Author Archive: Gail Marshall
It’s Love At First Sight For Mama
The young, new mother was so moved she had tears streaming down her cheeks by the time she hugged her daughter for the first time. Conveniently, this new daughter arrived walking, speaking two languages and appropriately dressed in a bright yellow T-shirt with “AFS Italy” printed on the front. She was chosen from halfway around [...]
Mobile Mamas: Tips For Toddler Travel
Traveling moms are my heroes. My darling husband and I just returned from a cross-country airline trip to Miami. It was all I could do to keep track of me through all the security rules — the carry-on, purse, ID, tickets, boarding passes, snacks, drinks, reading materials, jacket, money, receipts. My heart went out to [...]
Who Needs Hogwarts? We’ve Got MIT!
If I could wave my mommy wand and cast a spell on the world, I would conjure up a school with this motto: “There is no such thing as failure.” It would be a learning heaven that believes in kindergarten for life, where hard play replaces hard work, where “should” is not in the vocabulary, [...]
Is there a business genius on your swing set?
Have you given birth to a minimogul? Denise Hernandez definitely has. She is the mother of Aaron Chavez, the topic of a story in today’s Bee by Bethany Clough. If this story was posted on Central Valley Moms, the headline would be “Bright, Good Kid Quits College!” And the drophead below would say, “Mother screams, [...]
Life Lessons From Jayne
I attended a memorial service in Pacific Grove for a former colleague over the weekend. Her name was Jayne Speizer and we worked at The Bee together for a few years. She died at age 60, from complications after a heart transplant. During the service, several friends spoke eloquently of her, but none so touchingly [...]
Valley’s A Village Of Loving Mothers
I am chillin’ in my happy place, eyes closed, enjoying every moment of a manicure and pedicure. My toes are warm in a swirling bubble bath, while my fingers are being massaged with fragrant body lotion. I am in a light-drenched nail salon in River Park, one of a dozen women starting off their weekend [...]
Congratulations, graduates (and their moms!)
“You didn’t go through graduation?” I said to my poor, unsuspecting friend the other day. “What were you thinking?” “It wasn’t that big a deal,” she explained. “I didn’t really care about it.” Her words were like trumpet squalls in my ears. Gradually, I realized through the conversation that graduation is like those trick pictures [...]
A Thank You Note to Oprah
Dearest Oprah: Thank you for being a deep, cleansing breath in the information waterboarding that other mothers and I get every day. You live in the tsunami, as well, but most days emerge to the surface with pearls for your audience. I will miss your honesty about your inner struggles with weight and abuse, your [...]
Patience pays off
The schools are obsessed with perfecting their tests, trying to get inside our children’s minds for clues to success. Who knew that all the proctors really need is a bag of marshmallows and kitchen timer? While researching for a recent interview with Ron McMillan, co-author of a new book called “Change Anything,” I came across [...]
Danger: Prom Season Ahead
Today’s news about the party bus groups being investigated by Clovis Police and Clovis Unified for underage drinking is a sharp reminder that prom season can be perilous. Parents had to be called in the middle of the night because dozens of teens put alcohol in water bottles and snuck them on the bus. The [...]
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