And Then There's Dad
The Good Old Days
by Gary Drevitch
October 16, 2007
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Gary Drevitch is a former assigning editor at Teen People, Parade Publications, and Scholastic. He’s also a dad with three young kids. A veteran producer of educational content for McGraw-Hill, Scholastic Inc., and Time Inc., he’s written several non-fiction books for children.
Column Archive
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It Takes a Village. But Not This One.
by Gary Drevitch
October 9, 2007, 12:00 amWhat’s the hottest trend in residential communities nationwide? According to the New York Times and real-estate magazines like Big Builder, it’s “age qualified” neighborhoods, where local laws designed to benefit older residents have been twisted to create massive developments with hardly a child in sight. Read More
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Do They Think They're Better Than Us?
by Gary Drevitch
October 2, 2007, 12:00 amDire economic and health forecasts predict that for perhaps the first time in our country’s history, the next generation of Americans may not be as healthy or wealthy as their parents. Read More
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Other People's Children
by Gary Drevitch
September 25, 2007, 12:00 amThere are a lot of ways to divide parents into two. There are the nervous parents and the relaxed parents, the organic chefs and the junk-food facilitators—and the parents who take a sincere interest in other people’s children, and those who don’t. Read More
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What I'd Scrapbook
September 18, 2007, 12:00 am
As a work-at-home dad, I’ve taken on any number of traditional maternal roles, from choosing the kids’ daily clothes, to fussing over balanced dinners. Still, I’m not scrapbooking. I am keeping all of my photos of the kids, in a giant Rubbermaid tub purchased from Home Depot. Not exactly what Martha had in mind. Read More
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I Want the kids Menu
by Gary Drevitch
September 11, 2007, 12:00 amI want the kids’ menu. There, I said it. As a parent, I listen to kids’ music, read kids’ books, and laugh at kids' knock-knock jokes. And everyone tells me that doing all of that makes me a lovely, patient guy, worthy of praise. Well, I want chicken fingers, not chicken marsala. Read More
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The Jealous Type
by Gary Drevitch
September 4, 2007, 12:00 amI am living in a House of Secrets. You probably are, too. There are people under your own roof right now, speaking to each other in their own code, sharing their secret passions, and keeping you out of it. Read More
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The Number
by Gary Drevitch
August 28, 2007, 12:00 amMy friends who work on Wall Street sometimes talk about their “number.” You know the one: the amount of money they believe they need to have stashed away to be able to walk away from their high-finance jobs. As a parent of three rapidly growing small children, I have my own “number”—the age at which all of them will have outgrown snuggling with me. Read More
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Pride. . . or Punishment?
by Gary Drevitch
August 21, 2007, 12:00 amSometimes, your kids do things so beyond the pale that the punishments are clear. Hit your sister? Imperil the baby? Throw food? Time out for the first offense, loss of a privilege for subsequent offenses. But sometimes, one of them will do something that, although you know you ought to punish them for it, also makes you step back and, at some level, admire what they’ve accomplished. I file these under the category of Pride . . . or Punishment. The classic example for me occurred two years ago during the major-league playoffs, when I was tuned into every televised Red Sox game, but ... Read More
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Oh, the Stories We Tell
by Gary Drevitch
August 14, 2007, 12:00 amBecoming a parent brings a lot of surprises. One is the discovery that you suddenly have an audience passionately interested in your personal history, undramatic as it may be. My son and daughter absolutely hang on the stories I tell about my own childhood, and about how I interacted with my parents, particularly my late mother, whose company they themselves only enjoyed for a few years. Read More
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Nights at the Improv
by Gary Drevitch
August 7, 2007, 12:00 amLet me begin by saying that I love parenting magazines. But I do have a slight beef with a certain type of parenting-magazine article. You know the ones. They have titles like, “How to Survive the Worst Tantrums EVER,” or “How to Get the Worst Sleepers EVER to Bed.” Read More
