Author: Jackie Pick

Jackie Pick is a former teacher and current writer living in the Chicago area. She is a contributing author to multiple anthologies, including Multiples Illuminated, So Glad They Told Me: Women Get Real about Motherhood, Here in the Middle, as well as the and the literary magazines The Sun and Selfish. She received Honorable Mention from the Mark Twain House and Museum for her entry in the Royal Nonesuch Humor Writing Competition. Jackie is a contributing writer at Humor Outcasts, and her essays have been featured on various online sites including McSweeney's, Belladonna Comedy, Mamalode, The HerStories Project, and Scary Mommy. A graduate of the University of Chicago and Northwestern University, Jackie is co-creator and co-writer of the award-winning short film Fixed Up, and a proud member of the 2017 Chicago cast of Listen To Your Mother.

Surviving Summer Funtimes: Week the Fourth

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Part of modern parenting is the pressure to create and/or partake in constant fun activities with your kids. This is exacerbated by Curated Parenting! (brought to you by social media). The extent to which that pressure affects each parent is individual, of course.

But I do wonder from time to time: what and to what extent am I supposed to be activity director for my children, to what extent should we let them be bored (read: tear the house to pieces), to what extent do we let them just veg and watch television, especially if a part of their day is them fully engaged in camp/learning activities? (more…)

Surviving Summer Funtimes: Week the Third

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The weather much of the past week was a horrible cross between science experiment and cruel joke. The air was warm and pudding-thick, testing my deodorant, the sticking power of my SPF (huge, drippy fail as far as my eyeballs are concerned), and the boundaries of my hair. On the Fourth of July, I applied for an emergency follicular zoning permit.

If you were in the northern hemisphere on the planet Earth this past week, you know what I’m talking about. (more…)

June 2018 Month in Review – Cramming and Graduation (Not in That Order)

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Appropriately, or maybe not, I feel like I’ve graduated. Moved on. Next steps. Milestones. Caps and Gowns and Pants optional.

After the Second Great Office Flood on April 30, having to sort through papers, toss out old versions of myself, and write at the kitchen table, I’m finally back in my office. I feel much more official and slightly less fraudulent now that there isn’t a pile of laundry to fold mere inches from my laptop. (more…)