Early last December I went fishing for blog topics on Facebook and a few friends asked about our Advent and Christmas traditions. There is a “tradition anxiety” among parents of young families: they look at established older families’ traditions, or think about the traditions their own family took years to establish, and wonder what’s wrong […]
What I read in 2018
The fun thing about GoodReads is keeping track of what you read by date. In the spirit of making everything one big competition, I couldn’t help but notice that I have read significantly fewer books in 2018 as I did in 2017. I honestly don’t know what I did with my time; what with moving […]
Cannabis, attachment, and teenagers, Oh my!
As many of you know, I recently took a position as Councillor’s Assistant for my own municipal councillor, Glen Gower (visit the website, subscribe to the newsletter, Follow All The Things), community advocate and overall great guy. When I worked for Pierre Lemieux on Parliament Hill I used to say “Pierre is the best boss […]
Relating to parents with fewer (than 9) children
I went fishing for blog topics on Facebook and as always, my friends were more than generous with their suggestions. Someone asked me two very good and related questions: – How do you respectfully communicate with parents who are sometimes and/or all the times overwhelmed with a single child or two, when you have many […]
MEDS: How I got to work on the first day
MEDS: Minimally Edited Daily Stuff I bet you are all dying to know how my first few days of work went. Now that my work at City Hall reflects on other people, I have to be more circumspect in what I share on the Internet. I thought I might be expected to stop blogging but […]
Parenting Quotes I’m Eating Back Today
This post was first published on Vie de Cirque in September 2014. I was having coffee yesterday morning and overheard a young woman talk about how having children wouldn’t change her routine, that it was all a matter of making the right choices. It reminded me of a blog post I wrote 4 years ago. […]
MEDS: In which I write about undergarments and what fits in my old bras
MEDS: Minimally Edited Daily Stuff When you go back to work in an office after 5 years of working from home, the first thing you realize is that your wardrobe is vastly inadequate. You start shopping for clothes, then realize that your Converse flats won’t cut it. You go shopping for shoes, then learn that […]
What everything is about.
This is a post about sex. There are no details but if the thought of a married couple having sex is making you cringe, consider this is your warning. This post is about intimacy in a long-term, committed, monogamous relationship. I don’t think it will resonate or be relevant to people in casual relationships or […]
Tweeted movie reviews: Raazi
Here is a cross-post of my movie review for “Raazi”. I use Twitter for movie reviews because I use Twitter for Bollywood chatter. You can find me @veroniqueberg It's a spy story that eschews the action gadgetry and edge-of-seat thrillerism of spy stories to take a deep dive into the lived experience of a military […]
Daily MEDS: Looking for work and finding it
I skipped a few days in my daily blogging this week. My husband was out of town and, well, life happened. I attended a parenting talk and in the process of catching up with people I only see once a year, I mentioned that I was getting up at 4:45 am to make lunches and […]