Thrifty Thursday: Try a Car Boot Sale
While traveling in England a few years ago, my party happened upon a car boot sale. I think that this variation on a garage sale makes a lot of sense. Here's how it works. The designated venue is often a church or school parking lot, usually on a Saturday. Participants pack the trunks ("boots") of their cars with the goods they want to sell. At the designated venue, they pull into a parking spot, pop open their trunks and set up a folding table with their goodies. If it starts to rain, it's easy to pop everything back into the trunk. Obviously the car boot sale doesn't work for most furniture and other large items. Also, you'll need a large number of participants to make it work.

Wordless Wednesday November 18
I offer this photo as proof that there are two kinds of people in the world. There are those who want grandchildren (or children or nieces and nephews) purely for the pleasure of taking them to Disney World. Then there are those who would rather have a root canal. If you belong in the first group, we have helpful hints for doing Disney, and you are invited to

Does Playing Favorites Come Naturally?
I opened the issue of Newsweek that came in today's mail to find that science has turned an analytical gaze on grandmothers. Further exploring what scientists call the "grandmother hypothesis," biological anthropologist Leslie Knapp and her associates carried out an exhaustive study of "X-relatedness," which means the likelihood that a grandchild will get a grandmother's X-chromosome. In the case of maternal grandmothers, X-relatedness is the same for grandsons and granddaughters, 25%. Due to the role of the Y chromosome, in paternal grandmothers X-relatedness varies from

What Should a Grandparent Be?
I had a good laugh this morning when I happened across this parenting forum that asked, "What should a grandparent be?" One of the responders said that the grandparent should support the family "in a silent way." Another commenter said that grandparents should be like the parents' "roadies." Consider that by the time we become grandparents, many of us are accustomed to a starring role rather than a supporting one, and you have the root of many a family conflict. Two books that I've read recently make meaningful contributions to the conversation about the proper r

Pondering Barbie, Bratz and Marketing to Girls
I just spent several hours putting clothes on dolls and trying to figure out which tiny shoes fit on which tiny feet. These are not activities that I would normally elect to pursue. It happened like this. I have a toy room that I furnish primarily with bargain toys and hand-me-downs. I was offered a free dollhouse, which I accepted, thinking of my two kindergarten-aged granddaughters. The dollhouse came with a giant box full of Barbie and Bratz dolls, clothing, furniture and accessories, all jumbled together. Today, while one of the kindergartners was visiting, we tackled the job of sorting out the mess. Like lots of mothers and grandmothers, I have mixed feelings about fas