Two years ago I had a stroke and last week I had an episode where I lost consciousness, fell, and did some damage to myself upon landing. I have lost consciousness and fallen about five times since the stroke, and have come very close to losing consciousness (but able to sit down and recover before […]
In 2014, I wrote a piece called Walk With Grace and Other Shit to Say to Your Kids. It was a list of phrases my husband and I use in situations that can sometimes leave you frazzled. My husband and I say these phrases because we have thought about them. They reflect a message we […]
I am in grad school now and I love everything about it. Well, almost everything… There is a part of academia that just really loves itself. It loves creating a scholarly tribe where the price of admission is knowledge, and the unspoken wage is a feeling of superiority (over those who do not yet know). Of […]
I have seen a number of articles recently claiming that when boys tease and become physically aggressive with girls, it is because the boy likely has a crush on the girl. These articles say that we are setting girls up to equate love with abuse. We are romanticizing these interactions and victim-blaming the girl in […]
This Father’s Day, thanks to a Budweiser commercial honoring stepfathers that made me blotchy-red-face-snotty-nose cry when I saw it (and is still making me cry as I write this), I am thinking about stepfathers. The commercial features grown children acknowledging what amazing step fathers they have and asking their stepdads to be officially adopt them. […]
In a few weeks, my husband and I will get married…again. This will be our third time because we decided lifelong commitments are only for suckers and the devil. We promised to reevaluate, renegotiate, and remarry every 5 years for as long as we both shall love. For us, this time meant unpacking a lot […]
I just spent the weekend at a retreat for my kid’s school at a magical little nature lodge on a volcano by a river and it was my favorite kind of time. Everyone just hanging out, cabin rotations, no privacy, shared meals, and everywhere I went there was someone I knew, and was about to […]
My family is not super into sports. I tried, believe me. I am from Boston and sports fanaticism is a pretty much a general requirement of Bostonian identity – but no. Sports do not to speak to me, and the aggressive and/or rape culture associated with some sports has always made me recoil. The school […]
I am a mom. You’re probably thinking: “Yeah, we get it Karen. We’ve seen your posts. You’re a mom.” But I am like, the mommiest mom you can think of. I know this because small children I don’t know walk up to me and hand me their gum, or their foot so I can tie […]
In a world where women need to smile constantly, as a creepy little tax to simply live in the word, I have a daughter who is just not having it. This is my daughter Boo, as Dorothy, when she was 8. You know, kind of like a “Don’t Fuck With Me” Dorothy. She is not […]
Karen is an outspoken comedian, writer, artist, teacher, speaker, podcaster, Mom of seven children, and an adventurous thinker. She is a strong advocate of mindful thinking, asking for what you want, and living an empowered life. Karen speaks with expertise and humor on gender issues, parenting, homeschooling, autism, co-housing, sex and sexuality, positive self imagery, and being ridiculously happy and super-cool.
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