Julie Pippert: Using My Words

There are celebrities . And what do they ever do for you? Entertain you, maybe. Prompt you to spend $8 on a 30 page magazine to read a 500 word article that suggests rather than reports something really pointless about someone you'll never, ever know and yet? Are relentlessly curious about. Get you to hesitate on Fox News which you never ever do because it is in the process of flip flashing between Tiger and Elin's faces and you are wondering, dear goodness, when did this become news and ohmygawd Frank DeFord is right, sports reporters forgot how to report golf without Tiger in it and tennis without Serena Williams in it and football without That Not So Very Next Door After All Guy Who Shall Never Get an SEO Hit From My Blog player. So all in all, what good have any celebrities done for you lately? I mean, other than force you into a conversation with your kids about a subject you hoped wouldn't come up for oh, say, the next 200 years. And then there are CELEBRITIES ...pe

You know my motto: loved ones deserve the chance to miss one another. I think it's good to get to miss one another, I think it's good to get some space for a bit in between. I think it makes us see, from a better vantage point, how much we love each other, and how important we are to each other, day to day. I think it helps us strip back a layer of taking one another for granted. This summer, instead of it being my kids off and about on a busy schedule, it's been me off and about, and it has given my kids the chance to (a) miss me, (b) see how it is with dad primary parenting, and (c) discover they are capable of being quite competent when they need to be. (Bless my heart, I'm a little overfocused on details and slightly control freakish. Like a Girl Scout Gone Wild, a bit. Everything must be prepared, planned, organized, and completely thought through, every microdetail managed. I keep mental checklists, written checklists, and am a little hypercompetent in managing an