Bookmarks (75) clear filters

I’m not saying that we, as parents, should always use our kids to do our dirty work. I’m saying that it would be pleasing to see a four-year-old walk through the grocery store or past a crowded restaurant and stop to point and loudly proclaim, “Mommy, why isn’t that person wearing a mask?”Read more...

I’m going to make a radical statement: I think Halloween will be more fun for kids this year, not less fun. Of all the things this year has taken from us and our kids, I am feeling a true revolt out there against the idea that social distancing will also take away the joy our kids find in this particular holiday. Read more...

We all have our own unique challenges during this time; no one is completely free from the stress a pandemic brings. But parents of kids with ADHD in particular struggled with—and perhaps gave up entirely on—virtual learning when things first shut down this spring. Unfortunately, that “oh, who even gives a shit…Read more...

For many families, the deeper we get into this pandemic, the harder it gets. We like to talk about our “new normal,” but the idea that any of this is close to “normal” can also feel like some kind of cruel joke. Parents are still working and taking care of multiple children (some of whom have extra needs) and they’re…Read more...

Our teenagers, like the rest of us, are struggling. They’ve been stuck at home, having lost the ability to socialize with their friends in person in any sort of normal way—right at the time when their relationships outside of the home have become so important to them. What they’ve lost during these many months is…Read more...

Each month of parenting during a pandemic brings with it a slew of questions parents never thought they’d have to ask themselves. Will my kid actually meet his teacher in person this year? They’ll take their masks off for school pictures, right? And now, of course, there’s, Can my kids even go trick-or-treating? ShouldRead more...

Karen Walrond has been many things in her life—a lawyer, speaker, photographer, author, leadership consultant, and a mother. She was born and raised in the Caribbean, met her husband-to-be in London, and they are now raising their teenage daughter, who they adopted at birth, in Texas. Walrond and her family are also…Read more...

We’re weeks into the longest, most hellish school year of our kids’ childhoods. It’s possible you’ve settled into a nice little routine with whatever “learning” looks like in your home. If so, that’s great! If, instead, the mood inside your home is more akin to complete and utter misery, it might be time for…Read more...

Even before the pandemic hit, it became popular to prioritize “self care.” Parenting podcasts like One Bad Mother have long discussed the challenges parents (particularly mothers) face in finding balance: One of their signature phrases is “I am a self,” a fact we’re meant to remind ourselves of when we feel like…Read more...

This pandemic has been full of tough moments, but some nice walks, too. I try to hold on to those nice walks, but for parents who are staring down the barrel of an entire school year of remote learning, the silver linings can seem pretty damn dim. Enter, the “Schoolcation.”Read more...

There are a lot of challenges for kids learning remotely, whether on a hybrid or full-time schedule this year. But one of the biggest is keeping track of exactly what needs to be done each day, in each of their subjects, and across a slew of apps and online programs. With some kids, it may be like starting fresh every…Read more...

New CDC guidelines are out with recommendations for fall and winter holiday celebrations—including Halloween. Many of the recommendations will sound familiar: Indoor gatherings are generally more risky than outdoor gatherings. The longer the duration and bigger the group of people, the higher the risk. Traveling is…Read more...

It may seem counterintuitive to trust a company like Hershey with advice about whether it’s safe to go trick-or-treating this year. They do have some serious skin in that game, after all, to the tune of 10 percent of their annual sales. But the famous candy company has launched a website that could be helpful for…Read more...

If the pandemic has turned you into a helicopter parent, one can hardly blame you. Unless you were the stay-at-home-parent to very young children before COVID hit, chances are your life used to be structured as such that every member of the family had some semblance of a life outside of the home. But now, we’ve got…Read more...

I took my son to a doctor’s appointment yesterday. It was an appointment with a new doctor, a specialist we’d never seen before, and the nurse took a moment to pause and look me straight in the eyes. “So,” she said. “How’s school going?”Read more...

“Mask-muffle” is a term I just made up, but it’s a real thing. If the cloth is meant to block a bunch of tiny respiratory droplets, it’s bound to muffle our words a bit, too. It can be hard enough to catch every word when you’re standing close to someone in a mask, and even more so if you’re the recommended six or…Read more...

What so many families need right now is structure mixed with some flexibility—plus a little bit of joy sprinkled on top. That’s what prompted one member of the Offspring Facebook group to create a small family schedule of little things to look forward to. And it’s something we can all easily replicate.Read more...

I became a mom about a decade ago, during the time of the so-called “Mommy Wars,” when parenting bloggers—the vast majority of which were women—often used their social media platforms to promote their style of parenting. During this time, women felt pressed to find their “tribe.” Their exclusive breastfeeding tribe,…Read more...