In your standard-issue family, of which few remain, but on which our expectations are still based, there are parents and there are children. The way you know which are which, aside from certain size and age differences and despite any behavior similarities, is that the parents are the bossy ones.

Preparing for the worst is an activity I have taken up since I turned thirty-five, and the worst actually began to happen.

As complicated as joint custody is, it allows the delicious contradiction of having children and maintaining the intimacy of life-before-kid s.

One quarter of what you buy will turn out to be mistakes.

One cannot overstate the potential for hysteria on a movie set. Everyone always acts as if making the movie is as important as eradicating malaria.

in the family I grew up in, being called boring was like being called an ax murderer.

For me, having it all - if one wants to define it at all - is the magical time when what you want and what you have match up.