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Book Review: The No-Cry Discipline Solution
I admit it. I’m a skeptic when it comes to parenting books. I think I was put off after reading the touted What to Expect When You’re Expecting and finding it saccharine and patronizing. Or maybe it is just the sheer volume of parenting tomes on display at any given bookstore, each touting its own [...]
Moving Tips
I’m writing to you today as an official resident of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, where the clams are tasty, the gays can marry, and the Red Sox . . . well, ask me again at the end of the season. Thanks to the scheduling savvy of my sweetie and the heroic efforts of John the [...]
Taking Time for YOU
Today’s guest post comes from Paula Gregorowicz of The Paula G Company. As a life coach, her goal is to help each of her clients “design a successful life that works without the burnout and compromise.” This sounded like advice that would benefit moms (and thus our children), and so I asked if she would [...]
Lifehacker on Kids and Home
The always-useful Lifehacker has had a number of posts about kids and home lately. Here’s a roundup: How to set a homework schedule. Also useful for us bloggers and writers. Kids Freeware Bonanza. From games to education. Copy TV shows to your iPod. Perhaps good for car trips, waiting at the doctor’s office, and other [...]
Thanksgiving Emergency Recovery
Turkey not defrosted in time? Diaper disaster with your toddler means you won’t have time to make stuffing? Hop over to Joe Kissel’s column at Wired News and learn how to Deal With Turkey Day Disasters. Disater or no, my family always uses his trick of baking the stuffing in a pan, not in the [...]
Stress-Free Thanksgiving Tips
Life coach Paula Gregorowicz is dishing out Thanksgiving advice all over the place, both at Queercents and her own site, Coaching4Lesbians. Worth a read if you’re starting to feel your pressure rise as you think about stuffing and gravy and in-laws. Personally, I’m too busy arranging my wedding this weekend to even think about Thanksgiving [...]
The Changing Shape of the American Family
To pique your interest in the online chat with sociologist Rosanna Hertz I’m hosting tomorrow night, I wanted to share some statistics she sent me about the changing shape of the American family. Less than 25% of all families consist of a married, opposite-sex couple living with their own (biological or adopted) children—down from 40% [...]
Free Coffee
Yahoo! will be offering coupons for a free cup of Dunkin Donuts coffee to anyone who sets Yahoo! as their homepage this Friday. It’s unclear what the actual mechanics of this will be, or how long Yahoo! has to be your homepage before you can reset it. Presumably Yahoo! will publish details later in the [...]
Writer Seeks Stories on Outings With Kids
From ParentHacks comes a note about writer Barbara Aria, who is seeking stories about how to take young children on “grown-up” outings—to museums, restaurants, shopping, etc. She’s using them in an article for an unspecified women’s magazine. I think it’s important for us lesbian moms to have our voices heard on general parenting issues, as [...]
Bon Voyage
My partner and I and a gallon of SPF 50 are off to the Olivia Grand Carribean Cruise this week. I’ve written up some posts in advance, which my software will publish automatically every day, so you’ll still find new reading here. Breaking news coverage will be in short supply, though. I also won’t be [...]
Dealing with Relatives
Adoptive Family magazine has a good article on how to deal with insensitive comments relatives may make about adopted children. They recommend that you: Appoint yourself ambassador of adoption. “Immunize” yourself before family encounters. Do a background check [with other relatives, not the FBI] on problematic relatives. Hold your ground firmly but with compassion. Much [...]
Parents and Depression
Researchers at Florida State and Vanderbilt Universities claim parents have significantly higher levels of depression than adults without children. More surprisingly, this does not change when the kids leave home, and may in fact increase. Parents who do not have custody of their minor children may also experience greater depression than those who do. Parents’ [...]
Motherhood, Identity, and Being a Lesbian
(Or should that be “Lesbianism, Identity, and Being a Mother”?) There’s a great dialogue about identity going on right now on two other lesbian moms’ blogs. Both Renee and Kwynne offer different perspectives on how being a mother can raise questions about and change one’s sense of self. How true. Losing my own identity–as a [...]
Post-Holiday Tips
While there are lots of lists around telling us how to survive the holidays, I thought I’d take a different tack and offer a few suggestions for making the most of your post-holiday time: Don’t return anything till after New Year’s. The lines will be shorter, and you’ll be saner. Don’t delay too long, however, [...]
Daylight Saving Time Ends
All you busy moms out there: Don’t forget that you should have changed your clocks back last night. Yes, it’s that time of year when you get out of work in the dark and your kids have approximately five minutes of outdoor playtime after school, daycare, or nap. On the positive side, you may have [...]
How to Make a Decision: Family Creation and Other Major Choices
I’m occasionally asked, usually by lesbian friends considering pregnancy, how my partner and I chose our sperm donor. Truth be told, we didn’t use any particular methodology other than agreeing on key factors (health above all), starting with a broad list, and refining, refining, refining. With most sperm banks, you can get free, short profiles [...]
How to Get Things Done with a Toddler
Toddlers can wreak havoc on our to-do lists. They have their own agendas, their own pace, and their own counterproductive actions (e.g., pulling all the books off the shelf after you’ve just replaced them). In order to increase the odds of actually completing my to-do list, I divide it into categories as follows: Things I [...]
Lesbian Parenting Hacks
The idea of “life hacks” is a growing phenomenon right now, especially in the geek community. A computer hack, in the non-malicious sense, is a small script or shortcut to facilitate common tasks. A “life hack” is any tip or trick to help cut through the clutter of our everyday lives. Several prominent blogs, notably [...]
