Yeah it's really starting to chap my ass. I struggled with the baby phase so much and once they became little humans it got so much easier. And I really just enjoy the shit out of my kids these days and I think that's okay.
when my two daughters were teens, i LOVED it. our house was constantly filled with all their friends, studying, laughing, sometimes in the kitchen cooking and it was wonderful. the teen years are terrific!!!
Also, from the child's perspective (in the 1990s/early 00s at least), middle school is the era that should burn in hell. High school was NOT the misery they all told us it would be (shrug). So it tracks that your experience having teens would not be the shitshow they doom-and-gloomed about ...
I also love the teenage years! I try to tell parents of toddlers about that all the time, particularly because we had a very, very challenging toddler. The look of hope in their eyes is something special.
And Lyz, I also watched Gilmore Girls multiple times with my daughter to the point that, one summer when she was at camp, I wrote several fan fic episodes to send to her.
My teenagers were and are the absolute best part of parenting. They are so funny and weird and I love having conversations with them about life and such.
And I stand by my comment that if my 19 year old son was a DOGEBOI I’d go pick his ass up from DC. These kids are so smart but so dumb.
The defiant school systems are run by communities and are composed of teachers, counselors, and leaders, many of them Black women, who are invested in their students' wellbeing.
The hospital systems that are denying trans kids life saving care and making pregnant people wait for life saving care, many times till it is too late, are run by millionaire CEOs.
Hell yes to cashmere. And maybe alpaca, which is from some mountain goat in a far a way country. I'm seeing a swanning episode around that refurbished basement before heading upstairs and sending out missives that do not paper over reality. I don't subscribe to many newsletters but yours stays on the list...
Thank you!! Because of you I get to stand in my kitchen on Friday mornings and laugh my ass off while I wait for my coffee to brew, and the mac and cheese for my kid’s lunch to come to a boil (Friday mac and cheese, it’s a treat). If it wasn’t for you I’d just be doom scrolling the news, waiting in dread for the next meteor to hit. Dark days call for dark humor. Thank you for providing the light!
Right? And that Margaret Atwood saying about men fear women laughing at them, while women fear men killing them ... well, they are actively taking steps to result in our deaths, so why NOT (as we fight back against these efforts) deliver their greatest fear of mockery???
I have two daughters and people are always threatening me with the teen years. 🙄 The best antidote to that is my own mom who said she absolutely loved us as teenagers and all the teens who circulated through our house and said that teens are super funny and interesting. I'm taking that attitude. I want my house to be the one crawling with teens!
Teenagers are amazing, and I think parenting teens is one of the best, most rewarding phases of parenthood.
I am also uninterested in a more positive Friday newsletter because I am uninterested in papering over the reality in which we live. Hate and rage aren't negative emotions if they're directed toward the correct targets: the institutions and ideologies doing their best to prop up and extend injustice and inequality. I will never stop hating on the idea that some humans are more worthy of rights and dignity than others.
I honestly think part of the reason we're in the mess we're in is because of the cultural engineering that insists we police one another by demanding positivity and civility at all times. It's meant to distract us, so that we're too busy yelling at one another to pay attention to the parties and politicians doing their level best to destroy the laws and institutions that once protected us.
January was indeed a POS. (I found that meme at the JoJo from Jerz substack -- I think y'all represent different chambers of the hater's heart and I love you both.)
I'm hoping that February will be better, if only because people are starting to push back through the courts. But I don't think it will be good.
My teenage daughter just went to college. Now that we're past driving lessons and trying desperately to use deadly chemicals to unclog her bathroom sinks and bathtub, she's in that college phase of new awareness and has begun to call me to talk about how REALLY screwed up American politics are. She has caught on to the misogyny and racism literally oozing from all of what we're hearing and seeing from the trump federal crime club and their Republican enablers at all level of government. She's already scary angry at 18, she's smart as a whip and her tongue (and pen) are scalpel sharp (I know. Ask me later). I pity the asshole who tries to push her around or talk over her. Is it a sin to be happy that your youngest progeny at that tender age is already a bonified hypersonic idiocy-homing napalm-tipped missile?
This was what I loved about the teen years. I worried about them a lot more, but I also delighted in watching them become wise, observant, empathetic and action oriented young people who suffer NO fools anywhere at any time. Teenagers are great.
Oh, dear god, don’t go positive on us. I too have a “hater’s heart,” and your vitriol nourishes me.
Never! I'll die with hope in my eyes and hate in my heart!
That is the Lyz I love!!!
Amen, and amen!!!
Correct. If the Dingus edition has no fans then I am dead. Sometimes on Fridays I just search my email for "Dingus" to go straight to the good stuff.
I love the teen years. Related: I hate people who keep telling parents that the next phase, whatever it is, will be hell.
Yeah it's really starting to chap my ass. I struggled with the baby phase so much and once they became little humans it got so much easier. And I really just enjoy the shit out of my kids these days and I think that's okay.
when my two daughters were teens, i LOVED it. our house was constantly filled with all their friends, studying, laughing, sometimes in the kitchen cooking and it was wonderful. the teen years are terrific!!!
Yes! Sometimes my son and his friends would cook for all of us and then clean up! It was a lovely time in our lives
one of the teens cooking in my kitchen is now my son-in-law!
