The Thank-You Threat

First, it was the Santa threat, and now on this 12th day of Christmas, the Feast of the Epiphany, it’s time for the thank-you threat. We have a firm rule in our home regarding Christmas thank-you cards. The notes of appreciation need to be written by the Epiphany. This gives the child recipients more than a week to express their gratitude in words to friends and family members who generously showered them with holiday gifts. My mom was a stickler for thank-you notes, Christmas, birthday and otherwise. In fact, my brothers and I were not allowed to open Christmas gifts … Continue reading →

When Being Sick Is Not An Option

What do you dread more? Dealing with a sick kid or running a household while running a fever and to the toilet every few minutes? When my daughter was an infant she got violently ill. In a moment of utter fatigue and desperation, I tried bargaining with her doctor. I offered him all of my appendages in exchange for a cure for my child. I wanted to alleviate her pain at any cost, even if it meant dismembering my own body. It’s a scenario most parents can relate to; we’d rather be the ones suffering than see our children in … Continue reading →

Heart. Broken.

The holidays will never, ever be the same for the families whose loved ones were tragically gunned down yesterday in Connecticut. Life will never be the same for them. If you are a parent, life is also likely different for you following Friday’s mass murder madness. It can be. It should be. That is, if you are able to gain perspective from the senseless act of violence. It’s one of life’s cruelest ironies: To gain perspective we must often lose something incredibly precious. In the case of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings, more than two dozen families lost their … Continue reading →

Smart Mama Shopping

You can please some of the people some of the time, all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time, but you can never please all of the people all of the time. That goes double if you are a penny-pinching mom playing Santa Claus. I am all about retailers trying to make cash this holiday season. I get that, but when you are living on a tight budget and you have kids who are expecting St. Nick to deliver a little more than just a few stale candy canes this Christmas, don’t … Continue reading →

The Gift of Time

We’re coming up on my absolute favorite day of the year. Sunday marks the end of daylight-saving time. Get ready to move those clocks back an hour to standard time and relish the extra 60 minutes of shut-eye. With all due respect to Christmas, Thanksgiving and Mother’s Day, which are all very special occasions, it’s hard to compete against a day that showers millions with the precious gift of time. Think about it; how many times in the course of a single day do you wish you could wave a magic wand and be granted extra time to tackle the … Continue reading →

Inspiring or Depressing?

The title “supermom” gets thrown around by the media ad nauseam, and this week was no exception. On Monday, NBC’s Today show went all out to crown multi-Olympic gold medal- winning beach volleyball champ Kerri Walsh Jennings as a super-duper mom. Not because she throttled her opponents in London while juggling duties as a wife and mom to two toddler sons, but because she did so while she was five weeks pregnant with her third child. “When I was throwing my body around fearlessly, and going for gold for our country, I was pregnant, and today I’m 11 weeks pregnant,” … Continue reading →

A Parent’s Dilemma: Time or Money?

Which would have a more positive impact on your family’s future, an extra $10,000 each year or an extra hour of quality time every day with your kids? The question was posed to more than 2,000 parents across the county via a survey conducted by Parents magazine and the Center for the Next Generation, and the results may surprise you. According to the poll, two-thirds of parents would rather have the extra cash than time with their kids. Chock it up to hard economic times and financial uncertainty. “Parents have some very, very serious concerns about providing for their families,” … Continue reading →

So Not My World

I barely have time to wash my hair in the morning, let alone shave my legs on a daily basis. So, how then is it possible for some moms to find time to post DIY tutorials featuring step-by-step instructions on how to create crocheted cozies for disposable Scotch Tape dispensers on YouTube? Pretty, little, intricately handcrafted covers for 99-cent tape dispensers that are designed to be THROWN AWAY. The tape dispensers that is. Clearly, you want to reuse the cuddly soft cozy you created to warm the cold plastic covering and disguise the unsightly green tartan plaid insert of any … Continue reading →

When Make-Believe is Better Than Reality

You can’t turn on the television these days without wondering how it is that some things make it on air. And I’m not just referring to Honey Boo Boo. Even the commercials make me wonder if I am living in an alternate universe. Case in point: Motts for Tots. The TV ad features an adorable little boy innocently drinking his Motts for Tots juice box when all of a sudden his mom (let’s hope it’s his “mom”) comes up from behind and starts to squeeze and tickle him. While he is sucking on his juice box! What parent in her … Continue reading →

Do You Really Want to Know?

I’m old. Consequently, I don’t care about as many things as I used to. Actually, that epiphany was more a result of becoming a mother than simply aging, but there’s a definite connection. I’m old and parenthood has made me tired. Very tired. Thus, I don’t have the energy to care about all the minutiae I did prior to becoming the caretaker of another person’s soul. With that said I’m sure you can guess where I stand on the media hype surrounding McDonald’s move to post calorie counts on the interior and drive-thru menu signboards at each of the company’s … Continue reading →