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Mommy Athens: Daddy Sparta

Retired Columns

From “Life in the Sandwich” to “Special Needs Mama” to “Zen and the Art of Child Maintenance”—they’re all here for you to explore.

Expecting

I am perched on the side of the hotel room bed, my armpits prickling with sweat. Excitement and nervousness shiver through me. There is a knock at the door. My…

Mommy Athens: Daddy Sparta | May 2006 | By Sophia Raday


Duty, Honor . . . Family?

When we had been dating about a year, Daddy Sparta, my soldier/policeman husband, charmingly dubbed me “Scrumpshkin.” Then, to show the depths of his feelings for me, he re-cast MacArthur’s…

Mommy Athens: Daddy Sparta | March 2006 | By Sophia Raday


January 12

I met my policeman husband, Sparta, ten years ago, on January 12, 1996. We were set up on a blind lunch date in a café on Mission St. in San…

Mommy Athens: Daddy Sparta | January 2006 | By Sophia Raday


If I had a Jackhammer

I am packing my four-year-old son’s swimsuit and fleece pants for our annual trip to Stanford Family Camp when he asks me, “Mommy, what happened that time you were at…

Mommy Athens: Daddy Sparta | November 2005 | By Sophia Raday


Rubik’s Cube

In the summer of 2004, soon after my miscarriage, my family moved for a year to Carlisle Barracks in Pennsylvania so Daddy Sparta — my soldier/policeman/husband — could study at…

Mommy Athens: Daddy Sparta | September 2005 | By Sophia Raday


Playing with Fire

Daddy Sparta is angry with me. There are very few things he holds sacred as men’s work, but I have managed to tread on hallowed ground. His exact words were,…

Mommy Athens: Daddy Sparta | July 2005 | By Sophia Raday


Delicacies

My father and my husband met once, years before I was acquainted with Sparta, the soldier/policeman I have since married. Sparta was — and still is — best friends with…

Mommy Athens: Daddy Sparta | June 2005 | By Sophia Raday


A Stranger in a Spartan Land

At home in Berkeley, California, it’s my husband, Daddy Sparta, the soldier/policeman, who is the outsider. On the days when he works at the Army Reserves, I can’t ask him…

Mommy Athens: Daddy Sparta | April 2005 | By Sophia Raday


Little Miracle

I think of you, in the foyer of the world, waiting to come in. You are meant to be our child, just as the son born of my womb was…

Mommy Athens: Daddy Sparta | February 2005 | By Sophia Raday


Bipartisan Marriage

This year Mama Athens and Daddy Sparta moved from ultra-liberal Berkeley to conservative central Pennsylvania so that Sparta could attend the Army War College. This in itself was hard to…

Mommy Athens: Daddy Sparta | December 2004 | By Sophia Raday


Starry Sky

“Hello? Dr. Hamm?” My three-year-old son is riding his tricycle up the ramp of the post office. I can’t miss this call. “Niko, WAIT!” I yell. “Sophia, like my nurse…

Mommy Athens: Daddy Sparta | October 2004 | By Sophia Raday


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