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Ask Mr. Dad: How your relationships with your children change when they leave home
Dear Mr. Dad: Our daughter is going away to college. On one hand, I'm thrilled that she's becoming so independent. But we've always been very close and I'm worried that our relationship will suffer. Will it? A: Well, the day you've hoped for and dreaded is finally here. Your child is going to move out. Some researchers have called this the beginning of the “post-parental stage,” but I think that's a mistake. Yes, your child is leaving, but that doesn't mean you're going to stop being a parent. In fact, you're just getting started on the longest phase of your fathering experience. You're going ...
Tribune News Service
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Ahead of Lisa Montgomery’s planned execution, sister begs for mercy, but others long for ‘finality’
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — If her death sentence is carried out, Lisa Montgomery will be taken to the federal government’s execution chamber in Indiana, where she will be strapped to a gurney as executioners search for a vein to inject the lethal drug. Her skin will turn a pale gray, and then blue and purple, before she is pronounced dead. “And there will be no way of anyone knowing whether she felt any of it or not,” said one of her lawyers, Kelley Henry. For some in Skidmore, Missouri, where Montgomery in 2004 killed a pregnant 23-year-old Bobbie Jo Stinnett, and kidnapped her baby by cutting it fro...
The Kansas City Star
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Ex-etiquette: Done with mom, but what about the kids?
I was married for five years and had a son. We divorced a year ago, but started dating – again. She ended up pregnant — again. I asked for a DNA test prior to paying child support. They tested both kids and neither is mine. I’m done with their mother and no longer want anything to do with either of these children, but I’m feeling a little guilty, especially because I’m the only father my oldest have ever known. What’s good ex-etiquette? If you’re looking for me to say since the kids aren’t biologically yours so you’re off the hook, not only will I not say it, but legally, I can’t. Check this o...
Tribune News Service
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Life after asylum: Making peace with what was lost
SAN DIEGO — When Carmen Kcomt learned that she'd finally won asylum, it wasn't relief that washed over her — it was anger. She'd been rejected every step of the way — by an asylum officer, an immigration judge and the Board of Immigration Appeals — until her case eventually ended up before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The court recognized what others in the U.S. asylum system hadn't, that she and her family were refugees deserving protection. "I don't know how to explain this feeling of, 'Now what?'" Kcomt said. "It took them so long to understand. Why was it so difficult to understa...
The San Diego Union-Tribune
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Ex-etiquette: Is his ex out to get me?
Q. My husband’s ex asked me what we bought their son for Christmas. Because he and his dad love baseball, I told her we bought him a jersey and tickets to a game when their team comes into town. She has remarried and celebrates Hanukkah with her new husband and wanted her son to participate in the first night. We thought that was great. Hanukkah was last week, and she bought him the exact jersey we bought him. I think she did it on purpose! My husband doesn’t think so. I’m furious. What’s good ex-etiquette? A. I’ve worked with quite a few new partners, particularly women (this is my experience...
Tribune News Service
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College student thought her COVID-19 was mild. Then came heart failure: ‘It was horrible’
PHILADELPHIA – Maddie Neville contracted COVID-19 in October while living in an apartment off-campus near Temple University. She developed only mild symptoms — some coughing, plus she couldn’t smell or taste anything. After quarantining and feeling back to her usual healthy self, Neville traveled home to Gouldsboro, in Monroe County, for Thanksgiving, the coronavirus seeming a thing of the past. But while there, Neville found herself gasping for breath and gripped by intense chest pain. She had tested negative for COVID-19 before returning home, so she assumed the symptoms were unrelated. Afte...
The Philadelphia Inquirer
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Ask Anna: When should you meet your girlfriend's children?
Dear Anna,I’m a straight man in my late 30s, and dating a woman with a child — first time for me. It’s been a few months now and things are going well. I asked her to be “exclusive” with me, which she agreed to, and we see each other once a week, the night that her ex has the kiddo. The thing is, I’d like to see her more often, and for our relationship to progress to a deeper level. The standard advice is to “wait six months” before introducing a dating partner to one’s children, but I’d like to be more involved in her life and to meet her daughter. Can I ask her? Is it rude to do so? If we br...
Tribune News Service
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Ex-etiquette: Co-parenting pitfalls at the holidays
Q. My husband’s ex-wife asked if he wants to go in half on an expensive gift for their son for Christmas.Should she and her husband buy the son gifts and my husband and I buy their son gifts?We have only been married a very short while and I seem to be having questions about how normal the relationship between them is.A. The time to be asking questions and getting clear on the yes and no of co-parenting relationships is before you marry, not after. I’m sure your husband and his ex-wife are not acting any different now than they did while you were dating. Be careful. Interfering with a co-paren...
Tribune News Service
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Meet the crew behind 'Half Brothers,' a US film with a Latino perspective
In a journey that takes us from the grassy hills of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, to the urban landscape of Chicago to the deserts of El Paso, Texas, “Half Brothers” is a film that breaks studio barriers and shatters stereotypes of Latino characters. It’s the story of Renato, a successful Mexican aviation executive, who is shocked to discover he has an American half brother named Asher.The two very different men get to know each other when forced to take a road trip together masterminded by their ailing father, Flavio, as they trace the path he took as an immigrant from Mexico to the United S...
The Philadelphia Inquirer
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Second gentleman, first Jew, New Jersey-raised: Doug Emhoff is making history
Doug Emhoff wasn’t always this way. He wasn’t always the type to go around talking about how much he loves his wife, let alone quit his high-powered job to travel the country talking about how much he loves his wife.When he was married to Kerstin, not Kamala, Doug Emhoff was more likely to throw himself into his work as a Los Angeles entertainment lawyer, play golf, sit on a couch, and watch sports on television. A guy, devoting billable hours to a fight over the origins of the Taco Bell Chihuahua, otherwise not out to change the world.His signature piece of life advice, still ringing in the e...
The Philadelphia Inquirer
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