I’ve been writing the series “Notes from the Playground” about Wallingford Playfield, but since it’s winter and our park excursions have reduced considerably, I thought I’d broaden my scope a bit with a new series about parenting called Wallymom.

There are all these sayings about parenthood. How being a parent is the best job in the world, the hardest job, the most rewarding, the most enriching, that it’s a gift, etc. Four years and two kids into this journey, I’m finding that it’s all those things. And more.

It prompts this strange mix of thought from philosophical musings about the …