Parenting Wisdom

Growing up, you might say that I didn't experience the cookie-baking and warm hugs type of grandparent relationship. Unfortunately, both grandparents on my father's side were deceased by the time I was born. On my mother's side, I have...

I don’t mean to brag, but my parents are the best grandparents. Why? Because they give their grandchildren one gift. Time. Time is such a simple thing. Something we parents tend to gripe a lot about. It seems like there’s never...

We live in Bennington. And if you’ve ever been out here, you most likely took one of two ways: Highway 36 or 168th Street. We take both. But this particular day, I was driving home with our five kids and...

Going back to school is rough on the kids, but it can be rough on some of us–the hot mess mom. Goodbye lazy mornings when we can avoid leaving the house before noon. Goodbye blessed “the swimming pool counts...

It’s back to school time!  Time to shop for new clothes, new shoes, fresh spiral notebooks just begging to be doodled on……I love back to school shopping!  And I have loved back to school time my entire life.  Until now. ...

I see you. I see you with all the kids, trying to focus on the one performing in the concert, while keeping the siblings quiet and contained. I see you in the grocery story, keeping the clan together, fighting the meltdown...

Because I am an English teacher, I'm always encouraging children to read. Parents ask me time and again “How can I get my kid to read?” When it comes to encouraging children to read over the summer, my answer is...

Before becoming a mom, I held many ideas of the kind of mom I wanted to be for my children. I looked forward to the beauty motherhood is said to bring into your life and all its wonderful joys....

I had my first child back in 2009. Social media was basically MySpace at that point and Facebook if you were enrolled in college.  There wasn’t Instagram or the influx of mommy blogs that there are today. I was exhausted...

Parenting is certainly not for the faint of heart. Every phase is filled with challenges and plenty of room for us to grow. With our first child, I was the typical first-time mom. I read all the books, followed all...