Late morning last Monday found me frantically changing from a faded Portland “Wild and Free” T-shirt into a flowered blouse and solid cardigan, rewashing my face and applying coverup and mascara, and thanking the hair gods that my morning workout hadn’t rendered me unable to wear my freshly cut and colored hair down. I was being interviewed for the local news following my response to a reporter’s Facebook post asking parents how they were making remote learning work. The Tagalongs had been doing in-person since mid-September, but the memory of the month we spent in remote learning was still f ..read more

Dear School District #1 My name is Marcella Hines, and my triplets attend kindergarten at AAA. Our family is new to the district; we moved to AAA in May after 12 years in BBB. Although we liked the AAA area, we were hesitant to move into it due to the school district. We lived in the part of BBB supported by CCC Unified School District and had been very pleased with our pre-K experience in it. We knew very little of AAA, and while it looked like a good district on paper, we didn’t see much involvement from it in important local matters regarding students or teachers. But we decided to take a ..read more

“This whole thing feels like we are running a race and the finish line keeps moving.” Clinical psychologist Dr. Justin Ross applied this description to the situation surrounding COVID-19 in a recent podcast from Another Mother Runner. I resonated with his words on multiple levels.   I’m not new to social distancing. Among the many long-term health issues premature babies like the Tagalongs can experience is a compromised immune system, making them more susceptible to infections than babies born at full term. This is why, on the recommendation of our medical team, Chris and I observed so ..read more

To separate, or not to separate, that is the question … If you’re a parent of multiples, you’ll likely find yourself deliberating over this quandary when your multiples reach school age. And as with every parenting decision, you’ll find a variety of opinions on the matter—and even some policies standing in your way. What’s a (multiples) parent to do? We found ourselves face-to-face with this decision last year as we prepared to send the Tagalongs to preschool after three years of in-home care with me. While we seriously considered all angles of this question, the answer was really a no-braine ..read more