Motherhood Doesn’t Come with a Manual: Flying Blind
“Hey mom, what is this?” asks one of my children, pointing to a tampon on the bathroom counter. It is neatly contained in a shiny plastic wrapper. My first thought is why must we all congregate in my bathroom all…Continue reading
Rehearsal Dinner on Mars
By Erin A few summers ago, my oldest cousin got married. It was the first time in two years that my mom’s entire extended family had gotten together, and my mom was beyond excited to show off her adorable grandchildren. My parents and I had to go to the Church for the rehearsal, so my …Continue reading
Battle Hymn of the Shamrock Mother
Most of you have probably read or heard about Amy Chua’s book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother and the ensuing brew-ha-ha. If not, CLICK HERE for a summary. I was talking with my friend Jen about this article and we wondered about how it is feeding stereotypes. So we put our (Murphy / McBride) …Continue reading
Shout-Outs
by Erin Recently, my family attended a lovely potluck dinner event at our church. On the tables sat little cards with two questions for each family to discuss over the meal. The adults were to share “What do you miss most about being a kid?” And the kids were to share “What do you look …Continue reading
Do As I Say (Not As I Do)
by Erin Have you ever caught yourself disciplining your children’s bad manners and then turning around and behaving the same way yourself? Just last week I punished my kids for calling each other names, but do I blink when I mutter “idiot” at another driver? Um… not so much. Do we grownups ever really reach …Continue reading
You Win Some, You Win Some
by Erin I am co-coaching my daughter’s kindergarten soccer team this year with my friend Sandy. We have instituted a rigorous training schedule that has really enabled the girls to CRUSH their opponents. They do their home workouts while listening to Marky Mark’s Good Vibrations (“if you ain’t in it to win it, then get …Continue reading
You Can’t Really Dust for Vomit
by Erin This year my kindergartner had four friends to our house for her birthday. As she opened the gifts, she stopped to look the gift giver in the eyes and say thank you. She even remembered to thank the person that brought her a Calico Critters set that she already had. And didn’t mention …Continue reading
100 Easy Steps (or, um, books) to Better Parenting
by Erin 32. That’s the number of parenting books that I found as I organized my home office this weekend. There are a handful that I have read and loved. Problem is, I’ve never even opened most of them. There are the requisite pregnancy books, including the 2002 version of What to Expect When You’re …Continue reading
Books I Kept on the Shelf
So I cleared out my very overcrowded bookshelves this weekend. I found an alarming number of parenting books that I had never even opened. I gave most of them to the library, but I did save a few. Some because I have read them and like them. Some because I just like the title so …Continue reading
Everything I Needed to Know about Parenthood I Learned in College…
by Jen Parker, SkinnyScoop mom and founder of canopy cards And I’d love to say that it was in psychology 101 and that I know exactly how to help my 3-year-old overcome her mortal fear of pooping in the potty, but it wasn’t (and I don’t, so if you do know how to do this, …Continue reading