1. “We love your kids, but it’s getting harder and harder to act like we love the Favorite Teacher gifts.”Look in the highest cabinet of any teacher’s kitchen. Go to…
Browsing: Parenting Tips
“You know, none of this stuff was even on my list,” I overheard my medium-sized daughter tell her older sister after the Christmas morning dust had settled. She sounded a…
She’s sniffing. And pacing. And pawing the corner where the carpet meets the wall. C’mon now, girl, what’s the matter? Uh-oh. I think I know. The dog always figures it…
Q: My ninth-grade daughter has suddenly started locking her bedroom door almost all the time.Should I ask why? Tell her to stop? Please help. A: It sounds as though your teen…
In my house, fall means the much-anticipated football season is upon us. Like many families, our weekends from September into the New Year are largely dictated by football schedules. This…
Dad sleeping on the couch. Mom working in the kitchen. This was the Thanksgiving of my childhood. So when my mom worked up the nerve to announce that she thought we…
Every parent has imagined it. Her meticulously groomed and beautifully clad offspring gratefully accepting holiday gifts amidst glowing decorations, offering an unprompted and heart-felt thank you to swooning grandparents or…
It’s been forty years since I last laid eyes on him. Now here he is, tumbling out from between the pages of an old book I’ve brought down from the…
Q: Can you recommend a good discipline strategy for 10-year-olds? A: Yes, in one word: consequences.When parents are first trying to diffuse temper tantrums and other toddler and preschool misbehavior,…
I come from quiet stock. Subsequently, my children are, well, quiet kids. They raise the occasional ruckus, but like their mom before them they are encouraged to raise it outside…
Party planning is in my blood. My mother was a mastermind who could bring any theme to life. Luau.Hoedown. Olympics. When I turned five, she transformed our house into Oz,…
There were twice as many parents as teenagers in the room, light streaming through a Palladian window at one end. We were huddled with our kids, coaching them to the…
