Friday, January 25, 2013
A Patch blogger's post about not helping her children on the slide is being debated across the country.
A Patch blog from Alameda, Calif., called “Please Don’t Help My Kids” has struck a nerve with readers across the country. Posted in September, the blog has taken off over the past few weeks as it has found a second life through social media sharing. The blog has 124,000 Facebook recommendations and 833 people have tweeted the blog. The blog is an open letter to other parents at the playground. The blogger Kate Bassford Baker’s basic request is for parents to not help her daughters on the slide. She wrote that she wants her daughters to do things and learn things on their own. Learning to walk up the slide’s ladder is the first step to learning new things and overcoming obstacles, she wrote. “Because, as they grow up, the ladders will only…
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Young football fans eagerly await their first Patriots Super Bowl.
When my daughter woke up Sunday morning, the first words out of her mouth were, “I get to wear my Patriots dress today, right?!!” If this wasn’t enough proof that my three-year old is showing signs of becoming a prodigy in the sports fan department, then you must also know that she came home with some art from school earlier in the week which depicted a smiling face (hers, of course,) lots of scribbles (no idea,) and a very good rendition of a football which was impressively drawn quite proportional to the size of her head. Under this masterpiece were the words, “I had a dream…about football.” So, she’s no Martin Luther King, Jr., but she did make her dad and I very happy. Not to be outdone as the littlest football fan in the house, my son…
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Daylight Saving Time is always a bit of an annoyance, but with kids, that one hour throws their little worlds for a loop.
Those couple times a year when we change the clocks to save ourselves a little more daylight usually sneaks up on me. This year, it fell at a particularly hectic time in our lives. In the past week alone we have had more going on than we usually do in an entire month. We moved into a new home which is a huge adjustment for anyone, but especially for two kids under the age of four. Throw in a freak snowstorm, power outages, a birthday, sugar-induced highs from Halloween and then mess with the inner workings of a toddler’s time clock–and you have the makings of a very chaotic household. In all the craziness of the past week, I must confess the one thing I feared the most (moving) was actually the easiest for the kids to adjust to. I thought …
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Will preschool puppy love lead to heartbreak?
Less than two months ago, my daughter wanted nothing to do with boys. She was going through that phase, or one of many to come, where she didn’t want to play with any boys (especially her brother), wouldn’t let her dad put her to bed and would even request I change the radio station if a male voice was singing. In short – no boys allowed. I was a little concerned when she started preschool because the boys in her class far outnumbered the girls, which did not make for many female playmates for her during this choosy girls-only phase. However, I need not have bothered with these passing thoughts because in about one week’s time, I noticed Lily only had eyes for one new friend… and it was a BOY. On school days, her face lit up with the mere …
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Shopping with children changes everything.
Before I had children, grocery shopping was not something to which I gave much thought. It was simple – I needed food, so I would go out and get it. The day of the week and time of day was pretty trivial. But now, attempting a weekly shopping trip for groceries with my two little ones in tow has the ability to make me break out into a cold sweat. It usually goes a little something like this: While making my shopping list at home, I pretend I am really organized. I start with my pad I keep on the fridge meant to be marked whenever a necessity runs out. Typically the list is blank because no one remembered to do that so, I work from memory on our needs and try to cross reference the sale circular and coupons. (No, I am not a crazy coupon …
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Columnist Vanessa McManus sends her daughter off for the first day of preschool.
The day has finally come. I have to let my baby go, just a tiny bit, as she embarks on the beginning of her academic career. I say “academic career” lightly because she is heading off to preschool where I know her days will be filled with playtime, songs, music and fun. But it is the beginning of something new for her, a small chapter in the story of her childhood. In the days leading up to her first day of school I kept thinking how I will never again be the only one who spends every waking hour with her. Never again will we have our regular lazy mornings playing in our pajamas and having breakfast so late we call it brunch with no strict schedule. Life will be busier and more structured from here on out as we get into the swing of a …
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Columnist Vanessa McManus holds on to summer memories before the hustle and bustle of school and fall activities begin.
For most people, summer is already over. With the arrival of September and the conclusion of the Labor Day holiday marking the end of the laid back carefree days of summer, going back to school and welcoming fall is at the forefront of most everyone’s mind. But, according to my calendar, the last day of summer is officially September 22. My daughter does not start preschool for another week so I am choosing to ignore the imminent change of season and just soak in those last summer days while I can. So strong is my desire to hold onto the memories of this summer that I confess I have not fully unpacked our suitcases from a week ago in the Cape. Secretly, I love the smell of the salt air that is trapped inside from endless hours spent on the…
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
A child's first attachment object has a very special place in her heart.
It seems every child has that one special thing to which he or she becomes most attached. Be it a blanket or a stuffed friend, your child depends upon it fiercely. They need it to sleep at night. They want to hold it in their lap on long car trips. They never want it out of their sight. In our house, his name is Pookie and he was once a tan-colored bear attached to a small blanket. I purchased him on a whim one day strolling the aisles of Babies R Us in a sleepless haze when Lily was about two-months-old. Now, he is dingy, gray in color, well-loved and snuggled. His head has fallen off at least four times requiring emergency surgery. He has had too many trips through the washer and tumbles in the dryer to count, each one an exercise in …
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Columnist Vanessa McManus discusses her least favorite parenting task.
Of all the thankless tasks associated with the drudgery of parenthood, there is one I dread the most. No, it isn’t diaper changing, potty training or even cleaning up vomit. It is cutting my kids’ nails. Parents rarely talk about it but it is probably the most challenging thing I do as a parent on a weekly basis. Holding onto a small squirming child, wielding a sharp instrument and trying to zero in on a tiny fingernail for the smallest calculated snip has me sweating bullets every time. And then doing it again and again 10 or maybe 20 times in one sitting? Worlds of patience, I tell you. It wouldn’t be so bad if they would just stay still for a couple minutes, but that would be like asking the sun not to shine–not gonna happen. While I …
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Picky children are much harder to please, especially while searching for a new backpack. Columnist Vanessa McManus discusses the lengths she went to, just to get it right.
In general, I try not to compare my kids to one another, but it appears my eldest has made a name for herself as being “the picky one.” At mealtime, she sits disdainfully, regarding her food and pushing it away as her younger brother shovels it in. Lily whines, “I don’t want this, Mommy,” while Jack says, “More! More!” with his mouth full. Maybe it’s the age (she’s three,) but I have a strong feeling that we are in for it with her. It’s not just the fact that she is and has always been a picky eater, it now seems she is quite particular about pretty much everything under the sun. She starts preschool in the fall and recently, I told her that she could pick out her own backpack to bring to school. She likes pink, so I thought I’d show her …
GreenMom
5:05 pm on Monday, January 28, 2013
Agreed more ›