Mom's Timeout

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 […]

We are really excited about celebrating The Fourth! Holidays are so much more fun with kids. Children make the holidays truly magical. Everything is exciting through their eyes. Celebrating Independence Day with young children does require some creativity though. Often community fireworks displays are too noisy for their sensitive ears or too late at night […]

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 […]

With this pregnancy, I’m learning that sometimes good maternity care is hard to find. I’ve been reading a lot in an effort to learn how to find better care than I had the last time I labored. Often times, I don’t find the articles very helpful. Either the questions are too generic or they’re directed at […]

Planning a vacation this summer? If you’re the proud mommy of a toddler (or toddlers – bless your heart!), you know that planning a vacation with little ones is not unlike creating a military-style attack plan. Usually this plan involves a long ride in the car that isn’t fun for anyone. Either your kids are […]

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 […]

We all know there’s no rule book, no how-to guide, no instruction manual for kids. There are plenty of books that claim to have it all figured out. You won’t get through page 2 before you realize about the only thing those books are good for is starting a fire.  Children are all different and […]

Wanna know the inside scoop about labor and delivery? Ask a labor and delivery nurse. If you’ve given birth before, you know these women do all the real work. If you’ve got questions about the hospital, the doctors, or just what you can expect out of labor in general… these are the people who can […]

Sometimes parenting is messy. I’m not talking about the sticky fingers and spilled juice boxes. To me, messy seems to be the best word to describe those moments when you find yourself praying no one is watching. The ones when you feel guilty for giving your kid the cookies for lunch, but you just couldn’t […]

I have a little boy. He’s two and a half and he’s amazing. I used to think I wanted a girl. Most of the time I was pregnant, I thought I was having a girl. When my son was born, like most moms, I was instantly in love. I dove head first into all that […]

I’ve started saying I have two beautiful kids instead of one. My husband keeps correcting me. “We don’t know what she looks like” he says of the child I’m still carrying. “She might look like an alien” he jokes.  I don’t care what she looks like, she’s beautiful. How could she not be? She’s an […]

Have you managed to survive the toddler years? Is your house still in tact? Are you smack in the middle of them right now? Think you’re going to live to tell about it? There are tons of totally annoying things that toddlers do, that’s for sure. They’re both adorable and obnoxious at the same time. […]

One thing I learned as a new mom was that lack of sleep and I do not get along. As much as I loved life with a newborn (and even now with a toddler), some days I seriously napped off and on with the baby until 3 pm and I probably still would if I […]

Being a mom is exhausting. At the end of the day, we just want to crash. It’s not any one thing… it’s everything! We wake up feeling full of energy and ready to take on the day, or at least that’s how we feel after we’ve had our morning coffee. Fifteen minutes in, we’re counting […]