{Bringing Up Boogie} Tantrums & Tears For Fears: Waiting For the Boogie Man
Bassey with Boogie in the belly. [Photo by Kimberly Gaines] By BASSEY IKPI I didn't want to have children. I told people that it was because...
{Bringing Up Boogie} Pumpkin Patches, Pumas & Play Dates: When Parenting Solo Takes On New Meaning
Photo courtesy of Jr Conlin This weekend, Boogie had his first play date with a new single father friend of mine. Now, I'm generally against...
{Bringing Up Boogie} I Don't Bake and My Kid's a Neat Freak: We Were Made For Each Other
By BASSEY IKPI Last week, while in the car with Boogie, I was fiddling with the radio, trying to find a song that I wouldn't...
That New, New: Willow Smith, The Hair Whip, and Coloring Outside the Lines
About this, I’m really clear: If Lila, my littlest one, were left to her own devices (and her parents had more time, cash, connections and...
{Bringing Up Boogie} Bump the Baby Talk Mommy Needs Quiet!
By BASSEY IKPI When Boogie was born, I forbade (yes, FORBADE) anyone from speaking to him in baby talk. I told anyone that would listen...
My Brown Barbies Are Beautiful
By DAREE ALLEN We all know that taking a child with you to the store for what is supposed to be a quick trip never...
{Bringing Up Boogie} Spanking, Time-Outs and the Soul Train Line: Getting To the Discipline That Works For Us
By BASSEY IKPI When I was a kid, I was always in trouble for doing something stupid. I don't have the space to go into...
A Beautiful Black Girl Finally Says, “I Love My Hair!”
By DENENE MILLNER Mari was three when she practically scalped herself with scissors fluffs of her curly afro clumped like polka dots across our beige...
Bringing Up Boogie: Black Boys Shouldn’t Shoot
By BASSEY IKPI From the second my sonogram revealed I was having a boy, I vowed not to dress him like the lame little boys in...
Confident Black Girls
I get why my mother did what she did. When you're overworked and way underpaid, and you're of a generation that thinks kids are to...
