Welcome! I’m Kathy Radigan, a wife to one, mom of three and owner of a possessed kitchen appliance. Life is crazy, hectic, fun and funny. Trust me when I say the crazed dishwasher is just the tip of the iceberg and fits us perfectly.
My husband, Joe and I have been married for 24 years. We started our married life living in my beloved New York City, where we lived for over five years before leaving for greener pastures. First in Queens and then to the same Long Island suburb that I grew up in and where we now raise our three children, Tom, 18, Lizzy, 15 and Peter, 12.
Being a writer, blogger, social media addict and published author is really the last thing I thought I would ever put on my resume. I started out wanting to be an actor and singer but decided I enjoyed paying my rent more. I worked as an assistant for a Venture Capital firm until Tom was born.
I was never what you would call a techie. I didn’t even have an email address till our youngest child started kindergarten in the fall of 2010 and our district went paperless. If I wanted to find out about the latest bake sale and when pajama day was I needed to get online.
All of a sudden this SAHM had a few hours alone with a computer. I started doing what doctors, teachers, and friends had been encouraging me to do for years, writing about our life with three children who have a variety of learning differences, including our daughter who has extensive special needs.
I joined a parenting site that Family Circle had and answered a few posts. People started to like my comments and I got hooked. They had a platform where you could start your own blog and I decided to give it shot.
At the same time the brand new (and not inexpensive) dishwasher that Joe and I had just bought started making odd sounds at all hours of the day and night, and would, with no advanced warning, stop working, only to start up again the minute the repair guy came in. One night as we were awoken by the different beeps and buzzes the crazed appliance was making, I turned to my husband and said, what if I name the blog, My dishwasher’s possessed?
The Dishwasher started running as it’s own site in January of 2011. In the Spring of 2012, I co-founded the online magazine Bonbon Break and then happily returned to my beloved Dishwasher full time in July of 2013.
Each Sunday, come rain, shine or stomach virus I publish an essay. Since our daughters special needs do impact our life you will find pieces about The Princess and the Parent Intake Form and my need for an occasional Reality Check. But you will also find essays about 10 Things I Wish I Knew When I Had My First Baby, and When We Start to Lose Our Mommy Super Powers
After blogging for almost 4 years, and cheering whenever one of my friends had a post that went viral, I have had the great fortune of getting to experience a taste of this myself with my piece, An Open Letter to My Teenage Son About Drinking (7/23/14).
I can’t quite tell you the thrill I felt when Yahoo shared the piece, under the title, An Open Letter To My Son About Underage Drinking on the July 27, 2014 cover.
This piece has been shared and liked on a variety of sites. Pretty heady stuff! Rest assured, the dishwasher was not impressed, nor did it care one bit when my piece Two Words for the Mom Who Sent Their Kid to School With No Socks Today made Huffington Magazine’s weekly roundup of the Best of HuffPost, March 22, 2015. (Though it did make me smile! ) It even threw a tantrum that required a repair appointment when my piece, I Got Dumped by One of My Best Friends was shared 32k times on Scary Mommy. It really doesn’t like to be ignored!
On May 6th, I, along with 12 other amazing writers had the honor of being in the 2017 New York City cast of Listen to Your Mother. It was an experience I will always treasure.
My work is seen regularly in The HuffPost, Felicity Huffman’s What the Flicka and Scary Mommy. I have also been featured on, Yahoo, What to Expect, TODAY Parents, Thought Catalog, For Her, Little Things, Motherly and The Mighty, among other online publications. If you should ever find yourself in Sir Lanka you will find my column in The Connoisseur, a weekend supplement to the Weekend Express. I am very honored to have essays in the anthologies, Sunshine After the Storm and The HerStories Project.
From time to time I will review a book, product or participate in a campaign that I think my readers will enjoy. I am very selective and will ALWAYS let you know when a post is sponsored. And of course I will only give you my honest opinion. I also am a BlogHer Influencer, SheKnows Expert and do participate in affiliate marketing programs.
So glad to have you and the Dishwasher back 🙂 The site looks great…especially the header and footer.
Nate Shenk recently posted…The Story of Monday [via 20 GIFs]
Thanks! I have actually been back for a while now!! LOL!! But being on WordPress is very new!!! So glad you like it!
Should have proofread the above – but I’m sure y’all are smart enough to get the drift of my comment, even with the left out words and typos.
Of course!! I do it all the time myself!! I should really wear my glasses more when I read comments!! Lol! Thanks again!
Congrats my friend well deserved on gong viral. I was a bit surprised to see that I hadn’t commented on your about page. So sorry it has taken me so long. Happy I thought to pop over and leave some ♥ on your blog.xo
Katherines Corner recently posted…Make It Monday Week Seventeen
Love your site, so funny!
Into dishwashers myself… this is how I found your site.
Loved the interview you did with Darcy Perdu.
Keep on the good work and…. yeah, actually, can I interview you for my website?
Thanks for the good reads and stay well.
George
George Danir recently posted…Why Edge Star Countertop Portable Dishwasher is the easiest choice – Unbiased Review
Hi Kathy,
After reading your “about me” I am saying to mysefl… I can do this! My wife and I started a fledgling blog a few months ago called Lust For Life At Last where I do most of the writing and she edits me and takes most of the photos that go in the blog. I was thrilled to read that writing was not your first vocation as it is not ours either. Thanks for inspiring us to continue on!
Mike
You can totally do it!!! I have found blogging to be a great way to start writing and it can take you in so many directions. Good luck to you and your wife!!
So glad to find you over at Samara’s blog. Any blogger that gives such a well-worded mweh (shoulder shrug) to a mom-blogger-hater and then elicits a lovely response of praise from Samara has got be checked out. Looking forward to reading more of you in my inbox. (BTW- If I had written that last bit on Samara’s blog, it might have come off as a come on. It was not. Ha!)
Thank you so much!!!! You made my day!
I just found your site and love it! http://www.betterlifedesign.com/
LOOK AT YOU KATHY! I just love reading your about page. I’m just getting the chance to get to know the amazing women with Reality Moms & it is such an honor to have you and your possessed dishwasher apart of our community! =)