Because sometimes being a parent means doing what’s hard.
Posted in discipline, family life, modern families, parenting, parenting controversies on Jan 17th, 2012
Mon dieu! Some news (well, okay, not news so much as opinion) from across the pond: French moms are not just thinner than their American counterparts; they’re meaner, too. (And Amy Chua thought she had cornered the market on tough.) A friend just sent me this link, to a 2007 article in an U.K. [...]
Posted in family life, holidays, kids' TV, parenting controversies, TV parents on Dec 21st, 2011
Just this morning, I was reading an excellent op-ed in Newsday, the Long Island, New York newspaper. A writer friend of mine, Claudia Copquin, wrote about Rudolph. I’ll put the link here for those of you who may be Newsday subscribers or Optimum Online customers (which you have to be, dang it, to get access), [...]
Posted in discipline, family life, holiday on Dec 15th, 2011
Who’s afraid of saying “no” to their children? Just this morning, literally five minutes after watching me pack his and his brother’s lunchboxes for school, my seven-year-old asked me, “Can I buy lunch today?” Now, I could have looked at him, and realized in that split second that saying “No, honey, not today, Mommy already [...]
Posted in family life, modern families, mommy guilt, mothers and work on Nov 16th, 2011
So, here’s a quick quiz: What does the United States have in common with Swaziland, Liberia, and Papua New Guinea? I’ll wait. And no, it’s not because those nations’ governments have just named pizza a vegetable, as the U.S. Congress just has. Got an answer? If you were thinking that the U.S.’s maternity [...]
Posted in education, family life, mothers and work, school, summer, vacation on Aug 24th, 2011
Those of you who know me won’t be surprised to hear that I’ve entered my usual, hair-tearing, mid-to-late-August, why-is-summer-vacation-so-long phase of the summer. We’ve actually had a nice summer this year, even given that last year included our Disney vacation and this year we’re not doing much in the way of leaving town. The boys [...]
Posted in family life, mommy guilt, parenting on Aug 9th, 2011
At the end of this post, you’ll see a link to a new TV show’s website. It’s called Lifechangers, and it’s with Dr. Drew Pinsky, and I’m writing this post because I was asked, by the show’s producers, to help them find a mom willing to come on the show and talk — honestly — [...]
Posted in family life, parenting research, play, summer on Jul 21st, 2011
Last summer, we met our friends Sally and Mike and their kids in a nearby harbor town to let the kids play on a playground, walk around a bit, and get some dinner. Typical late-weekend-afternoon-in-the-summer stuff here on Long Island’s bucolic North Shore. I’d been to this town many times before, but not with my [...]
Posted in discipline, family life, guest posts on Jun 13th, 2011
One major thing I struggle with is teaching my sons to be grateful for what they have. It’s not easy — as I’m sure many of you would agree with. It’s hard to just say “be grateful!” Reminds me of a story my mother used to tell about how her own mom would prod [...]
Posted in birthday parties, discipline, family life, humor, kids and food, school on Jun 6th, 2011
Well, the title says it, eh? I’m confessing: I’m horribly impatient. (Those of you who know me are, I realize, sitting there rolling your eyes, like, duh.) I want to be started with things, and then I want things done. When I wanted to become pregnant, I wanted it to happen pronto, and quickly [...]
Posted in family life, grandparents, Moms on moms, parenting on May 6th, 2011
Confession time: The whole mean mommy thing? I stole the idea. Stole. It. But it’s okay, because I stole it from my mother, the Original Mean Mommy: I think I may have written this in my first-ever post on this blog, but it’s an anecdote that bears repeating. When I was newly married but not [...]
