Delivery Room Guests

The last person I’d want to see in the delivery room, as I was pushing another human being from my loins, is my young daughter. Personally, I don’t see the need to invite a 3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11, 12 or 13-year-old kid to witness me screaming, sweating and groaning while another little human was being extracted from my nether regions. You may disagree. Mel B. from the Spice Girls does. The very, very pregnant songstress is about to pop with her third child and when she does, she wants her two other children-—daughters Phoenix, 12, and Angel, 4–to watch it all go down… … Continue reading →

Deciphering Video Game Ratings

“Video game ratings are not a game.” They should be taken seriously, and Activision (an American video game developer) is working to make sure parents know what the ratings mean. The first thing, in my estimation that parents must realize about video game ratings is that they are suggestions. As parents, you are free to be more or less restrictive with the rating. While most parents are less restrictive, it might be wise to consider being more conservative. Here are the current video game ratings and what they really mean. Video games rated eC are for “early childhood”. Parents should … Continue reading →

No Free-Range Kids for Me?

You may have heard the term, “Free-Range Kids.” Author Lenore Skenazy has written a book about this topic. I admit that I haven’t read this book, so I can’t review it directly, but I know several parents who have. One thing about the book and the whole “Free-Range Kids” idea is that it is definitely controversial. Skenazy’s website gives a bit of detail about her thoughts and advice. Basically, she advocates for allowing kids more freedom from parents, such as allowing a child to walk alone to school or ride a bus alone. She calls it, “sane parenting.” Here is … Continue reading →

Are You a Text-Obsessed Parent?

You may not have fallen down an uncovered manhole while texting or beaten the California teen’s record of racking up an astonishing 14,528 text messages in ONE month, but experts say the number of text-obsessed parents is on the rise. If your preschooler is walking around the house using a calculator as a Blackberry in an attempt to be “just like you, mommy,” then you might have a problem… at least according to child development experts. While there is no question that modern technology has its benefits—-the ability to communicate with people around the world at all hours of the … Continue reading →

Unemployed Parents Get Creative to Feed Kids

When it comes to keeping children well fed, clothed and in a home with running water and electricity, most parents will probably tell that they’ll do whatever it takes. “Whatever it takes” is exactly what an unemployed father from Austin, Texas is doing to keep his kids in the only home they’ve ever known. Loren Guerra says he was forced to get creative when he was recently given a pink slip from his employer. However, instead of trying to earn money by flipping burgers at his local fast-food joint or taking a job as a bus driver, Guerra decided to … Continue reading →

Parental No-No: Breastfeeding While Driving

Parents are supposed to make decisions based on what is in the best interest of their children. Unfortunately, “best interest” is open to interpretation and often results in some bizarre true-life stories. Take the recent arrest of Genine Compton. The mother from Dayton, Ohio made front-page news last week for breastfeeding her daughter while driving her other children to school. No joke. Supermom was multitasking behind the wheel of her minivan when she was pulled over by police. According to authorities, Compton was not only breastfeeding her infant while driving, she was also talking on her cellphone while simultaneously yelling … Continue reading →

Parents as Fashion Police

From the pool… back to school. Summer is rapidly coming to an end (sigh) and soon parents will be less worried about whether their daughter’s swimsuits are too tight and more concerned about whether their son’s pants are too baggy. Right now many of us are smack in the middle of that dreaded annual ritual—back to school shopping. Besides gathering the right shopping lists for each child and calculating how our household budgets will accommodate new pens, pencils, backpacks, socks, shoes, pants, tops and haircuts most parents are faced with the additional role of acting as fashion police. Who among … Continue reading →

A Mother’s View from the Pool—Bikinis on Babies?

Have you been to your local community pool this summer? It has been the hang out of choice for my preschooler, who finally learned how to tread water on her own (well, kind of). Our near daily visits to our county’s aquatic center have not only afforded my daughter the opportunity to learn how to swim, but it has served as inspiration for quite a few of my blogs. The city pool is the perfect place to people watch. You see a variety of people and just as many different parenting styles, techniques and problems. And then there are the … Continue reading →

Take Advice with a Grain of Salt

Advice, self-help, information, suggestions—every where you turn there are other people who want to offer up their advice. After all, as I write these blogs and articles here in the Parenting blog, I am participating in that very reality of American life. As a parent, however, you will get far more advice and suggestions that you could ever implement and in the end—it is up to you to make your own choices and decisions. Keep in mind that most of it is just opinion and it is coming from people with as many questions and confusions as you have! Whether … Continue reading →

Micromanaging Family Life

Have you ever had one of those bosses—the kind who try to micromanage every little detail of the job you are trying to do? It can be incredibly frustrating as you attempt to get a project finished or even use your God-given intellect and talents to have someone constantly second-guessing or looking over your shoulder—or worse yet, someone who actually changes or undoes what you have already done. As a parent, what you think is facilitation or guidance with your child may actually be micromanaging. When it comes to the details of how your family is run—meal time, chores, errands, … Continue reading →