parenting

by Mo Hall Recently I read a study by the Pew Research Center that sent heat waves through my body. The study was about Family Structure. The Pew Center surveyed 2,691 adults asking then if the following “trends” were good, bad or of no…

by Betsy McMillin Most days I really enjoy my kids, my job as mom.  I am, for the most part, amused throughout the day by what they say and do, and am emotionally on a pretty even keel. Then there are those other days.  I call them…

by Betsy McMillin Parent says: "Great job cleaning your room kiddo!  Oh man, if only you did everything this quickly and thoroughly!'" Ouch. May as well give the kid a big hug then punch the kid in the gut. Such back-handed compliments…

by Betsy McMillin I am celebrating today. As well as mourning. My tiniest tot, my sweet two and a half year old, fell asleep and slept in her own "big girl bed," all night.  Okay, so her bed is right beside ours, but baby steps, right? I…

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…

"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…

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…

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…

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…

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…