To return to the books of my childhood is to yield to the strain of nostalgia that is curious about the self I once was. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Since we launched in December of 2013 there have been 1100 posts here at Grounded Parents. We have covered scores of different skeptical, secular, atheist and science based parenting topics. We’ve debunked anti-vaxxers, pushed back against forced birth advocates and slapped corporal punishment DOWN!

Let’s look back at some of our hits from around this time over the years…

Three years ago Mary introduced us to the miracle that is Pink Pancakes

Confession time: I was the parent who said that I would never add secret vegetables to my kid’s food. That is, until my kid became a picky eater and decided that anything with vegetables was automatically “yuck”. In the past, I’ve made the mistake of adding secret vegetables to her food, and then after she has a bite and declares it “yum!” and I reveal the secret ingredient, she pushes it away and won’t eat another bite. To other parents of picky eaters: I feel you. (These pancakes may only have a small amount of beets but any food I can get my kid to eat that isn’t white bread or white rice is a victory in my house.) So recently, I made Pink Pancakes (the secret ingredient is beets!), adapted from a recipe in Jessica Seinfeld’s Deceptively Delicious cookbook. The verdict: my 3-year-old precious picky eater declared it “YUM!”

In 2016 we were in the middle of the Bathroom Wars (amongst other disasters,) and our own Legal Eagle Emily entered the fray with Potty Politics: Four Things Bathroom Bill Proponents get Wrong.

3. HOLY HETERONORMATIVITY Batman. I absolutely promise every single person reading this that you have been in a public restroom, maybe even changed clothes in a locker room or a non-divided changing room, in front of someone who hypothetically could be sexually attracted to you. We all have. Get over it. There are hetero trans folk. There are gay and lesbian trans folk. There are bi and pan trans folk.

And way back in 2014, yours truly revealed my family’s darkest secret, we were a house full of Atheists who loved us some Veggie Tales.

Easter Weekend is upon us and our Christian friends and family insist on hijacking yet another perfectly reasonable seasonal Pagan celebration with yet another story about that Jesus character. This time instead of the happy Miracle of Childbirth manger scene we get a full day of torture porn followed by a burial and a seventh level Cleric spell. Additionally our Jewish fellows may have spent the time celebrating Passover, the celebration of the liberation of the Jewish people from captivity in Egypt as described in the biblical story of Exodus, which contains some of the best Wrath of Godstuff in the whole Bible and is almost certainly fictional. Secular families may be faced with two problems during this time. One, how to introduce some of the basic concepts of their families religious beliefs without making Grandma sound like she’s a few eggs short of a basket, and what to put on TV if the Egg Hunt gets rained out but nobody likes baseball. Thankfully there is an answer to both of these conundrums, Veggie Tales.

Take a moment to look back through our archives. You can even find some of my actually funny jokes if you dig hard enough.

Featured Image: Nostalgia, by Olga Perdiguero García on Flickr, shared with a Creative Commons license.