Too Many Books, Not Enough Time
Like all bibliophiles, I find there are too many books to read and not enough time to get to even one percent of them. As a result, every so often I will try to catch up with books I always meant to read but somehow never did. This month has been a particularly productive. First, I ...Read more.It’s All Genetics, of Course
My out-to-lunch parenting skills finally explained, courtesy of Dutch researchers. Their study also explains, no doubt, why I found this article from The Weekly Standard so compelling. The title says it all. It’s called, “The Kindergarchy: Every Child a Dauphin.” Go read it. The author posits that there is something very, very wrong with how we ...Read more.This Might Just Be the Funniest Blog Ever
Never mind Stuff White People Like. Check out the hilariously un-pc Blognigger. Let it be noted for the record that the rage of us native NYC kids who can no longer afford to live within the boundaries five boroughs (ok, I mean the gentrified parts of the five boroughs) knows no bounds. His side-splitting take-down of the reception ...Read more.The Wrong Movie
Years ago, the incomparable Ron Rosenbaum wrote a terrific essay called “My Theater Problem — and Ours,” in which he postulated the concept of “the wrong performance.” Instead of paraphrasing, I will quote directly: I always seem to be seeing plays that seem utterly unlike what everyone else seems to have seen. I’m forever going ...Read more.Co-Parenting is a Synonym for Twice as Much Work
As someone who fell into co-parenting (those of you who know me know both my husband and I work out of the house these days), I’m here to tell everyone what is wrong with this on-the-face-of-it amazing advance in sexual relations. In the time my husband and I spend negotiating the logistics of school pick-ups, playdate organization and ...Read more.Nicest Thing Ever Said About Me
Liza Was Here compared my voice in my recently published essay “The Mean Moms” to that of Anne Lamott. Thank you, fellow Smith College grad! And thanks to the magic of Google alerts, I now know of another great blog worth reading. As for “The Mean Moms,” it’s in the recently published anthology The Maternal is ...Read more.Lasts
Friday marked my final appearance as snack mom at any nursery school, anywhere, ever again. I got very sentimental, even though I had spent the entire year attempting to avoid the job the way a medieval peasant might well have tried to avoid catching the plague. I read Rockabye Crocodile to the assembled masses and sniffed a lot. When school ...Read more.Low Birth Weight and Premature Birth Risk Factors for Autism?
So says the journal Pediatrics, which notes the risk seems higher for girls than boys. I’d be curious to know if they also attempted to sort the data by the age of the children’s parents and whether fertility drugs were used to achieve a pregnancy. Israeli researchers have noted in the past the that the age ...Read more.But Can They Bring Gene, Gene The Dancing Machine Out of Retirement?
Variety is reporting that Comedy Central is reviving The Gong Show....Read more.Practical Numbers for Parents
I received a reviewers copy of Practical Wisdom For Parents this morning, the guide to raising preschool-aged children penned by the directors of the 92nd Street Y Nursery School. While it certainly looks informative, I suspect there is only one bit of practical information most parents want from these women: How to get a child ...Read more.About Helaine Olen
I am the voice of The Bills, a column about the intersection of money and life, at Slate. At Inc., I contribute to the Spread the Wealth personal finance column. My work on politics, economics, workplace culture and women’s issues has been published in numerous other print and on-line publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Salon, Pacific Standard, and The Los Angeles Times, where I wrote and edited the popular “Money Makeover” feature.
I'm the author of the critically acclaimed book Pound Foolish: Exposing the Dark Side of the Personal Finance Industry, and The Index Card: Why Personal Finance Doesn’t Have to be so Complicated, which I co-wrote with Harold Pollack.
What else? I’m a passionate bibliophile, a fan of 1970s pop music and a lover of rummage sales. I live in New York City.
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