Mom's Timeout

My son is barely a year old and I’ve already been asked countless times when we’re having another one. Um, excuse me? It really hasn’t even been all that long since I had this one. Sure, I’d love to have another, but I don’t exactly have an exact timetable yet. Someday, maybe… but I’m not […]

I remember thinking to myself that once we were done getting up every few hours to eat, things would be easier. I also may or may not have mentioned to my mother-in-law that the little guy crawling would be great because he would be more likely to entertain himself. I’m sure she laughed to herself. […]

Does your kid hate riding in the car? My son has always hated riding in the car. He’s getting better as he gets older and we’re getting better at distracting him on road trips. When you’re traveling with kids it takes a lot of extra planning and novel distraction to keep them from going berserk […]

On the Fourth of July, the little guy was in bed by 8 PM. Nope, I didn’t care that it was a holiday. Next year, maybe we’ll stay up and watch the fireworks, but this year… This year, it wasn’t happening. One late night isn’t worth him being irritable for the rest of the weekend. […]

When you become a mom, you quickly realize that going anywhere with kids, even the gas station, is suddenly much different than when you were solo.  The bigger/longer the outing, the more there is to go wrong. I know it sounds pessimistic.  The first time your baby has a blow out when you’re already running […]

Are there things about parenting that you’re afraid of? I mean really, truly afraid of? I could probably think of at least a few. I know in the early days, I was afraid of everything. Lately, though, it seems to be the same few things that leave me terrified. I’m not sure why, but every […]

Sometimes, I get tired. I don’t mean I get tired at 11 PM. What I mean is that sometimes, around dinner time, I decide that I’m completely worn out. It’s tough. It’s hard to go all day and be up and down all night. It’s rough when you, more or less, work 24-7. There are […]

It doesn’t take very long to get tired of hearing “I’m bored!” or “There’s nothing to do at our house” before you’re ready to pull all your hair out and run away to a deserted island. Before I lose all my sanity, I start doing projects with the kids. Keeping them busy with fun activities […]

I was talking to a guy I work with today about how much fun our sons are, especially as toddlers, and how they seem to just keep going – running around, rough-housing, and the like. We were just joking around. It was one of those in-passing conversations that are so common at work. I made […]

There’s an ongoing debate between moms in the “free range parenting” camp and moms in the “helicopter” camp.  Who’s right? We have no idea. Each side is pretty set in their ways and convinced the other moms are irrevocably ruining their children for life. There’s constant pressure to get it right, to be the best […]

Murphy’s Law: anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.  I don’t consider myself a pessimist, but I’ve learned that managing toddlers means you have to be prepared for the unexpected. Sure, I want to believe that nothing bad will happen if I skip nap time to take my kids to the park instead. Its beautiful […]

Here’s the thing – kids are expensive. No matter how you look at it, raising a child isn’t getting any cheaper any time soon. Sometimes, that one thing is enough to keep some women from having more kids. I know we’ve looked at the cost of daycare alone and realized that if we have a […]

It’s heartbreaking to think about how many children are abducted each day. As moms, we want to believe that we’re safe and that it couldn’t happen to us. Unfortunately, that’s not realistic. Kids don’t always see or sense danger. Regardless of how many times we tell our kids not to talk to strangers, we have […]

The Fourth of July is synonymous with fireworks. The two go together like peas and carrots or mac & cheese. This weekend, many will be purchasing, lighting fireworks, and observing professional fireworks displays. They’re all so much fun! While the professionals are well-versed in safety precautions, many novices don’t follow proper procedures or aren’t sure […]

I’m writing them all down, most of them anyway. I don’t want to forget any of the cute little words and phrases my toddler says on a daily basis. Isn’t technology wonderful? It allows me to record short conversations on my smartphone and keep them forever. I’m afraid I’ll forget the sound of that little […]

Has your little Picasso recently used your living room wall as a canvas? For that matter, has your toddler decided to make your pots and pans their own personal drum set? If my little guy finds something to bang together, he most certainly does. And as far as art supplies go, they’re put up out […]

We just started using “time out”… or our version of it. I put it off for as long as I could for a variety of reasons. One being that I often hear from veteran moms that it didn’t work for them. Why bother with something that doesn’t work? I think part of the problem may […]

When my son was just five months old, the heat wave came. In South Carolina, where we live, it was in the 90s that May. We desperately wanted to play in the pool outdoors. Like most moms, I dutifully made my way to the local baby store to purchase sunscreen for my little angel. Babies […]

We want to give our children everything. We strive to meet not only their needs, but many of their wants. We imagine a life for them, a world, where they don’t ever have to do without. But that’s not reality. The reality is that we often have to say no. Sometimes even the things we […]

How often have we said “If I only knew what she was thinking!” or “If I only knew what he really wanted!” It’s hard trying to interpret the desires of a toddler with minimal language ability. If your toddler could tell you what she’s really thinking, what would she say? What about in those moments […]