We’ve all heard the expression “the dog days of summer,” those long, hot days when all you want to do is lie around and become one with the swimming pool. I’m here to propose that winter, too, has its “dog days!” The long, gloomy, frigid days as we inch slowly closer to spring tend to seem much longer than 24
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Nature versus nurture: it’s a question as old as time. Why do people do what they do? How does a child’s personality develop? Is it something they are born with or can a child be parented into being this way or that? Scholars, parents, and everyone in between have been asking this question for hundreds of years and the
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By the time my husband gets home from work, I have worked a full day at my full-time work-from-home job while also taking care of my 11-month-old and five-year-old. By 5pm every day it looks like a tornado ripped through the house and I am overstimulated to the point that I have, on occasion, stuck my face under ice cold
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A How-To Guide for Moms, Holiday Edition I find myself walking the tightrope this holiday season. On one side of the tightrope is stress: I am stretched thin. My wallet, and calendar, are stretched thin. We are dodging the flu, RSV, and HFM left and right. Sometimes I just want this season to be over so we can all go
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And Why Your Self-Image Matters in Motherhood Almost all women have experienced some level of struggle with their self-image. In fact, 69-84% of women in the US exhibit body dissatisfaction. And it’s easy to understand why women may struggle with self-esteem when we live in a world of photo-shopped bodies and air-brushed faces. The line between a slight filter
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It started when my daughter was three. She’s always been strong-willed and had a very distinct sense of style. Quickly we realized we could give her choices in what she wore to preschool each day. At first, we’d let her choose between two different outfits. Now, she has free reign over her entire closet in the mornings before kindergarten. Does
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Almost five years ago, I was standing in your shoes. I remember the morning so clearly–despite five years worth of full-time teaching, momming, a pandemic, and having another baby– that drop-off moment is crystal clear amidst the postpartum haze that seems to make most of my memories fuzzy. The sun hadn’t even fully risen yet. My husband and I drove
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“Give me the baby” my aunt demanded as I handed her my four-month-old daughter. My aunt was meeting my daughter for the first time at a small family gathering. My baby immediately began to cry, and I reached out to take her back. My aunt stepped back telling me forcefully “she is fine.” I awkwardly laughed and responded with “she
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Over the last couple of weeks every time I ask a fellow parent how social distancing is going, I get pretty much the same response. “Well…you know…I’m…surviving?” they answer, usually with a long sigh. In an effort to help all those suffering from what I call “the quarantine blues” (myself included) I’ve put together a list of ideas that will
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We’ve had kind of a rough summer so far. I’ve always said three-and-a-half is the hardest age. Magda Pecsenye of the blog Ask Moxie put it best, in my opinion: I say often that age 3.5 is the nadir of humanity, and I’m not actually joking. This age is demoralizing and confusing to the parent, because the child just can’t
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