From the category archives:

In their shoes

The idea behind this category is to write little articles that serve as exercises in attempting to put ourselves into our children’s shoes. Seriously, imagine you are just a couple of years old and just realized what a spice jar is and holds inside. Try to feel what it is like to see the steam coming from the dishwasher and to feel the heat and hear the noise. What is that? Can I trust it?

When I was little I used to wake up in the middle of the night and see robots and monsters and other things in my room that during the day were clothes hampers and maybe the steamer/humidifier that my parents would put in my room when I had a cold. These exercises attempt to go back to those days and thereby develop some parental compassion for what our young ones are going through.