July 14, 2014 Let’s face it, parenting can be brutal. You read the baby books, hear all the advice, search Google for answers – but sometimes a parent just has to do whatever it takes to get through the day. We like to pretend that it will only last while they are little. It doesn’t. We…
July 22, 2014 Summer often means picture time: family pictures, senior portraits, weddings, and special occasions. I recently sat down with Daisy Portraits’ Larissa Annen, to ask those questions that we all have when we think about hiring a photographer. I have a nice camera and cute kids, why do I need a professional? Your kids want…
July 28, 2014 This week, as promised, Larissa Annen of Daisy Portraits talks about taking candid photos. While she obviously values professional photography, Larissa feels parents taking their own pictures of their kids is equally important. Here are a few tips she gave me for taking great pictures on your own. Be Ready. Keep a…
August 5, 2014 We’ve heard it said “It takes a village to raise a child,” but these days, where are we supposed to find a village? Our lives have spread out and turned in at the same time. Parents spend enormous amounts of time picking up, dropping off, and generally transporting. By the time they’re…
August 11, 2014 Some schools near us started back to school today. Thank goodness my kids have a few more weeks of summer vacation, but it reminds me that we need to start getting ready. I’ve said before that our family has an insane number of traditions, and many of them revolve around school starting again. I…
August 25, 2014 The three most dreaded words in childhood: Back. To. School. If it hasn’t happened for you yet, it will soon. Need some inspiration? Here’s A Message From Your Kids’ Teacher to parents via Jimmy Kimmel. “Remember: We don’t suck, your kid sucks.” Okay, maybe that wasn’t exactly inspiration. Although, students can be pretty…
August 26, 2014 It seems from the moment he was born, my son loved all things that move: cars, trains, trucks, airplanes and so on. We had to find variations on this theme until Star Wars finally broadened his interests! I was happy to get away from wheels and branch out into the sky for his…
August 28, 2014 I’ll admit it. Sometimes I struggle with parenting. I catch myself yelling at my children to get out the door in the morning. I referee fights instead of letting my kids work it out themselves. I beg and plead for good behavior. But what if I didn’t have to? I met Jim House at a local…
September 2, 2014 This month’s Emotional Smarts conversation came on the heels of my daughter’s first ever back to school related melt down. Because she faces a lot of changes and uncertainty, this new school year feels overwhelming to her. I imagine many of us deal with the same anxiety or reluctance in our kids…
September 8, 2014 This summer, a dear friend invited my kids and I up to her vacation cabin for a few days. The cabin isn’t huge, so we spent almost every second in each other’s company. You get to know a family’s habits really well with that level of togetherness! She commented one morning, as…
September 15, 2014 We recently spent the day with one of my favorite cousins and her family. She and I are astonishingly similar for being so different. We share a rather twisted sense of humor that relies heavily on sarcasm and a general go-with-the-flow perspective toward life. We both put family extremely high on our priority…
September 23, 2014 A while ago, in Let Them See You: Modeling Life for Your Kids, I talked about how important it is to be a positive example to your children. I also promised to let you in on some of my ideas for doing just that. I recently stumbled across Raising a Kind Daughter, which correlates kindness in…
September 24, 2014 It takes a village to raise a child – or at least it used to. When I was a kid, I welcomed new neighbors with cookies and we borrowed sugar from the neighbor if Mom ran out. We ran freely around the neighborhood until the street lights came on and Mom always…
September 30, 2014 I sat down recently with one of my daughter’s past teachers who has moved into the administration realm to design a new kind of high school for our area. She works on the cutting edge of education. So, naturally, I picked her brain for new research and approaches coming down the pipeline….
