Raising Children

My friendship with Jean is more recent than some described in these wonderful postings - yet it is over 20 years old now. I measure the length of our relationship by the ages of our children (Jean's oldest, Elizabeth, and my only, Will) who are only three months apart in age.

I met Jean when we were both pregnant and I was teaching my first class in the School Psychology Program at UW-Madison. Jean was a student (outstanding, of course) in the class. But our friendship and professional collaboration was cemented when, two years later, Jean completed her year-long internship with me as her supervisor at the Waisman Center in Madison. Our professional work together was rich and stimulating; even now when we get together at conferences we jump immediately into discussions of our work. But our friendship has always had at its center our early parenting days together. While at the Waisman Center when the children were two years old, we regaled each other with stories of the kids (and, yes, sometimes the fathers). I'll never forget the day Jean bounded into my office and said "You will never guess what happened this morning!" That day Watts had combined the dregs of three different kinds of cereals into one bowl for Liz. Oh the shock! How could he??? Didn't he realize how upset she would be? We laughed until we cried. When we left to go to our first conference away from Madison (Nashville!) as mothers - leaving the children behind- we hooted and hollered as we drove away from her house - independent for four whole days. Yet at the end of our trip we could hardly wait to have those children (and fathers) in our arms.

We remain connected through our children. I love my updates on how Liz and Charles are doing. I hope to continue receiving them for a long time to come. All my love to all of you.