Hindsight Parenting: Skipping the Mega Birthday Party

The second time around as a parent, Logan is choosing for a simple celebration for her four year old rather than the ginormous, thematic, disco-ball-spinnin’ parties she felt obligated to trump each year the first time around as a parent… Read about it this month in her bi-monthly column, “Hindsight Parenting: Raising Kids the Second Time Around.”

Hindsight Parenting: Summer Survival Lists

Preparing for Summer I used to hate summer. You heard me. H.A.T.E. While most educators count down the days until the end of the school year, my dread grows the closer the end of June comes. No, no…I have no aversion to heat, (at least not the kind of heat we get here in upstate […]

Hindsight Parenting: Loving During Hard Times

I Am On Your Side Mother’s Day has come and gone and I of course have been reflective. Yes. I have been thinking. I have been thinking about those mommies from Newtown. I have been thinking of mommies of those injured or killed in the Boston bombings. I have been thinking of moms who are […]

Hindsight Parenting: 999,999 Ways to Be a Good Enough Mother

There is no way to be a perfect mother. “There is no way to be a perfect mother, but a million ways to be a good one.” This quote by Jill Churchill has followed me around lately. I have seen it on TV, in print, on Pinterest, posted on Facebook and on Twitter. It has […]

Hindsight Parenting: The Strength of Children

Have Faith in Your Children Strength I was a big ol’ chicken this week. I mean a shakin-in-my-boots-anxiety-ridden-big-ol’-BAWK-BAWK-chicken. Last column and the column before that, I had hinted that there were things going on at my daughter Ila’s current daycare/preschool that weren’t all that wonderful. Between the mean girl attitude, and the teachers’ lack of […]

Hindsight Parenting: What is the Antidote to Meanness?

Mean Girls, At Age 3 “Go home, Ila!” Those three words, said by a three year old no less to my sweet-natured, well behaved, lovely, and special daughter (all right, all right I may be a tad biased…) made me squeeze the life out of my steering wheel from rage as it was relayed to […]

Hindsight Parenting: New Siblings and Imaginary Friends

Introducing Jess… So Ila has a sister. Now stop calculating and clutching your chest. I am not and never will be pregnant again. The vasectomy and heart condition has ensured that (And honestly…phew.). And no, no there is no illegitimate child involved. Although, I am sure there are some who live to fuel the small […]

Hindsight Parenting: New Year’s Resolutions for Parents

Leaving Stressors Outside the Front Door for the New Year! January; the month of promises to change, to improve, to start anew. We usually are gung-ho, walkin’ that treadmill, drinking those smoothies, foregoing those nasty cigarettes for…well…awhile. But let’s be honest, Hindsight tells us that we rarely CHANGE…I mean REALLY CHANGE. Pretty soon that treadmill […]