new.
We’ve been having Afternoon Tea, and….it’s kind of great. I’ve been taking a break from work around 3:15 to spend a few minutes putting together a big plate of snacks, and when Mallory gets up from her nap at 3:30, the whole family sits down together to share it.
It’s improved our days for two reasons. First, I think we had been underestimating just how hungry the girls were by late afternoon, and often fell victim to Snack Creep (a few handfuls of Pirate’s Booty, then a clementine, then another handful of Pirate’s Booty, then an applesauce pouch, then a cheese stick, then some trail mix, right up until twenty minutes before a dinner that no one then eats). One hearty demi-meal has been carrying them through til evening with a lot less fussing.
The other is how much I enjoy doing it. I love taking a purposeful break to do something calming during what is otherwise the slump-iest part of the work day. I like picking up small treats that I wouldn’t otherwise buy and surprising the kids with them, and I like putting them away on a high shelf in a top cabinet until the next tea time, unseen and un-begged-for. As we inch closer to the one-year mark of the pandemic, I am more eager than ever to pounce on anything that feels a little bit special or a little bit novel, and emerging from my work cave to hang out with my family and indulge in fancy salami and chocolate Pocky is both. It’s no Unicorn Board or Princess Board, and it’s no having a party and sharing with friends, but it does ease the part of the day that I once heard someone call “the airplane sleep of family time,” and I’ll take that.
(When it’s safe, though—that Unicorn Board is getting ARRANGED. With FLAIR.)
If you like reading Extra Credit, would you consider sharing it somewhere, or with someone? Parenting can be hard and isolating even in non-pandemic times, and lately…..well, you know. It helps to connect!
Ask A Teacher
My soon to be 13-year-old is in seventh grade and was diagnosed a year and a half ago with mild ADHD. . while he was doing well at the start of the school year—he had terrific teachers and school was in person—school recently closed due to COVID and I’m seeing some new behaviors. He’s talking incessantly, is unable to sit still, and often gets up and walks away in the middle of a conversation. I see him struggling to stay organized to finish his work. Getting him to write a single paragraph for school takes at minimum two hours, with parental “coaching” (mixed with a bit of nagging).
I advised the parent of this struggling seventh grader. Plus, letters about feeling stuck between your child’s mental health and your aging parent’s COVID vulnerability, a second grader reluctant to work on math, and what to expect from a Montessori preschool.
Recommendations
If you, perchance, mostly crave entertainment of the extremely soothing variety these days, please join me in watching All Creatures Great and Small on PBS. I believe you could not possibly find a gentler TV show unless someone creates a series about, like, a pair of friendly hedgehogs knitting sweaters together. Watch the wide shots of the gorgeous Yorkshire countryside, briefly worry about whether the calf will be birthed (it will), enjoy the extremely G-rated flirting, and settle your soul.
*yells into a megaphone* PLEASE READ “PIXAR’S TROUBLED SOUL!” Namwali Serpell’s critique of Pixar’s latest film is absolutely fascinating. So thoughtful, so well and thoroughly argued, so full of references and insights and cultural knowledge—I felt edified after I finished it. It is so good that I can’t even pull a quote to share. You gotta read it.
I was thoroughly chilled by “Live, Laugh, Launch an Insurrection: Gen Z Moms Are Building Their Brands Around QAnon.” The chirpy tone, pastel story slides, and insistence on “no negativity” familiar to mommy-themed social media…plus racist extremism totally divorced from reality.
It’s easy to picture a QAnon believer or a pro-Trump extremist as a sad and lonely man raging against the elites from his parent’s basement. But that view of a QAnon follower is reductive, and it underestimates who exactly is falling for the mass delusion. This group of 15,000 attractive white wives and moms — who joyfully discuss their kids’ milestones alongside deranged nonsense — is proof.
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