October 1, 2014 Trying to guide a teenager to make the correct judgment calls in stressful situations can seem like an impossible task for parents. Even the teenager who seems to be more mature than his peers can still find himself participating in behavior he knows is wrong. So why do teenagers seem to give…
October 6, 2014 This Halloween season, Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde might not be just a costume! You might notice smells, excess hair, a tendency toward drama, and even behavior altering rage. This very change snuck up on our family. It struck with deodorant and went downhill from there. We have ushered in the age…
October 14, 2014 A friend of mine has been going through the very lengthy and detailed process of testing her son for Attention Deficit Disorder. As I listened to her explain the symptoms, many sounded like my daughter. One expert describes this kind of brain as choosing what is most interesting instead of what’s most important….
October 21, 2014 Between school, organization, and community events, there’s a good chance you’ll be sucked into attending a Halloween/Fall/Harvest festival this season. My first few of these chaotic mash-ups of families felt like a nightmare. I learned through experience and watching other parents that there’s an easier way to navigate the day. Here are…
October 28, 2014 Next week, on the first Tuesday of November, people all over our nation will head to the polls to vote for various candidates, propositions, and bond measures. Every four years, the election process becomes glamorous, or at least high-profile, as we elect a new president but these mid-term elections can slip by…
October 29, 2014 Dear Annie, My daughter has a lot going for her except confidence. We’ve always emphasized caring and kindness and I’m proud to say that she embodies these traits. The problem is that she is easily disappointed when others don’t embody these ideals and in 5th grade there are many girls who don’t. Today…
November 4, 2014 Fifty percent of American girls report using unhealthy weight control behaviors such as skipping meals, fasting, smoking cigarettes, vomiting and taking laxatives to control their weight. It’s a startling fact, especially if you have girls. I myself have two daughters and it’s my mission in life to raise them to be confident…
November 11, 2014 Every year as we move from the rush of back to school and Halloween into the more retrospective holiday of Thanksgiving, I think about how to truly teach myself and my kids to be grateful. We live in a “have whatever you want, whenever you want” culture that makes it hard to see…
November 18, 2014 While I researched yesterday’s article 10 Random Things You Might Not Know about Thanksgiving, something made me progressively more angry. Number 6 on that list includes Sarah Josepha Hale who campaigned for Thanksgiving as a national holiday. Articles mention her frequently in connection to the celebration with the explanation “author of Mary…
November 24, 2014 Thanksgiving is a time to reflect on our blessings and give thanks for what we have. It’s also a time to reflect on how we can help others. In her blog on modeling gratefulness, Andrea Ortega gives families advice on how to model thankfulness for our children in our everyday lives. I…
November 25, 2014 In preparation for Thanksgiving, I asked different moms about their favorite parts and challenges they would face during Thanksgiving week. I thought maybe I could collect a few tips for dealing with difficult relatives or a group of people who don’t know each other all that well. But the answer to that…
December 1, 2014 As we send our kids back to school after break and look at the upcoming month, I’ve had a few moms ask me about what sort of progress we should see by now. Report cards come out soon for most of us but they don’t always address the same concerns that parents…
December 10, 2014 Last year around this time, I wrote Go Beyond the List to help people to think through the gift giving season. This year my son wrote up a wish list that read as a never-ending catalogue of Star Wars Lego sets and I found myself asking those same questions yet again. Legos are…
December 10, 2014 Dear Annie, My 10 year old daughter can’t remember to bring home school assignments. She’s a very good student, well mannered, etc. We lovingly say she is off with the fairies. In fact, she’s always drawing fairies and unicorns! We’ve tried a planner, notes taped to her backpack, and taking away special…
December 16, 2014 Last week, at a women’s holiday luncheon, we played a Family Feud type game. The question was, “What do women want for Christmas?” My first answer: a nap. Second response: a vacation. My cousin texted me, “Hey, I need some ideas for your kiddos!” I replied, “Cages.” She said she found a nice bedazzled…
December 30, 2014 New Year’s Eve is one of those holidays that – outside of visiting New York and a kiss when the ball drops – doesn’t really come with a set list of traditions. December is filled with movies and songs and every other kind of activity for us to do. By the time…
December 30, 2014 My re-write of a favorite childrens’ story based on our post-Christmas gifts tween daughter experience … If you give a tween some lip gloss, She’ll ask for eyeshadow to go with it. When you tell her she’s only ten and talking crazy, She will attempt to put the gloss on her eyelids….
