Parenting - The Auntie Bulletin

1940s-era poster in shades of brown, tan, orange and green. The poster depicts a stylized image of two children, a boy and a girl, with legs spread as though walking, and reaching toward a lo

Aunties

Demystifying American Public Schools

The orientation nobody gave you. Aunties, I’m on retreat in Philadelphia with some of my writing buddies this week. I’ve been meeting with these writers online for over 18 months, and it is such a delight to finally get to hug them and gossip and talk shop in

Two baby marmosets ride on an adult marmoset's back, all three with fluffy white ear tufts, looking toward the camera.

Aunties

What Predicts Helpfulness in Primate Species?

I’ll give you three guesses… It’s time again for The Auntie Bulletin, hooray! So did you make a guess about what predicts helpfulness in primate species, as the title of this post invites you to? I’ll give you three guesses and also a hint: the answer rhymes

Album cover for 'The Official Sesame Street 2 Book-and-Record Album,' featuring Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Grover, and Muppet character illustrations with speech bubbles.

Health & Wellness

The Time I Donated My Eggs

I have biological offspring, I think. The Auntie Bulletin is two years old! Happy birthday to us! I want to get to today’s actual post about the time I donated my eggs, but since we’ve hit a milestone, I also want to take this opportunity to fill you

Close-up of a metal bowl heaped with freshly picked ripe blackberries, with a blurred indoor background of houseplants and furniture.

Aunties

Here’s Your End-of-August Care Package

We’re heading into a busy time of year. Take a break and read something nice. Aunties, it’s time for your monthly care package: a collection of writers and others communicating wise, compassionate, funny, insightful, surprising, and/or useful stuff around the internet and sometimes off the internet. As

Three-panel stick-figure comic. A speaker on a podium says everyone hates springing forward but loves falling back, so they propose abolishing the spring time change only, gaining an hour eve

A Better World

The White Space in Your Calendar is a Service to Your Community

Reframing unscheduled time Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, I had a super busy life. During the 2019-2020 school year, for example, I was finishing my dissertation[[1]] and teaching graduate-level teacher preparation classes at the University of Washington. I was coaching novice teachers all over the region,

Side-by-side image: on the left, a portrait of a smiling woman with reddish-brown hair wearing a green blouse; on the right, the cover of the book "Living, Together"

Aunties

The Life and Afterlife of a Shared Home

Co-housing doesn’t have to mean forever, and it doesn’t have to require owning a home. Aunties, today I’m excited to share with you Rhaina Cohen’s essay in Samantha Paige Rosen’s new anthology, Living, Together: Reimagining Community in the Age of Disconnection. As I wrote

A child's handmade Yoda mask crafted from green construction paper, with two cut-out eye holes and a marker-drawn smiling mouth with teeth. Tufts of real hair are attached above the eyes with

Aunties

Auntiehood is the Real “Having It All”

Here’s the beautiful thing about auntiehood: it lets up. Hey aunties! I had an exciting post teed up for you this week — one I’m really looking forward to getting out into the world — but I seem to be having a significant EDS flare-up. I’m coming off

A smiling woman sits on a gray couch with a plate of food, playfully touching the hair of a teenager who is reclining next to her.

Aunties

How to Talk to Teenagers

It’s totally possible to have a good relationship with the teens in your life. Here’s how. Hi there, aunties on Ghost! Today I'm reaching out to you about a conundrum I hadn't anticipated (although I probably should have): when we have a threaded discussion

Sri Juneja, a woman with dark curly hairbehind her is a calm pond bordered by grass and a tree line, under a blue sky with scattered white clouds.

Such Interesting Aunties

“It Was Like a 90s Summer Child Experience, but Indian Flavor”

What it's like when you actually have a village to raise a child I'm open about the Auntie Bulletin business finances, and right now I'm offering 30% off Auntie Bulletin subscriptions, forever, for readers on Ghost only. As content continues to be shared on

Culture

How to Support Troubled Youth and Their Families

Aunties as refuge I'm open about the Auntie Bulletin business finances, and right now I'm offering 30% off Auntie Bulletin subscriptions, forever, for readers on Ghost only. As content continues to be shared on this platform, I'm hoping we can row together like the

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Kinship

Here's Your End-of-June Care Package

It's vibe shift season, baby – and about time, too. Happy summer, aunties! I am loving all the pieces I’ve seen lately about a vibe shift in the direction of love, joy, caring, and community. No false modesty necessary here: we aunties have been on the hope train

A father in a cowboy hat holding an infant and a mother in a blue dress holding a toddler in red boots, surrounded by seven children.

Culture

Where are the Trad Aunties?

There aren’t any, and that’s by design. So, have you read Yesteryear? I read the first two chapters as a free preview in the public library’s Libby app, and I think that’s enough for me. I’ll say more about why shortly. But first, for Auntie