I will assume my kid can take care of itself. I don't know how to teach sports. All of its morals and values will be entirely based on Friday Night Lights.
Yes, there is magic in the air. And hope. And possibility. Gone is the era of trying to fit into a box. 2013 is the year to celebrate our differences and revel in them. Like snowflakes, no two of us are alike. In our individuality resides the gifts we were born to express.
Now that I've been a dad for several years, I am reinvigorated to lose weight and to make it stick. Sure, I'd like to live a longer life, but I'd also like to make sure I don't embarrass the kids now that they're getting to an age where it's obvious that they care about what their friends think.
A dad's delightful homage to the chaotic, giggly joy of spending the day with his 21-month-old son has gone viral on the Internet in the last few days...
Let's do something a little less boring and a little more fun this year with and for our teens. How about instead of resolving to scream less, to have more patience and to talk less negatively about their dads, we instead make resolutions that sound like fun?
I am well aware that some parents of my generation do not accept LGBT youth. I explained that most often love overcomes family fears. I asked them not to give up on their parents. I reminded them that if I could change, so can their parents.
The best thing you can do with visitors, a new baby, and I suppose life in general, is just roll with it.
So you took the kids to the National Museum of Art, you made sand castles on the beach and taste tested the tapas, but who ever said just because you're on vacation with the family doesn't mean you can't have a little one-on-one time with the spouse.
After a week of malls, crowds, road trips and hotel stays, it felt good to just sit down with the family. We went around the table asking each person what their favorite part of the week was.
One of the more recent additions to the themes at this time of year is "Giving Back." It's important to have an "Attitude of Gratitude" and remember the "Reason for the Season." This is all lovely, but you know what people really hear? "Here's more pressure."
Children can break your heart in one instant, then cause your heart to swell to near-bursting the next. But through it all -- through the tantrums, homework battles and curfew fights -- we need to take a step back and think about what we really want our children to know and to learn.
Congratulations if you have been accepted! Condolences if you have been denied. If you have been deferred, that's actually good news because it means that an admissions office has decided to postpone making a decision about your application until the regular admission cycle.
People in power, now, should be thinking only of what they can do to return our psyches to their natural state of peace and equanimity. Lawmakers, now, should not entertain what gun manufacturers and their lobbyists think.
And so here we are, on the eve of the New Year -- a year that will be all about saying goodbye to the old way of doing things and hello to our new stage of life. A year in which I need to accept that the traditions that revolved around my children can evolve and yet still be meaningful and intimate.
What if our New Year's Resolutions revolved around helping others achieve theirs? Stay with me for a second.
This week, our family will be celebrating a remarkable event; my parent's sixtieth wedding anniversary. Only an extraordinary mixture of love, trust, faith, hard work and -- yes -- luck could have made this event possible.
All of our children deserve better. Yes, we have to do something. Change something. Even if it's only our own attitudes -- our own hearts and minds.
What I've witnessed following this recent tragedy convinces me that the social and spiritual ills encircling our world can be solved through concerted efforts at dialogue, inclusion and compassion. Try love, not fear, not cursing the darkness -- or shooting at it.
An analysis of the television shows most favored by children and adolescents in 1992 showed that one in four conversations addressed some aspect of sexuality. That was 20 years ago. Anyone out there think TV has less sexual content today or that it has become less explicit?
It's just after midnight in Texas and I'm lying in my bed, eyes wide open, staring into the darkness. My husband is sound asleep beside me.
We spend too much time on shopping, entertaining, and shuttling around and too little time with the family. If only there was an alternative? Maybe there is. Try storytelling at home with the kids. It's the perfect activity for the holidays.
As I think about the impending new year, it occurs to me that all of us have resolutions that we can easily make, and possibly forget as the year progresses. We all do it. We are serious about our commitments at first, and then, somehow, we fall into old patterns.
Grandparents play a special role in their grandchildren's lives. We get the opportunity to do things differently and to act in a way the parents can't because, well, they're "the parents." Here are some tips to help you be that one-of-kind special grandparent this year (and every year afterward):
This year, remind yourself that you do a lot for your children every single day. Keep your efforts turned inward, and resist the temptation to use others' experiences as personal motivation even when it seems like everyone else is giving their kid the perfect holiday.
Parents are concerned about teenagers sexting, but they're also worried about the laws that punish them. Alyona Minkovski hosted a discussion on HuffP...
