Boredom: the Best Gift I Ever Gave My Children
The benefits of boredom for kids (and adults, for that matter) are numerous: creativity, emotional attunement, and overall mental health.
How to Make a Mom Friend in Nine Easy Steps
Being a mom can be lonely. Which is weird, because you’re often literally covered in children.
Five Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Weaning
Weaning isn’t merely the cessation of breastfeeding, it’s a major shift in a complicated parent-child relationship.
Things Will Feel Wrong, but You're Doing it Right
When the house is a mess and you haven't had time to collect all the toys and their missing pieces, but you decide to just say screw it and watch LMN because the kid is finally asleep, you're doing...
The Unflinching Mother vs. the Unblinking Sentinel
I did crafts, made cupcakes, helped with homework, ran baths and read bedtime stories all those times they couldn’t.
Nostalgic (And Disgusting) Musings on a Loose Tooth
This whole losing teeth thing smacks of poor design. And why, oh why, can't I part with them?
What Is the Value of an Education to a Stay at Home Mom?
Women are pursuing degrees in record numbers. But taking time off to raise a family once you're that deep in debt makes many have to choose between the two.
The Madness of Parenting Toddlers and Teens at the Same Time
Raising siblings with large age gaps between them, while full of joys, also has its own unique set of challenges.
Storytelling: The Punk Rock of Parenting
Free, authentic, real parenting can be found in the punk rock of our time: storytelling. So get wild and tell your child a story.
The juniper plant is impossibly resilient, just like my impossible baby.
My Son Put a Sheep’s Eye in His Lunchbox
There are moments in motherhood we simply never forget: the first time our child smiles, the first time he takes a step, her very first day of school, the first time he brings home a sheep’s eye in...
Daddy’s the Best and You’re Not
Parenting can both inflate the ego and then, often seconds later, squash it like a blueberry underfoot.
Five things dysfunctional parents teach their kids (by omission)
Being raised by neglectful parents has its upsides, I guess. I had to learn these things on my own and it made me who I am.
The Day My Kid-holding Arm Failed: A Lesson in Cradling
My left side, for about six years, has been busy holding – hearing, soothing, processing – a child.
You Don’t Need to Clean the Family Room Tonight – Promise!
You might not know this, but if you don’t clean up your family room tonight, guess what? Nothing will happen.
5 Ways Acting Like a Dad Will Make You a Rock Star Mom
At some point in our parenting journey, I stopped bitching at my husband to be more like me as a parent and started learning from him instead.
What You Need to Know About Giving Your Children Allowance
70 percent of kids get some kind of allowance nowadays. If you’re considering giving an allowance to your kids, here are some basic things to consider:
10 Ways to Raise Extraordinary Human Beings
Here are 10 things we can do to raise extraordinary human beings, who recognize their own strengths and know how to use them.
How Parents Can Challenge Their Children with Stretch Goals
I love challenging my kids to do better and be better. I do it all the time. I think part of me has developed it into a little mental game, a satisfying mom challenge.
How to Raise an Open-Minded Child
Open-mindedness is hard, especially in this era of intense political polarization. But raising our kids to think that way benefits everyone.
What Children Overhear Matters Now More Than Ever
Things are happening in the world right now, and we can get so caught up in it that we may not notice how it’s affecting our children.
How to Build a Solid Framework For Raising a Responsible Kid
Parents can take a positive, supportive approach by fostering these three major components of responsibility.
How to Strengthen A Child’s Character Through Empathy
Empathy rarely requires rules be changed, expectations be lowered, or concessions be made for a child.
That Time My Birth Plan Went Flying out the Window
Like many moms, I had a birth plan, but that plan went flying out the second story hospital window