"If you had a chance to change your fate, would you?" Merida asks us in her Scottish accent.

Lately, it seems the question isn't can you change your fate, but this: Can you Barbie-fy Merida? Is that really happening?

But before I get to what I experienced first-hand...

Now that a week has passed since we all watched in sheer horror as the massacre unfolded at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT, we've had some time to move through the stages of shock and grief. This entire time, one thing in particular kept gnawing at...

Late last week we heard from Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer for the first time since she had her baby two months ago and I'm guessing it's going to be the last for a while.

Between her insistence that her statement that day was all she planned to say about...

Earlier this week, the annual Fortune magazine issue devoted to the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business arrived on newsstands. In case you haven't seen or heard yet, featured on the cover is the Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer... you know... the one who left Google to head up...

If the claims are true that all the D.C. region's customers have their power restored, then I feel the time is right for today's post. But first, I must confess to having survivor guilt. We moved to Montgomery County from D.C. in 2004 and in that time, just about every...

For some reason, two weeks ago, instead of deleting an email from the Gap, I opened it and noticed they were proudly promoting their new line of toddler clothes featuring Superheroes.

Feeling fortuitous, I hopped on my computer to actually check out the new

The constant drumbeat of mothering perfection coming from the mainstream media puzzles me. Where are these "Tiger Moms," I wonder? Where are these perfect French children raised by Parisian women who never make their children too important in their lives? (I'm guessing the Parisian mothers also don't have muffin tops)....

"Chapter 32: cleanliness," my 15-year-old self bellowed from the back seat of our family's VW van. "Letting youngest children whine their way out of not regularly washing their hair is nothing if not a personal affront to my social status and a walking advertisement of your inability to control your...

On Sunday, I eagerly started reading Brigid Schulte's opinion piece in the Washington Post because of its headline "What's so bad about American parents?" Finally, I thought, finally, someone has come to their senses and realizes that our cultural habit of trashing all things parenting is ineffective and...

"The mouth of my grave is open," is a proverb said by Somali women who learn they are pregnant, according to Rachel Pieh Jones in Sunday's New York Times.

Accepting that maternal or infant death -- or worse -- both -- are likely outcomes to pregnancy is...

Riding the wave of the popular book revealing the secrets on how French women don't get fat, unlike us American slobs, is now Pamela Druckerman with her tome on superior French parenting. C'est vrai, little stokes the flames more than pitting Americans against the French. It's...

Technically the Lunar New Year began Monday, the year of the Dragon. But not for moi. Instead, I am launching the Lunar New Year of I Am Awesome to untangle the web of parenting self-flagellation. Borrowing from my hero, Miss Piggy, and her effervescently self-confident outlook,...

Mid-way through last year, my daughter's pirate obsession was born. She'd always shown a proclivity towards what I would call "boy toys," beginning with her affinity for climbing fences before her first birthday and her inclination towards playing strictly with balls. So when her obsession with all things pirate emerged,...

"The law does not mandate work-life balance," nor does it "require companies to ignore and stop valuing ultimate dedication, however unhealthy that may be for family life," said Judge Preska last summer regarding the Bloomberg discrimination case against pregnant and working mothers.

"There's no such thing as work-life...

"Mommy, only boys are funny, girls aren't funny," boldly stated my almost six-year-old daughter recently when we were out biking.

"Whaaa?" I exclaimed, as I screeched on my brakes and my head spun in full circles, my mind racing... is it too early to introduce her to Tina Fey,...

The woman glared. Initially I ignored her and assumed I was reading into her look. It was probably just a casual glance over, I thought, given that it was Mother's Day at 5:30. Surely people pack their patience and their understanding toward other mothers on Mother's Day.

Right?

Of the projected 150 million Americans on Facebook, most of us fall into one of four styles of user. The "Broadcaster" uses Facebook to update all of her friends on the mundane and generally non-broadcast worthy events in her (or her child's) day. The "Scorned Lover" takes to Facebook like...