I was caught flat-footed last year when my oldest daughter began questioning the myriad Santa spottings of the Christmas season.

Santa’s peripatetic ways just didn’t compute.

Dear Pottery Barn photographers,

Please consider hiring a consultant who actually has kids before you shoot your next product magazine. Otherwise, your catalogs will be reclassified and shelved in the comedy section. 

From, Been-there-done-that-and-it-sure-didn’t-look-like-that.

I don’t buy the theory that texting has fueled an explosion in writing among kids.

The claim is texting is like a “gateway drug.” Kids who normally wouldn’t read or write very much now do so prolifically, albeit in truncated words and cryptic acronyms. But any writing is better than no writing — the notion goes — and once hooked there’s no holding back the inner reader and writer within.

If you can eek out the time for a trip to Asheville, here’s a great excursion for the last lingering weeks of fall sunshine before winter puts a damper on outside activities.

Giant LEGO sculptures have put down roots on the grounds of the N.C. Arboretum. An 8-foot tall hummingbird, a 5-foot tall butterfly, a bison, a dragonfly — 27 sculptures in all, made from 500,000 LEGO pieces.

I’ll admit I’m not the fastest draw in the West when it comes to pop culture fads. I’ve yet to watch an episode of “Glee” — although I’ve concocted a vague idea of what it might be about from overheard snippets between friends. And I still do double-takes when I see someone in skinny jeans, even though this tragic fashion trend has been in our midst for at least a couple of years.

We’re in the Halloween homestretch, but I’d wager at least half of you are still riding the costume rollercoaster, days away from closing in on what your kid wants to be.

Back in the days before Amazon.com — when we actually had to make our own costumes — if you weren’t in the early throes of gathering your wardrobe supplies by this stage in the game, chances were a white sheet with two eye holes was in your forecast.

I always end up with too many pumpkins by Halloween, a trajectory I am headed down once again despite telling myself to abort mission.

Where heavy-handed fines fail, the Jackson County Health Department is pushing a program to urge negligent drivers to put their child passengers in car seats.

Talking to kids is hard enough when life is going fine, but when their parents are going through a divorce or maybe having substance abuse problems, children can clam up. It’s Janet Thatcher’s job to gain their trust.

As a kid, everything in my house stopped for the Olympics. From the opening to the closing ceremony, any semblance of normal life was put on hold, and we spent day upon day glued to the games — a big treat since our weekly TV time was otherwise limited to the Cosby Show, Family Ties and Knight Rider.