Also, from the child's perspective (in the 1990s/early 00s at least), middle school is the era that should burn in hell. High school was NOT the misery they all told us it would be (shrug). So it tracks that your experience having teens would not be the shitshow they doom-and-gloomed about ...
I also love the teenage years! I try to tell parents of toddlers about that all the time, particularly because we had a very, very challenging toddler. The look of hope in their eyes is something special.
YES!!! I loved my daughter every fucking age she was growing up! Why are people such killjoys?!
I've always felt that "just you wait" and similar remarks is one of the shittiest things you can say to a parent.
I loved the teen years!
And Lyz, I also watched Gilmore Girls multiple times with my daughter to the point that, one summer when she was at camp, I wrote several fan fic episodes to send to her.
My teenagers were and are the absolute best part of parenting. They are so funny and weird and I love having conversations with them about life and such.
And I stand by my comment that if my 19 year old son was a DOGEBOI I’d go pick his ass up from DC. These kids are so smart but so dumb.
The Muskateers…
good one! I should have crowd sourced this
that could be a "special assignment" newsletter
A gestating gestapo.
The defiant school systems are run by communities and are composed of teachers, counselors, and leaders, many of them Black women, who are invested in their students' wellbeing.
The hospital systems that are denying trans kids life saving care and making pregnant people wait for life saving care, many times till it is too late, are run by millionaire CEOs.
Hell yes to cashmere. And maybe alpaca, which is from some mountain goat in a far a way country. I'm seeing a swanning episode around that refurbished basement before heading upstairs and sending out missives that do not paper over reality. I don't subscribe to many newsletters but yours stays on the list...
All I can think is "We’ve-Never-Found-the-Clit Boys" should be sung to the tune of "We Didn't Start the Fire" by Billy Joel.
Now that is in my head and I will be humming it all day.
It is one of those songs, isn't it? At least now it has better lyrics!
Thank you!! Because of you I get to stand in my kitchen on Friday mornings and laugh my ass off while I wait for my coffee to brew, and the mac and cheese for my kid’s lunch to come to a boil (Friday mac and cheese, it’s a treat). If it wasn’t for you I’d just be doom scrolling the news, waiting in dread for the next meteor to hit. Dark days call for dark humor. Thank you for providing the light!
Right? And that Margaret Atwood saying about men fear women laughing at them, while women fear men killing them ... well, they are actively taking steps to result in our deaths, so why NOT (as we fight back against these efforts) deliver their greatest fear of mockery???
I have two daughters and people are always threatening me with the teen years. 🙄 The best antidote to that is my own mom who said she absolutely loved us as teenagers and all the teens who circulated through our house and said that teens are super funny and interesting. I'm taking that attitude. I want my house to be the one crawling with teens!
As someone who has the privilege of knowing you IRL Gabs you are gonna be one cool parent of teens they’re gonna love you.
Your liquor store is hilarious! Keep calling out the dinguses and keep laughing.
Haters need to stick together. Lyz and MYAM are a rally point.
Teenagers are amazing, and I think parenting teens is one of the best, most rewarding phases of parenthood.
I am also uninterested in a more positive Friday newsletter because I am uninterested in papering over the reality in which we live. Hate and rage aren't negative emotions if they're directed toward the correct targets: the institutions and ideologies doing their best to prop up and extend injustice and inequality. I will never stop hating on the idea that some humans are more worthy of rights and dignity than others.
I honestly think part of the reason we're in the mess we're in is because of the cultural engineering that insists we police one another by demanding positivity and civility at all times. It's meant to distract us, so that we're too busy yelling at one another to pay attention to the parties and politicians doing their level best to destroy the laws and institutions that once protected us.
I'm so glad you bought the cashmere pants! They sound amazing and you deserve them!
Your Friday letter is the best. We need to call out these assholes, and we need the dark humor. Keep up the great work, Lyz!
January was indeed a POS. (I found that meme at the JoJo from Jerz substack -- I think y'all represent different chambers of the hater's heart and I love you both.)
I'm hoping that February will be better, if only because people are starting to push back through the courts. But I don't think it will be good.
i'll hope with you but confess that i'm not optimistic.
Nice Swift reference and I love what your booze shop guy said. The Dingus columns ARE positive because they make people laugh a lot.
My teenage daughter just went to college. Now that we're past driving lessons and trying desperately to use deadly chemicals to unclog her bathroom sinks and bathtub, she's in that college phase of new awareness and has begun to call me to talk about how REALLY screwed up American politics are. She has caught on to the misogyny and racism literally oozing from all of what we're hearing and seeing from the trump federal crime club and their Republican enablers at all level of government. She's already scary angry at 18, she's smart as a whip and her tongue (and pen) are scalpel sharp (I know. Ask me later). I pity the asshole who tries to push her around or talk over her. Is it a sin to be happy that your youngest progeny at that tender age is already a bonified hypersonic idiocy-homing napalm-tipped missile?
Then I am a sinner. Fly, baby, fly.
Sounds like you did a great job as a parent and she is doing a great job as a citizen/advocate/human being with decency :)
This was what I loved about the teen years. I worried about them a lot more, but I also delighted in watching them become wise, observant, empathetic and action oriented young people who suffer NO fools anywhere at any time. Teenagers are great.
Brilliant!