McDonald's seems an unlikely place for staging quality conversation with your 10-year-old, but for Susan McCorkindale of Confessons of a Counterfeit Farm Girl it's become a weekly haven of sorts. Her spare prose describing her son's reaction to change, and her resistance to smoothing over his fear with false assurances, resonated with her readers.

In her post, "Nailing the New Normal", which was syndicated on DC Metro Moms blog, Susan admits that a fast food restaurant is hardly her first choice of venue, but some parts of life have to give order to accommodate a new, less digestible, truth her son must accept--his father's cancer.

"Breakfasting at McDonald's is a new thing for us," she says. "I don't really enjoy it, but since it usually tricks him into talking to me - I think all the lard lubricates his vocal chords - we usually go once a week, whether my stomach can stand it or not."

What's more important than the temporary junk food diet is the space that McDonald's creates for Susan's son to process this change.

It's here that her son asks: "You think dad will ever be normal again?"

Normal is a relative term, is the easy answer she provides, but it doesn't answer her son's question. Things could become better or worse, but they won't ever be the same again. And herein lies a "new normal" for McCorkindale: Living with uncertainty, and teaching her children to accept it as well.

She writes of her son:

He picks at his placemat. I sip my coffee and watch his sweet freckled cheeks turn pink. I've learned to wait to acknowledge my younger son's crying, a true achievement for the woman whose picture graces the Urban Dictionary entries for both "Oral Diarrhea" and "Emotional Martyr."

Trying to "normalize" the situation, she offers up her usual, motherly advice to her son, urging him to cut his nails and even, possibly, get a haircut.

"You know mom," he says, before turning to walk to the trash, "there's only so many new normals a person can take at one time."

He's articulated his mother's fear, the one she's sidestepped in her promotion of the new normal. And he's brought her a sense of relief. She realizes her son's awareness of change and his adult grasp of our limitations accepting too much. Perhaps he will cut his nails and get a haircut. Or maybe not, but we do have a sense that he is learning to accept illness in his family.

Congratulations, Susan, for being the BlogHer of the Week!

And thanks to everyone for continuing to send in your nominated posts. Remember to nominate individual posts, not entire blogs, and keep them coming! If you want to check out all the BlogHer of the Week posts, check out the BlogHer of the Week archive.

Best,

Jory

For Elisa, Jory and Lisa BlogHer Co-founders