By Sally Torbey
About this blog: About this blog: I have enjoyed parenting five children in Palo Alto for the past two decades and have opinions about everything to do with parenting kids (and dogs). The goal of my blog is to share the good times and discuss the ...
(More)About this blog: About this blog: I have enjoyed parenting five children in Palo Alto for the past two decades and have opinions about everything to do with parenting kids (and dogs). The goal of my blog is to share the good times and discuss the challenges of having a satisfying family life in a community where parents set a high bar for themselves, their children, and the schools and organizations that educate and socialize them. I grew up in the Midwest, attended a small liberal arts college on the East Coast and graduated from medical school in Chicago. I left a pediatric residency to care for our then infant son and spent the next dozen years contentedly gestating and lactating while having four more children. My husband grew up in the Middle East, came to the US for graduate school and works in high tech. Our eldest son graduated from a UC, and after working in the Middle East for a few years, now attends law school in NYC. Our eldest daughter graduated from a Midwestern Big Ten University and is a journalist in Texas. Our middle child studies engineering at a UC. The youngest two girls are in middle and high school in PAUSD. We are celebrating 20 years as PAUSD parents! I volunteer in the public schools, our church, and scouting.
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This year, my preteen and teenage daughters gave me an early Mother's Day gift. They permitted me to do a really embarrassing thing in public and some of their friends even witnessed it!
We have cohabitated with teenagers for over a dozen years. For the most part they have us well trained not to behave in ways that humiliate them. Other than the occasional lecture to the carpool on the dangers of underage drinking, I try to be sensitive to their extreme self-consciousness and contain myself when we are in public together. Until last weekend. The girls and I performed in our annual church musical. For this year's show, I was unexpectedly called upon to don a large, sparkly, fruity, Carmen Miranda-style hat and dance the cha-cha front and center while shaking maracas. It was a total blast.
Thank you, girls, for indulging your mother, and allowing me to do such a wacky thing, and for even giving me high-fives afterwards. It almost makes up for the fact that instead of being served a scrambled-eggs breakfast in bed this year, I will be on my second camping trip within a two week period with one of your Girl Scout troops this Mother's Day!
