It’s not news that we’re all balancing a lot right now. Some people are stuck working from home, some are still going into work, but everyone is facing a lot of changes.The little ones? They were in school, preschool, kindergarten or even in child care. For some, not anymore, at least for right now. Fortunately, there are a lot of great resources online to help you find fun and interesting things to do with your…Read More
It’s amazing as parents how much attention we pay to our children’s health. Not every facet of health, though, just the easy and overt aspects, like nutrition, sleep and exercise. At least, I hope you’re paying attention to those three cornerstones of health with your children, whether they’re 4 or 14. This means that generally you need to lead by example, of course, so if you eat poorly, sleep just a few hours each night…Read More
Ever been so sick that the idea of bundling up, getting in the car and driving to the doctor is more than you can manage? Or have a hurt child on a Saturday night and really don’t want to go to the Emergency Room, but really need a medical professional to check them out? Back in the old days, doctors made house calls all the time, popping in to check on their sick patients, but…Read More
I’ve always had a secret sympathy for Charlie Brown of the incredibly long-running Peanuts cartoon strip. An everyman in a world of achievers, he’s the embodiment of persistence and optimism, even as his friend and part-time nemesis Lucy Van Pelt annually reminds him that the world isn’t completely safe, even when you think you’ve got it all figured out. The back story of Peanuts is just as rich too: In 1947 creator Charles Schulz started…Read More
I remember as a child being fascinated by where my Dad worked. It was this building full of computers and people dressed all fancy and my Dad spent hours and hours there every single day. What did they do? What was going on behind those locked doors? He’d take me in every so often if he needed to stop by on a weekend and I can still being impressed by everything, and by his staff…Read More
This is a powerful guest post by fellow dad Dan Feltwell. Take a deep breath… When my son Danny was born in 2008, I made some important promises to him. I promised to love him, I promised to protect him, and I promised to give him the best possible life filled with love and adventures. I dreamt of coaching my son in sports and I dreamt of teaching him everything I know. I was scared and…Read More
I spent a few hours at my favorite local coffee shop, Amante Uptown in Boulder, Colorado, working on a book project and relaxing after an atypically long stretch of non-stop parenting as school winds down, and couldn’t help track what was going on at a table near me. Dad had brought his 5yo daughter along to a meeting he was having with a couple of other people and it wasn’t going very well. In fact,…Read More
[A guest post from my friend Donna Gross] Years ago I dubbed myself Luckiest Aunt in the World, and Charlie (10) and David (6) are two of the reasons why. I’ve just wrapped up a tiring and rewarding nine day trip where I was charged with taking care of these two bright and active children. My cousin and her husband were planning an extended trip, and I was the lucky one to receive the invitation…Read More
There’s little harder in life than parenting a sick child. They’re cranky, they moan and whinge, and you’re likely exhausted from trying to care for them. Oh, and there’s the rest of your life that has to be put on hold which can definitely trigger some frustration of its own. When they’re babies you’re used to holding and cuddling them, and when they’re older they’re more self-contained, understanding that bad tasting medicine is just part…Read More
As part of a new campaign I’m involved with, I had to pop into the local Walmart to buy a new Android tablet. Yes, another tablet. Soon I’ll have them all! More seriously, the Broomfield Walmart is an interesting place to visit because the customers are so different from the regular Boulder folk we encounter every day. More blue collar. Not quite “People of Walmart”, thankfully, but a lotta questionable tattoos and kids running around…Read More
I’m a gamer. Not in the sense of “fire up the PS4, Martha, we’re gunnin’ for aliens again!” but board games and, to a lesser extent, role playing games. No, I didn’t play Dungeons & Dragons when I was in high school, but now I kinda wish I had done so as it’s a surprisingly fun shared storytelling game with the right people. I started out with Risk, Monopoly, Life, Stock Market and other Hasbro…Read More
After years of post-divorce bouncing back and forth between two households, it’s very interesting to see how each of my children has adapted and learned how to cope with the inevitable disruption in different ways. None have made friends in the local neighborhood, for example, but each has their own strategy too. My oldest, who is 17 and is just a month or two away from being able to drive solo totes school books back…Read More
I’ve been taking care of just my younger two for the last three weeks — G-, who is almost 14, and K-, who is 10 — and it’s been interesting to watch. Usually their bigger sister (who is 17) acts as the buffer, the peacemaker, the one who helps things move along smoothly when their rough edges would otherwise be causing contention. But with her gone, I’ve been impressed with how well the younger two…Read More
I don’t recall being much into coloring as a young child, but since I enjoy drawing and inking my drawings and have enjoyed helping my children with their own coloring projects, including at restaurants, I surmise that there’s always been some predilection towards filling areas in with specific colors to make something more attractive. In fact, why don’t restaurants have coloring pages for adults? I’ve been to a few restaurants where they have paper tablecloths…Read More
I might quality as The Grinch for this one, but if there’s one thing that drives me crazy during vacations it’s when my children get so far off on their sleep schedule that they’re staying up until 11pm or midnight and then sleeping in until 10am or later. When they’re home from college, maybe, but tweens or teens sleeping in until 10am or later? I can’t condone that. As a result, my strategy to keep…Read More
I don’t really understand the logic of this but my kids were home sick yesterday and while yesterday afternoon my son G- rallied and was feeling better, by last night he was descending into sickness again. He didn’t seem particularly sick at bed time and I was looking forward to a quiet evening with everyone else otherwise asleep. And to his credit, he did sleep for many hours into the night and it was a…Read More
I won’t say I’m totally overwhelmed, but tomorrow at this time I’ll have a dozen rowdy fourth graders ready to party and enjoy Halloween at my place. It’s all because I not only like to party, but I like to host parties too. I mean, how better to enjoy how my children socialize with their peers and enjoy all those cute kid Halloween costumes without any trick-or-treating being involved? As long-time readers will know, I…Read More
It’s been a rough few weeks, no question. The big flood didn’t help anything, but even before that, we have all sorts of things going on in our little family unit, including us deciding to pull A-, my 11th grader, out of the private school she’s been attending since kindergarten. We’ve switched her to an online high school, Laurel Springs, with the hope that she can focus on academics and really jump head first into…Read More
The problem has been building for the last few months and it seems to ebb and flow, complaints and upset around not wanting to go to bed or not being able to actually fall asleep. I talk to other parents and they seem to have two strategies: anger and struggle or capitulation. While I might occasionally veer towards the former, sorry to say, neither of them really fit the bill. I’m a guy who lives…Read More
I’ve been practicing attachment parenting for 16 years, which is easy to calculate because my oldest is, well, 16 years old. Why AP? We chose to raise our children using an AP approach because we felt it was the parenting philosophy most in sync with our own beliefs, most in alignment with our values and most consistent with our approach to our lives. Like most things in the behavioral realm, though, there’s no “official AP…Read More
Yesterday on the way to lacrosse practice my 13yo son G- ran out of steam. We were driving towards the practice field and I could just see him collapse, and when he tilted the car seat back and put his arm across his eyes and complained about fuzzy vision, I called it and turned around. Heading home, I texted my older girl (16) that we’d changed plans and were en route back, to which she…Read More