The title intrigued me: The Happiest Mommy You Know.I live with one mom (my wife) and two possible future moms (my teenage daughters), so I read Genevieve Shaw Brown’s new book with them in mind. Brown’s mantra is that mothers should treat themselves as well as they instinctively treat their children.The Happiest Mommy You Know originated from a popular Good Morning America television segment about “The Baby Diet.” Brown explains that after preparing organic feasts for her young children, she would often eat fast food in yoga pants. But when she started eating the healthier foods (on … [Read more...]
Gift to Dad Shows Daughter Reads Him Like a Book
If you were a holiday, which one would your kids say you were, and why? My 13-year-old daughter, Lindsay, answered: “You would be Halloween, Dad, because you’re scary when you get mad.”Lindsay’s reply was part of her Christmas gift to me last month. She had been stumped about what to give me, so she settled on a little “What I Love about You” book. The most creative part was that she had to fill in the blank for 50 reasons why she loves me. The book was intended for a romantic couple, not a child-parent relationship, which added to the difficulty. But that did not stop her Mad Lib prowess … [Read more...]
Life Lessons for When a Family Pet Dies Young
"Tracheal collapse.”That was the veterinarian’s foreboding diagnosis of our beloved family pet Benny, a Yorkie, two years ago. He was 3 years old at the time and had been having episodes of labored breathing. Through a series of vet visits, we learned that Yorkies often suffer from the slow tightening of their tracheas. If it escalates, they actually make a honking sound.We had been able to manage Benny’s trachea until one night this past August when his honking returned with great intensity. My wife and I feared the worst as our two daughters slept. We gave Benny his meds and tried to … [Read more...]
Parents Can Be Overstimulated, Too
“Do you know why they call Wednesday ‘Hump Day’?” I asked my 12-year-old daughter, Lindsay, a few months ago.“Yeah. Because people hump,” she replied.With a chuckle, I realized her tweenhood was over. She had now joined her older sister in the snarky world of teenhood. But Lindsay’s end-of-the-innocence reply also stirred a stew of conflicting emotions and thoughts in me — e.g., Was that a joke? An educated guess? A reason for concern? A need for several talks with her mother? An indictment of my less-exciting Wednesdays? All of the above? I found myself, in a word, … [Read more...]
Your Parental Costume Changes as Your Children Grow
Halloween season always reminds me of the time I dressed as Clifford the Big Red Dog. My children’s school needed an adult volunteer to wear the costume for a reading event. I decided to oblige in part because I like to laugh, and in part because my two young daughters liked the idea. In other words, they had not yet reached the Age of Embarrassment.As children gathered in the gym, I started to suit up in a “secret” adjoining room. The costume was large and heavy, so a few parents helped me with the process. I remember being so amused by one of the instructions on the costume’s interior: … [Read more...]