JanDunlap.com

I love to hear my husband and our teenage daughter laughing together. Having already been through the teen years with our four older children, I’m very aware that it’s critically important to keep the lines of communication open to encourage healthy relationships and family bonding. So every time I hear them laughing, I feel affirmed that we – as parents – are doing a good job.

At least I felt that way until I found out exactly why they were laughing.

Then, I wasn’t sure I felt affirmed at all.

More like appalled.

I had just finished a project upstairs when I heard my husband and daughter laughing uncontrollably in the basement. Hoping to get in on the family bonding that obviously had them equally delighted, I walked down the stairs and into our ...more...

I hate jets.

Not the airplane kind – those are fine. In fact, when I was younger, I loved traveling on airplanes. The rush I felt in my head and body when the plane took off was the highlight of my day. (Simple pleasures, right? Simple mind, too, maybe.) For a while, I considered becoming an astronaut just to feel those G-forces pulling me back in my seat.

Now, I’m glad I didn’t become an astronaut. I have enough G-forces pulling on my body just walking around on earth.

You don’t want the details. ...more...

Back in the 1990s I wrote a humor column for the Chanhassen Villager and Shakopee Valley News. It was a venue for me to write a weekly column, but I found that the greatest satisfaction I got from it was the connections I forged with my readers. Friends would tell me how I had captured their own experiences with their children or life in the suburbs. Strangers recognized me in town, thanks to the photo that accompanied the column, and shared with me their responses to my words. I can still recall a cold winter afternoon, wrapped in a parka, hat and scarf, watching my kids skate on a city ice rink when a fellow walked up to me and said, “Don’t you write that column in the paper? It ...more...