Nightmare at the Dunmore Days Inn
I made hotel reservations at the last minute in order to attend a family reunion in Scranton. You might be wondering – Why would someone so competent, who’s usually on top of things, wait until the last minute to make hotel reservations when she knew about the reunion for months ahead of time? I’ll tell [...]
Model the behavior you seek in others – or just give up and laugh
If you don’t have something nice to say about someone, come sit by me. People tend to get worked up, or concerned, about behavior they themselves exhibit. How many times have you heard a friend yell at her son for interrupting and fought the urge to say, “Bitch, do you hear yourself during our conversations? [...]
Things I’ve learned from my Irish Catholic relatives
First of all, I recognize the redundancy of the title. One of the first things I learned was that if you’re Irish, you’re Catholic. Protestants are of British descent. And you’re supposed to say that with a very sad look, as if you pity the poor limey bastard. What about Irish Jews and Buddhists and [...]
How you can tell the summer trip is over before it starts
Nothing frightens parents more than summer vacation. Kids look forward to a few months of fun and frolic. Moms and dads wonder how they can fill ten hours a day with activities when there’s nothing good on television. One way to fill the time is to take a summer trip. This is what my family [...]
When family rides out a storm together, that’s when the wind really starts to blow.
This winter, including these last few days, many families are finding themselves snowed in. Mother Nature doesn’t really care if you’ve got a house full of complaining children who can’t find anything good on television. I’m hearing from plenty of women who want to know how to entertain kids during the 29th snow day this [...]
Would you rather sit through a root canal or family portrait?
Siblings and I were recently in the same five-mile radius for more than ten minutes. Sister thought it might be fun to commemorate the event with family portraits. At first, I kept thinking, “It’s hard enough to get us all together, you want us to invade each other’s personal space, look in the same direction [...]
Catherine Durkin Robinson
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VOTE!
she’s crafty