January 6, 2015 Ah, we have embarked on the first full week of January. Any mom knows that the first Monday, the first day back to your regular schedule, is the real start to our year. It’s time to roll out those personal and family resolutions. When our family sat down this New Year’s Day…
January 13, 2015 Every mother wants to believe her angel is special: the smartest, the quickest, full of the most potential. Then again, some moms feel that other children don’t have to focus/think/listen quite as hard as their baby. She might even be right! But at what point does your little sweetie need specific help from the school?…
January 15, 2015 Dear Annie, My daughter came home from school in tears today and reports that a supposed friend led a group of girls away from her, excluding her from all the recess games they were playing. What do I do? Mama Lion Dear Mama Lion, You probably feel like roaring at the…
January 27, 2015 Nearly all kids can appreciate the fun of building with Legos, even if they don’t have them at home. My kids were lucky to get their uncles’ hand me downs in the form of a giant tub of Legos. They have always liked dumping them out and letting their creative juices loose. Then,…
February 3, 2015 Writing the piece Martin Luther King Jr: One Teacher’s Lesson on Understanding, a few weeks ago reminded me of a social experiment I’d heard about in a documentary on PBS a while ago. It discussed another social division of power prevalent in our society, the wealthy and the “poorer” class. The studies researched adults, not children,…
February 9, 2015 You’re a mom, the same as me. But beyond that, our lives probably look different on paper. You might work a high-powered job while your kids are in school. You might have been up all night with a colicky newborn or a heart-broken teenager. You might be single, married, or somewhere in between….
February 17, 2015 Let’s be honest. TV runs the way of fast food, sugar, and spiked coffee. We wish we could avoid it all together, but sometimes we thank the heavens it’s available. The American Academy of Pediatrics released newer guidelines for television, internet, and handheld devices last year. They still recommend limiting kids’ viewing…
February 23, 2015 As I spoke with moms last week for To TV or Not to TV, thoughts of limiting screen time naturally led to the topic of internet safety. One mom told me about a recent experience. She and her husband paid a lot of attention to their children’s online life and safety. Every app…
February 23, 2015 Becoming a new mom, whether it’s your first or fourth time, can be an incredibly rewarding experience but it can also be exhausting. For this reason, it’s so important that the people around the growing family pitch in and help out in ways that will truly make a difference. By taking some…
March 3, 2015 It can be hard, as an extroverted person, to understand my daughter’s perspective of the world as a definite introvert. I try to give her freedom to approach life in her own way while teaching her about community. An article answering the question, What Makes a Good Education? through the TED website,…
March 9, 2015 I found myself outside with a group of moms during parent teacher conferences a few months ago. We talked about how the meetings went and many of us praised one particular teacher because he always had a personal story or two about our child. “Oh I don’t care about that,” another mom…
March 17, 2015 Media today tells girls they would be happier, more popular, more beautiful, more (yikes!) valuable, if they would just lose weight and conform to what society dictates. As parents we see the unique beauty that they already possess. In a perfect follow-up to last week’s article, 6 Videos That Take a Stand…
March 23, 2015 I’ve been called a mean mom. Well, which mom hasn’t? In this case, though, an another adult backed up my daughter’s case. My family are all huge Harry Potter fans, but I explained to this friend that I only let my daughter read one book a year with one or two exceptions. He…
March 24, 2015 Since writing the article, A New View: We Need to Empower Introverts, about introverts in schools, I’ve thought a lot about behavioral influences on learning. My kids certainly approach their education differently. My son focuses intently because he worries about missing something the teacher might ask while my daughter tends to focus on the…
