Where'd I go? What happened to the girl who wore high heels, and read books and listened to NPR? What happened to the girl who knew how to twerk and put on mascara and wrote an honors thesis, who called her friends on their birthdays, and kissed her partner goodnight?

Playing with dolls is a perfectly healthy behavior for a male toddler. No different than a female playing with dolls, a part of normal development and entirely consistent with a toddler's vivid imagination and creativity.

According to some striking data presented in TurboTax's latest infographic, the average American can expect to spend between $200,000 - $500,000 on their child during the first 17 years of their young one's life.

Parents are realizing that just keeping their children safe in a crash isn't the end-all, be-all of car seats. We also need to think about the long-term implications of exposing our kids to the toxic chemicals the seats can be made with.

Few of us would claim to behave better when we are stressed or contend that our relationships, or the way we handle our responsibilities, improve when we feel pressured. So imagine how stress can feel to your middle schooler or teenager, who has far less experience to help him or her cope.

Funny how when we need sleep most, we can often find ourselves sleep-deprived.

Modern parents are almost obsessed with filling up their children's time. There are after-school classes, team sports, camps, lessons. What's often missing from the schedule is valuable time spent alone.

A mom or dad may be quite shocked to discover that their own daughter has, in Middle School, taken up behaviors that can only be described as, well, mean.

The photos in Jude's room make him feel that his family is close to him, even though they are all around the world.

In essence, parents would do well to understand that teenagers develop execution function capacities at different times and in individual ways.

With a little judicious self-understanding, awareness, patience and support, your Middle Schooler may not seem quite so alien after all, and you likely won't seem quite so alienated from them.

Most parents REALLY want to be good parents. But since it is rare for parents to take parenting classes before becoming parents, we inadvertently do l...