• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Ann Handley

Writer. Speaker. Marketer.

  • About
  • Speaking
  • Books
  • Blog
  • WORK WITH ANN
  • Testimonials
  • Contact
  • Newsletter

Parenting

Summer on the Coast of Maine, Doggy-Style

I’m spending this week on the coast of southern Maine. If I had a choice, I’d spend most of the week as I am right now: in a low-slung beach chair, toes buried in the warm sand, and book propped open on my lap, pages ruffled by the strong wind off the water. Every few […]

Filed Under: Business, Children, Dogs, Parenting, Pets, Teenagers, Travel Tagged With: beaches, Dogs, Maine, mothers, Parenting, Pets, Teenagers, Travel

Beta Before Alpha

June Cleaver

My friend Rachel emailed me an article the other day from Yankelovich, a market research company. The article, produced just after Mother’s Day, heralded the arrival of “Beta Moms” and their “newfound acceptance that being a ‘just good enough for my family’ mother…speaks to a more forgiving, laid-back approach to parenting.” Unlike “Alpha Moms” (or, […]

Filed Under: Children, Family History, Media, Parenting, Women Tagged With: competitive parenting, marketing, Media, mothers, Parenting

Korean Otters

My friend Maryse called me the other day with a question, she said, about her daughter Laurie-Maude, who is in the same grade as my daughter Caroline. It was Korea Day at school, she said, and Laurie-Maude wanted to dress as an Otter. “How do Otter’s dress?” Maryse wanted to know. At least, that’s what […]

Filed Under: Children, Family History, Women Tagged With: daughters, kids, mothers, Parenting, personal history, Women, Writing

The Shadow Knows: Watching Superbad with My Son

The Shadow Knows

When I was a kid, in the 70s, I used to swipe my older brother’s Mad magazines. A lot of the humor was over my head, but that only added to the allure: This was a peep show into an unknown world, and I was lusting to grow up. One Mad feature I did get, […]

Filed Under: Children, Dogs, Media, Parenting, Secrets, Teenagers Tagged With: kids, magazines, mothers, movies, Parenting, personal history, privacy, Teenagers

Competitive Parenting As Child’s Play

dress up

If April is the cruelest month, March has to be the strangest. At least, this March: What a strange few weeks it’s been. Silda Spitzer stands by Eliot; Gilligan’s Mary Ann is a stoner. Then, last night, as I was watching my daughter thumb through a new catalog from a local toy store, I noticed […]

Filed Under: Children, Parenting, Pop Culture Tagged With: children's games, competitive parenting, kids, marketing, Parenting, retail

Is 18 the New 8?

In her book released last fall, Deceptively Delicious, Jessica Seinfeld slips chickpeas into her chocolate chip cookies and purees butternut squash into her mac and cheese. The general premise is that kid food is fried and white. But if you can slip in something on the sly—say, cauliflower into mashed potatoes, or sweet potato into […]

Filed Under: Children, Food, Parenting, Pop Culture, Technology Tagged With: cooking, Food, kids, mothers, Parenting

A Virgin in Hollister

Mother and son painting

Being a parent for the better part of two decades, I’ve gotten used to accepting the fact that my kids are attracted to things that I don’t like. When my son Evan was about four, he was shopping with me in a second-hand children’s shop. Rummaging in the forgotten bits at the bottom of one […]

Filed Under: Parenting, Pop Culture Tagged With: Abercrombie & Fitch, daughters, Hollister, marketing, mothers, Parenting, retail

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2

Subscribe to Total ANNARCHY

Get new writing, useful ideas, fresh links, and high-spirited shenanigans delivered to your inbox every two weeks.
SUBSCRIBE

Footer

COPYRIGHT 2021 ANN HANDLEY

SITE BY MINIMA

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

About

  • Bio
  • In the Media
  • Training
  • Newsletter

Speaking

  • Speaking
  • For Meeting Planners

The Books

  • Everybody Writes
  • Content Rules