You May Be Feeling
Short essays exploring how you may be feeling these days.
Not so much what to do about those feelings.
But hopefully how to avoid the second arrow of judging them.
Season 2: The Mothering (Rational Tantrums)
Episodes released every Sunday (well, 3 out of 4).
Episodes
21 episodes
On Whether You Actually Choose to Separate
I’ve been separated from the father of my children for 6 years now. At this point separation has become old hat. Maybe too old hat cause I can’t really imagine myself in a relationship anymore. Sharing space with anot...
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Season 2
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Episode 9
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6:24
On Getting Distance
After the long months (or was it years?) of being cooped up during the pandemic, simply getting to roam free in the world again was thrilling. I remember how, finally being out in wide open spaces essential for boy energy, my favourite th...
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Season 2
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Episode 8
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7:09
On Separation and Migration
Aside from handing back a ton of failing essays in my life, I’ve never had to deliver much bad news. When parents decide to separate, having to tell your kids that their lives are about to be turned upside down and inside out, is terrifyi...
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Season 2
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Episode 7
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5:35
On Report Cards
Every semester as a teacher, I go through a distinct honeymoon phase with a new crop of students: for a few solid weeks, we feel downright decently about one another, until I have to go and harsh the mellow by assigning grades. Like...
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Season 2
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Episode 6
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7:08
On Talking About Your Kids
A lot of my writing is about being a mother. Which is kind of ironic to me, since the early days of parenting felt marred by mourning a creative life.These days my sons are wise to the fact that they provide much fodder for my work...
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Season 2
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Episode 5
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6:54
On Touch
One of the things I enjoy about my sons going to school in French is the random way that franglais, that fun French/English hybrid, winds its way into our Anglo home. For instance, we consistently use the word “câlin,” for some reason, in...
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Season 2
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Episode 4
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7:22
On Why My Kids are Lucky to Know Me
Parents are people. That might seem like a rather stupid thing to say. But I think it’s easy to forget when you play such a huge role in the life of a dependent person with extensive, pressing and often loudly expressed needs, that ...
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Season 2
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Episode 3
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6:54
On Parenting Advice
I often try to imagine what parenting advice looked like a few generations ago, when it could only come from a few sources: relatives, friends, neighbours, maybe a few books. But that was about it. And when I compare it...
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Season 2
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Episode 2
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5:24
On Maternal Ambivalence
I’ve often described the Christmas holidays as time spent entertaining a vague suspicion that you’re supposed to be feeling differently than you do. It’s painful to have feelings you’re not supposed to have, but that rarely makes...
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Season 2
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Episode 1
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7:56
Ep. 10: The New Old Fashioned Way
I’m old enough to know that New Year’s Resolutions are for suckers. Sure, blank slates offer motivation, but never as much as we hope. We’re lazy and it’s cold. And that’s fair. But I have been trying each Jan. ...
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Season 1
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Episode 10
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13:32
Ep. 9: What Growing Boys and Aging Women Need
I ruminate quite a bit over our hyper-digitized lives. But I also think a lot about gender. I can’t help it. I’m a 48-year-old woman, a separated mother of two boys, ages 11 and 8. And I’ve joked before that if you tried...
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Season 1
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Episode 9
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14:12
Ep. 8: Too Many Words for Asshole
There are limits to the usefulness of naming things. Especially when it involves shiny new coinages fueled by the hungry ghost of the internet. When words get too sticky and our use of them sloppy, we become incurious and, worse, se...
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12:03
Ep. 7 It's All Filler Now
There’s a lot to be said about being able to feel that something is done. Finished. Over. Last call. Go home. In Oliver Burkeman’s newsletter “The Imperfectionist,” he recently touted the importance o...
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11:48
Ep. 6: You Need to Be Put in Your Place(s)
I haven’t been on an airplane in a long time. I can only imagine how hellish it’s become; a microcosm of how well we’re generally faring being around one another.That we spend so much time in virtual landscapes obviously means we s...
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Season 1
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Episode 6
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11:52
Ep. 5: You Are Weak. You Are Money.
The activity of the internet has been described as a “race to the bottom of the brain stem.” Much of what we encounter online appeals to our most primal impulses. Cause if you can access that shit, you can sell yours.<...
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13:16
Ep. 4: Your Presence Tastes Like Absence, Part 2
Last episode, I focused on online dating to consider how we’re becoming increasingly accustomed to a version of presence that is so half-assed it might as well be absence. I’m enjoying being off the apps, by the way. A feature...
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Season 1
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Episode 4
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8:52
Ep. 3: Your Presence Tastes Like Absence, Part 1
Dating apps are built on a business model that ushers users through a revolving door of disgust and desire. Hopeful romantics ping reliably between two poles: “That’s it, I quit” and “Oh god, the crushing loneliness.” Users a...
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Season 1
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Episode 3
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8:36
Ep. 2 On the Disappearing Pleasures of the Passenger Side
Increasingly, self-checkouts are being recognized as a failed experiment. More and more stores are removing them. They of course cite theft and over-estimated savings in staff costs for the surprising reversal, but businesses are al...
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9:15