At my kids school, they celebrate half-birthdays when the children would otherwise have a birthday during summer, and that makes sense to me: the in-class parties (at least for the earlier grades) are quite fun and often meaningful, with parents and siblings invited in for the short celebration. Being born in August, I should know this one pretty well, along with the problem of kids being on summer holiday during when I’d ostensibly have a…Read More
It’s funny but I don’t remember ever having a sleepover when I was young, even with my buddy Mitch when I was in middle school and my buddy Ivan when we were in high school together. I’m sure I had them, especially since I have vague memories of Mitchell’s dad yelling at us late at night, but still, it certainly wasn’t a common occurrence. And yet, my children are constantly having sleepovers, either inviting their…Read More
My older kids have been doing sleepovers with their best friends for years. It’s evolved to where we have some rules around the sleepover and I am certainly picky about which of their friends I believe offer a safe and supervised environment for one of my children spending the night, but generally I like the idea and have certainly hosted a lot of other teens or tweens at my place. We do have some rules,…Read More
This has to be one of the very worst email messages to receive from your child’s school, hands down: Dear Gr. 3 Parents — I am writing to inform everyone that one case of head lice was reported in the class today. I have attached our Lice Procedure doc. Everyone should check their child’s head for lice tonite if you can. Please let me know immediately if anyone else has this issue. The #6 procedure…Read More
I’ve been having a very amusing email conversation with Neil Sinclair, the author of the new book “Commando Dad”, and thought you too would enjoy this book, especially if you’re just getting into the parenting world with a new baby. I’ll let him speak for himself, though, by simply sharing the intro to his book: Introduction TO ALL DADS AND CARERS (henceforth known as ‘Commando Dads’) This book has been written for YOU. I have…Read More
My good friend Kira commented to me a while back about how she wasn’t a fan of public breastfeeding and I was so struck by her perspective that I asked her to write a brief essay for my blog explaining her thinking. Here it is: Some years ago, I attended a college reunion and hooked up with some friends for an afternoon of board games. A couple of my friends brought their infant daughter. In…Read More
I get a rather astonishing number of pitches from tech companies seeking visibility in the dad and parenting space online, and it’s very cool. Lots of interesting products and innovations. After all, us parents need all the help we can get, and if it’s in the shape of a gadget, well, we like our smartphones and Internet, right, so how can anything that taps into that zeitgeist not be good? When Lorex Technology sent me their…Read More
I just realized this morning as I looked around my garage and counted one fancy car seat and two car booster seats that I don’t need them any more. My little one, K-, turned 8 last week (I even hosted a party for her pals at the local bowling alley. Solo. Yikes!) and the Colorado law for children needing to be in a booster seat states that “under 8” is the criterion. So we’re done….Read More
I get letters. This time, the letter was from a young Mom: Is 4 years old too young to use oil free acne stress control night cleansing pads made by neutrogena? As the mother I use them every night. Some nights my 4 year old son will come in and want to clean his face as well. I didn’t think it would harm him till a friend of mine said it would mess up his…Read More
Okay, so the concept is pretty neat: a little personal blender that you use to make your own baby food. I guess. If you’re that hardcore a parent and still have the mental acuity to be trusted around whirring blades after weeks or months of sleep deprivation. 🙂 But did anyone do any research on product names? What do you think? Is this some “Millenial” thing and it’s a reference to getting drunk in college…Read More
A guest article written by Courtney Baros of Chicago-based Be By Baby. Let’s face it, we live convenient lives. I was walking down the grocery aisle and, within the course of 5 minutes I saw people texting, emailing, talking on their cell phones – instantaneously connecting with people all over the world and getting all kinds of information on just about anything. I started to look at the store itself and was amazed at the…Read More
I don’t usually just repost press reelases that come into my mailbox (though I sure get a lot of them) but this one piqued my interest and I thought you might enjoy it too, dear reader. It’s from Andrea Woroch who is apparently a nationally recognized consumer and money-saving expert for Kinoli Inc. Do I recognize her name? No. But perhaps you do. 🙂 Still, interesting information… 1. Super sized often proves undervalue. Bigger isn’t…Read More
We get letters… here’s another one, from a Canadian Mom who is worried about the ramification of co-sleeping with her young son… I live in Quebec, Canada and am a proud mother of a 7 month old son. I am not quite sure whether my son is high need. He is certainly not fussy, but he used to nurse hours and hours for the first few months after he was born. He could drink for…Read More
I received this long, but common plea from an attachment parenting mom: “I just came across your blog site yesterday as I was typing in “co-sleeping, breastfeeding, not sleeping” in a google search. I am a very blessed mother of an almost 7 month old beautiful baby boy. He is what you would call “high needs” by Dr. Sears’ description in the Baby Book. “He has a great temperament, but really needs to be constantly…Read More
Oh, my poor little 7yo daughter! Through an unfortunately series of events, late last week she witnessed Linda’s dogs attacking and killing her pet rat Trixie. Worse, she was alone in the house at the time. At least she was smart enough not to intervene, I suppose, so she didn’t end up bitten by the dogs in the middle of their frenzy, but still… Since then she’s had a sadness in her heart – unsurprisingly…Read More
I get letters… In fact, I just got the following email: “I was looking for some parenting advice for a friend of mine, hoping that I would dig up some neat clinical advice (as this would help take the sensitivity out of it), but can’t seem to find anything. Perhaps you can help….My friend, Mike, is going through a divorce and he and ex-wife have been separated for quite a while now. His 8 year…Read More
As someone who writes about attachment parenting and general parenting from the Dad’s point of view, I get email. A fair bit of email, actually, and it’s great stuff, but sometimes I really don’t have much of an answer. One of those messages arrived this morning from an exhausted mom: I need to find someone to connect with. I practice attachment parenting and my 6 month old sleeps with me…but he wakes every hour…I need…Read More
I was reading through the great material available at Attachment Parenting International, the “parent’ corporation (or, perhaps better, “mother ship”) for those of us that follow intentional or attachment parenting, and was struck at how few of the Eight Core Principles of Attachment Parenting are relevant once your joyous little bundle grows up and isn’t a little baby any more. To wit, the eight rules are: Prepare for pregnancy, birth and parenting. Feed with love…Read More
Reader question time: I would like some suggestions on having a bed time with the family bed. My daughter who is almost three has been co-sleeping with us from the first day we brought her home from the hospital. I would like her to sleep in her own bed in our room with a bedtime. This has proven to be very difficult. She can’t fall asleep without me next to her. Any tips would be…Read More
So I’m typing in a comment responding to a query from a gal about her tiny baby being very attached to her and how she can get ready for when she goes back to work, saying “get her used to friends and family holding her and being safe too” when it struck me how poor a job of this Linda and I did with our kids and how that really adversely affected our ability to…Read More
As is not uncommon, I received an email from someone who earnestly hoped that I was an expert on attachment parenting. I’m not. I just play one on TV. Oh, no, I turned that offer down (it’s true, I was invited to come on the Dr. Phil show to talk about attachment parenting!). More seriously, I’ve just been using an attachment parenting approach first with my children when they were young, and now as best…Read More