Tag: #Children

  • Landlords

    I got an email yesterday afternoon from my landlord’s property office, informing us that they are going to install a buzzer system in our building, and that we need to be available Saturday morning for the installation. and when I read this email, my first reaction was that this was a lie, as they want to enter our apartment, and try to evict us.

    Yes, I am aware of how much that was a completely irrational response to that email.

    My second reaction was to respond to the email, thanking them for the buzzer, and confirming that we would be home on Saturday.

    But in my defense, we are like the last building in Manhattan that doesn’t have a buzzer, and we have been complaining about it for years.

    I don’t know what it is, but there is something about New York, where you can’t trust your landlord or super. Next to the Mayor, those are the most hated jobs in NYC. In the fifteen years I have lived here, I only know one person who had a positive experience with a landlord. For everyone else, it’s just pure hatred.

    In the end, I try to be fair, balanced in my interactions with our landlord; we have to work together as long as we live here.

  • First Day of School

    Here we are t the first day of school in New York City!

    Look, I know that this is not ideal for anyone, and the teachers at our school are doing their best, and from what I have seen today, they are taking it seriously, and, from my kid’s reaction, they are making it fun.

    We have opted to do the remote learning from home, and supporting the kid in all of this, is one of my primary jobs as “stay at home dad.” I was hoping that we would get a schedule today, so I could at least start planning what our days are going to be like. Sadly, schedules are still being created, being made available later today, and that is disappointing. But I keep trying to remind myself that these teachers are doing their best with a really bad hand. They showed up, and are committed to make the best out of this.

    I like our school, staff and teachers, and for all of this to work, I know I have to be more involved, and be supportive of the school. This issues I am have are policy really, which is coming from the DOE, mayor, and the governor, and not the teachers and staff that I am interacting with. I have to remind myself of that.

    When I walk about NYC, it seems like every neighborhood has one old school that between built between 1890 to 1920. These schools are red bricked, some built in a Dutch Revival style, detailed, and dominating the block they are on. To me, they look like temples to public education, which says to me says that there was a time in this City when public education was taken seriously; something to be shown off, and honored.

    I have many friends that are teachers, all of this country, and for something that is so vital for a strong and equatable nation, why do we scorn public education? How did we get to a place where paying for something that has a benefit for everyone become a bad thing?

    I will go on the record and say, raise my taxes to pay teachers, staff and administrators what they are worth. And I will also go on the record to say that we, the public, have to get involved, vote in school board elections, show up to events, and push for policies that improve our communities.

    If we don’t, then no one’s education will be guaranteed.

  • Balancing Writing and Parenting:A Conversation with Playwright Isaac Rathbone

    Here is an interview with my friend, Isaac Rathbone, who is a playwright and screenwriter, conducted by Boomerang Theatre Artistic Director Tim Errickson. Their discussion is about the balance of writing and parenting.

  • Playgrounds and The Kid’s Mental Health

    Playgrounds and The Kid’s Mental Health

    Yesterday, I talked about how the virus may affect us and our kids in the future. I think about this often, especially when me and the kid head to the playground.

    When the playgrounds were closed in the City, it was awful for all of us. We tried to stay active by going for walks twice a day. The one nice benefit of this was that we got to explore all the streets in our neighborhood, but nonetheless it was not a substitute for a playground. Every time we walked through a park, and the kid laid eyes on the playground, I would get the question of, “When can we go back in there?” There was never an acceptable answer.

    With the lack of physically activity, and having no social contact with other kids, my daughter was starting to act out, and undertake behaviors she had never demonstrated before. She was more prone to scream, argue, throw things, and have temper tantrums, the likes she hadn’t done at least since she was three. We had been lucky in having a child that loved to sleep, and went to bed with no issues, but since April, she has been fighting going to bed, and getting up several times a night.

    Now that playgrounds have been open for almost a month now, it has made this situation more tolerable for the kid. Her behavior has gotten better, and she is generally sleeping solidly again. There are still flair ups, from time to time. I am sure that with the kid having a chance to be around other kids, and act out her frustrations and fears, that she is finding ways to cope with all of this stuff. It has been our one glimmer of hope in this season of unpredictability.

  • What Will We Remember from This?

    I had a video chat with a good friend the other day, who lives in Kansas City. He has a three-year-old son, and any day now, will have a newborn on his hands. Besides talking about the general insanity of the world, we started comparing notes of how we have been surviving with cuts to our income. I being laid off, and he having his salary cut. We both have been finding ways to make food last as long as possible, and we throw nothing out. We both joked to each other that we sounded like our grandparents talking about living through The Great Depression.

    When I was little and did ask my grandparents about the Depression, and mind you all of them were in their early 20’s when it happened, they all sort of laughed it off, but also, they did talk about not having a whole lot of money, and making every dime last. I especially remember all of them telling me that thy learned how to fix everything if it broke.

    I might have grandkids one day, and they might ask me about this, but what I really wonder about, and so did my good friend, was what will our little kids take away from this? My five-year-old knows that there was a lifestyle before Covid, and she is already telling me she can’t wait to return to normal when Covid is over. But is she going to remember the anxiety, the uncertainty and the feeling of discord from around the country? How much of this daily, just dumb fuckery will stick in her mind? How will this influence her for the rest of her life? For my grandparents, the Depression made them thrifty, inventive, and they had a sense of common purpose with all Americans to solve big problems.

    I hope we can do the same.