Giving New Meaning to Parenting

Before I was a parent, I remember listening to friends and coworkers talk about how they wouldn’t let their children watch this or that television show. At the time, I would occasionally think that they might be just a little too overprotective.
Now that I have children of my own, I see how wise they were. [...]

When my kids were little, I wouldn’t let them play outside unless I was with them. We live in a small neighborhood on a secluded cul-de-saq in a relatively safe out of the way part of town, but it always made me feel better to be out there with them.
Sure, at first, they were toddlers, [...]

So this weekend the boys and I had a TALK, where I asked them why it would be good to moderate our screen and internet time, and I mentioned a few statistics about the effects of computer games on kids. Again.
They were silly and stood on their heads, but I guess they were listening and [...]

My son participated in the 3rd grade chorus this year. It was no secret that his motivation was performing at our local Red-Sox-feeding minor league AA baseball team, the Portland Sea Dogs. This past Monday was that night. NESN broadcast the game which was preceded by 127 members of our 3rd grade [...]

The following is not a new video, but it is valuable.  Even if you’ve seen it before,  today might be the right day to share it with your daughter/sister/cousin/mother/niece/friend.  And their brothers, fathers and friends, too.

And if you’d like to hear more about developing healthy self-esteem, try this article from NYU’s Child Study Center.
And [...]

Woohoo! February is over. Let the gloom and doom of the “shortest” month of the year be gone. On to March.
Around these parts, we can look forward to roughly half the month being stormy and blizzardy*, while the other half of the month will be wet and muddy as the thaw sets [...]

After watching the tumult on the news about the recent octuplet birth, it seemed to beg the question: Do you, constant reader, think that there is enough of a media focus on the importance of parenting? If not, what should be improved? A general raising of awareness or special areas of concern? If you had [...]

When Nintendo launched the Wii, they promoted all sorts of family togetherness that looked like a lot of fun. For other people’s families.
My best friend and writing partner Heather bought a Wii and she and her husband began buying games, telling us about them, and having us over to play them. When I [...]

Later today Whitney Hoffman is going to share an experience with her son’s school. I was thinking about her post as I was writing this one (I had a sneak peak).
Last night was my 1st grader’s open house at school. It was a nice relaxed evening that gave Lucy (4), Aidan (8), and [...]

I rediscovered a small little book I picked up a year or more ago, entitled “If all else fails, lower your expectations- a diary of a busy mom” by Susan Murphy.    Here’s a snippet for you, so you can understand why this is such a great book, and why it means so much to all [...]