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The Parent Trap
The Parent Trap: Confessions of a Cheapskate/Tightwad
by Betsy McMillin
I have gotten a lot of great, positive feedback from The Entitled Nation (March 20, 2011), a lot of people seeing themselves and their kids, even when they didn't want to.
I wish I could say that my kids are not as…
10 Percent Perspiration + 90 Percent Inspiration= Motherhood
To all mothers: Happiest Of Mother's Days!
You have earned this day, so spend it how you want to: with your own sweet kids, a day off from your sweet kids and out with your best mom friends, with your own Mother.
Happy Mother's Day to…
What To Do About Picky Eaters (Without Dinner Theater or Begging)
"Up to the table everybody! Dinner time!"
Do these words make your kids slink off in the other direction, muttering, "I'm not hungry" or "yuck!?" Do you make additional dinners routinely to please non-eaters? Do you have a child on the…
The Parent Trap: It’s Time Every Kid Made Time to Volunteer. Really.
I have written about our kids being entitled, (March 20), enabled (March 27), having poor manners (March 6). Every day I am reminded how easy our kids have it, how much is given to them, and how little we ask in return. There is a way to…
The Parent Trap: Let The Parent Who Is Without Sin Cast The First Dirty Look
My salad days,
When I was green in judgment.
—William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra. Act i. Sc. 5.
Sometimes I catch myself in a "parenting moment," and I don't recognize myself. How can that mom who is giving her two-year-old candy on…
The Parent Trap: The Battle Hymn of the Anti-Tiger Mother
We parents are a gullible lot, suckers.
Forever searching for the latest study, the cure-all answer to our problems. We get sucked in by marketing scams, too many short-sighted studies, and questionable advice. How many copies of Amy…
The Parent Trap: The Entitled Nation Becomes The Enabled Nation
A typical day for my best friend of 40 years, who just happens to be a secretary at a public middle school, goes something like this:
Student comes in to office, needs to use the phone.
"I need the phone. I forgot my lunch."
My friend…
The Parent Trap: Make a Behavior Chart? Have a Martini? Let Me Think….
I am so sick of charts.
If I draw up, Google, copy, fill out or even see another chart, I may just hop on the next AATA bus that conveniently goes by my house every 20 minutes, and go to the nearest martini bar.
Confession: There is one…
The Parent Trap: The Entitled Nation
Less is more. Tell that to any American kid and see what kind of a response you get.
If for some reason, you are having a hard time picturing entitled kids (which I doubt), think of the book/film Willy Wonka with the lovely Miss Varuca…
The Parent Trap: Spending Quality Time With A). My Kids or B). The Turtle.
This isn't the first time it crossed my mind to write about parenting, but the first time I embraced the opportunity seriously. Whenever I would read about parents who blogged, I had one thought: You people are writing about what you're…
