Before I get to today's mind-blowing, not at all scraping-the-bottom-of-the-barrel in terms of content post, here is a post I wrote for the Chicago Magazine blog about the ways in which teaching has changed from the 20th to the 21st century. I am truly afraid for when my son goes to school and life will probably be something like the beginning of Lean On Me meets Devil's Night, every day.

The other day I was talking to a friend of mine and just mentioned, matter-of-factly, that we put diapers on our dog. "You what?" she said. Then I realized that maybe this is something I should just put on the table in order to get it out there in general, because it's the kind of thing that's probably intimidating to some people. I wouldn't want someone to come over and say, "Wait, you're the kind of person who has dog diapers? I thought you were just a regular person!"

We own dog diapers. Yes, that's right, we own more than one. You know how people on the internet say "Check your privilege?" That phrase originated from people who had the privilege of possessing more than one wearable receptacle for collecting dog urine. I'm, like, not proud of this, because I know not everyone can claim to own dog diapers, but I'm not ashamed, either. We worked really hard to own dog diapers and I feel like we earned them.

Not to brag, but we have a boy dog who, when feeling uncomfortable, will either lose control or, in the opposite yet exactly the same scenario, demonstrate control by marking places. It doesn't happen in our house too much but it does happen sometimes, more frequently in strange locations. Could we just leave the diaper off and clean up pee? Sure. Could we somehow train our dog to not pee in the house? Let's just say not. So the dog diapers.

So, now you know that about me. Feel free to ask me questions about it. I don't think it will be that weird. This country can be so weird about the topic of dog diapers and I think it will help to have an open dialogue. You're even welcome to come over and check them out sometime. You can even borrow one. I just hope your jealousy won't be an issue.