Search Results for: blog what surprises me about parenting

Summer Reading Series: Chloe

Talk about middle child syndrome. And you thought the Duggar family had issues. Chloe Bunny was born smack in the middle of 10 older brothers and sisters and 10 younger ones. Don’t worry; the carrot-loving clan is not making their debut on “21 Bunnies and Counting;” rather, they’re fodder for a funny bunny tale, Chloe, by New York Times bestselling author Peter McCarty. In McCarty’s latest literary venture, Daddy Bunny surprises his bustling brood with a new TV. The entire Bunny clan makes a beeline for the electronic entertainment option, save for Chloe and baby Bridget. Young Chloe is not … Continue reading →

Amazing Christmas Surprises

Is there any better Christmas gift than a healthy baby born just hours before the most celebrated day of the year? How about two healthy babies born to the same family just a few hours apart during the height of the holiday season? In what’s being called one of the most incredible Christmas surprises since the Immaculate Conception, a mother and daughter, plus twin sisters are marveling at the timing of their respective labors. In Chicago, 35-year-old Jessica Rotter was lending moral support to her 17-year-old daughter, Briana Guerrero, as the teen prepared to give birth at a suburban hospital … Continue reading →

Have a Merry Mary Engelbreit Christmas

Reading a Mary Engelbreit picture book is like wrapping yourself in a flannel blanket fresh from the dryer and snuggling into the down-filled cushions of Pottery Barn’s Charleston sofa with a cup of hot cocoa and marshmallows on a bitterly cold day. It’s certainly the feeling I got when reading the award-winning author’s newest release: A Merry Little Christmas: Celebrate from A to Z. The heartwarming tale follows little Gregory Mouse as he navigates his way through an alphabet of Christmas favorites. My six-year-old immediately skipped to the “T” page since her name begins with the 20th letter of the … Continue reading →

Back-to-School Supply Surprises

I could so relate to the recent New York Times piece on back-to-school lists. My daughter’s is nearly a mile long and includes items that left me wondering if I was stocking the school’s janitorial supply room instead of prepping my child for first grade. Tuition at my daughter’s Catholic school is insanely high (one academic year = price of a very, very good used car), so why is it that I am having to send my kid to school with cleaning supplies, Ziploc bags, anti-bacterial products and a myriad of paper goods, in addition to the standard pencils, notebooks … Continue reading →

Mother’s Day Surprises

Mother’s Day will be here shortly and for most moms it will be filled with some sort of surprise given your children’s ages. A single mom with no support from anyone else cannot rely on someone to take their child shopping for a gift for you, but that is okay. The best gifts are made from the heart with their own two, sweet, little hands. Providing your kids know it is Mother’s Day they will be busy preparing something special just for you. Your job is to pretend that you know absolutely nothing, that you see absolutely nothing, and that … Continue reading →

Staying Open to Good Surprises…as a Family

The other day, I wrote a little piece about how it seems to be that some of the best things happen when we least expect them. As a single parent family, we can get used to being braced for trials and troubles and forget that there are plenty of good surprises that come our way too. What about making a family practice to celebrate and notice those wonderful good surprises instead of just bracing for the troublesome ones? Okay, so maybe we would all love to win the lottery and surely a windfall of that magnitude would be a happy … Continue reading →

Meeting Someone Online

While many of us are skeptical, some people are comfortable with looking for a partner or a mate online. News programs such as Dateline and 20/20 have completely turned me against any type of online relationships. Having said that I likely should retract. There are several Families.com readers and writers that I feel I have created a friendship with through comments and private messaging. However, I am not one that would go out looking for someone special through the Internet. When using online dating services, one must be very careful. It is true that some of these sites work. I … Continue reading →

Parenting is a Roller Coaster Ride

There have been times when I wished parenting and life with children was more linear. To read the child development books, things look rather neat and tidy. Children move from stage to stage, phase to phase, and move along the stepping stones to adulthood with clear purpose. But in real life, it just doesn’t work that way. Periods of developmental bursts can often be followed by some types of “regression” and things can often seem rather up and down, push and pull and downright sloppy. What I have found in my parenting experiences is that stages tend to be more … Continue reading →

Holiday Surprises

Seems that I wasn’t the only one that deals with holidays with family and being part of the military. Granted I knew I wasn’t but it is always nice to hear someone else is dealing with this too. I think this issue has many topics that can be dealt with that I hadn’t really thought of yesterday as I wrote on it. For me, another issue is the fact of those last minute visitors that tend to surprise you. Now most of the time people think, oh the military can’t be surprised which while that is true it is also … Continue reading →

A Review of This Week’s Parenting Blogs

I am borrowing an idea from Heather Long and reviewing the week in Parenting. There have been some great blogs written on some important topics. But often parents only see the first few blogs and miss the rest. So here is a review of this week’s Parenting topics. Monday September 18th. “Teaching Good Judgment” is an important skill that many parents fail to teach their children. This is obvious by the many teens and young adults that are making such bad decisions. Read this blog for some ideas on how you can teach your child good judgment. “Should Partners Of … Continue reading →