Dear Boundless Families:
Whilst dining the other night with my nuclear family, feeling unusually safe from any imminent threats of patricide, the conversation turned towards the absurd.
My middle child (it’s always the median that ultimately sinks to the bottom) shocked his 18-year old sister-princess with the question,
“Would you prefer being called a harlot, and hussy or a ho?”
Quicker than a sneeze droplet can attack your very soul, she identifies with the harlot.
“If in doubt, go biblical”.
Meanwhile, my wife is bemoaning her steely grey roots.
“It’s Covid’s cruelest cut of all. You better still love me.”
“Why don’t you colour it yourself?” And in what may be the most ignorant comment ever uttered by a husband, I proudly add “I could even help”.
Collecting herself, she dons her voice that she uses patiently with toddlers,
“Stevie, it takes 3 or 4 colours to get it right. Maybe another day we could try just one.”
“How about Blonde,” I blurt out. But it’s too late.
My eldest spits out his pasta, whose sauce he has been nursing all day – for what else is a 27-year old to do when his industry has been wrecked by Covid?
I realize amidst this banter that I am in a kind of heaven. Things felt aimless and in the moment, like playing road hockey with your pals just after school when you were a kid.
There are other Coronic gifts too. The sheer joy I take in knowing that society’s entertainment content will eventually run out. What then? Oh, to be a fly on that screen.
But the greatest present is the lingering phone conversations I have with my world. All of a sudden everyone has time. I have months of chatter to catch up on. I have turned into my mother, a strange Kafkaesque twist courtesy of Covid.
But mostly, I have more time. I will finally get down to more writing. And you, as readers on this email list, are my first victims. I suppose I want to entertain a little.
I also want to educate – I run a school after all.
I am starting a parenting advice column on my Boundless blog. Anonymity guaranteed. Let’s have written conversations – one of many cool ways to outwait this virus.
Let’s talk about teens. There is shockingly little in the advice column world for this age group. I will strive to fill that gap a little.
Email your questions to [email protected]. We can correspond about anything related to parenting adolescents. The perils of close-quarters isolation, unique ways to engage and connect, gaming addictions, home-schooling – whatever is driving you crazy.
If appropriate, I will post a few of your questions and my responses on the blog, taking great care to protect privacy.
Hoping all of you and your loved ones are well.
Steven Gottlieb, Executive Director
