Parenting through the apocalypse

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 00:00:00 +0000

When my daughter was 4, she was afraid of the Humble Bumble from the Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer movie. She didn't like his sharp teeth. It was a cute fear. To this day, we joke about things having sharp teeth, like sharks. She body-boards 3-footers in shorties breaking over a sandbar off the southern Massachusetts coast. She's not afraid of sharks. But now that she is 11, she is afraid of the end of the world. My healthy child is afraid of dying.

"Andrew Kirby said that he doesn't have to do homework tonight," she tells me on Dec. 11.

"Why?" I ask. Kirby's a middle-school classmate, a chunky wild man.

"Because he said to the teacher: 'Why bother? The world is going to end on 12-12-12 at midnight.'" She rifles through a Samsung Galaxy tab before she even gets her little ballerina arms through her NorthFace sleeves.

"The world doesn't end on December 12, 2012," I tell her, opening the front door to let her sister out into the cold. “The world ends on December 21, 2012. We have approximately 10 days left."

She lets out an exacerbated argh and climbs into the backseat of her mother's Prius with her younger sister in dance leotards. Ah, yes, the world may be coming to an end soon, but we are still trying to save her while sticking it to Exxon one mile at a time.

The apocalypse is Obama’s fault

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 18:23:00 +0000

December 21 is approaching--and with that, speculation over what will happen to the world is going into overdrive. That date is when the Mayan calendar ends, according to some, though others have begun to question that interpretation.

In any case, December 21 has become shorthand for “apocalyptic end of the world scenarios.”

People around the world have reacted to the impending date of doom with seriousness. So here are 5 hysterical reactions to the Mayan calendar ending--”hysterical” in both senses of the word.

1. Luxurious Bunkers

Salon.com > December 21

Parenting through the apocalypse

The apocalypse is Obama’s fault