Parenting Today

As a mom with two daughters and a busy life as a freelance writer, I’m always trying to make sure that I juggle all that I have to do in an efficient and productive manner. My daughter, Rose, is about to be 16 and is going to enter the world of teenage driving and my other daughter, Samantha, is itching to do something new. She’s 12 and I think she looks at her sister’s next move towards adulthood with a bit of envy and some wonderment.

Sometime after your child is born, you start to have visions of their future. I did when my daughter Rose came into this world. I saw her taking her first wobbly steps, pushing off on her first lurching bike ride and tentatively pushing down on the gas pedal the first time she drove a car. Well, I’ve survived two out of three of those experiences and now, as Rose reached her fifteenth birthday a while back, I am preparing for the third.

Many new moms get so busy taking care of baby that fitness programs slip out of their lives. But it doesn't have to be that way says, Lisa Druxman, founder of San Diego-based Stroller Strides.

"The idea is to use the stroller as a piece of fitness equipment and doing exercises that actually rely on the stroller, or workouts that can be done while your baby is in the stroller," says Lisa.

I remember the days when my Dad taught me to drive . . . I was nervous, he was antsy, and there may have been a few tears. But he was patient beyond belief – and I vowed to keep that same attitude when it was time to teach my daughter how to drive. No yelling, no sighing, no cringing. That’s a lot harder than it sounds! Of course, there are numerous professional driving schools that will teach your teen everything they need to know but you will eventually have to ride along as a passenger!

Behind the Wheel for the First Time

We are all aware that most children believe that taking photos tend to be lame. They think it's a waste of time to pose, whether alone or with other individuals, just to find out what they looked like. But what they don't understand is that they won't stay little forever, and sometimes, pictures help us remember the awesome days of when they were little.

Here are five main reasons why you have to take photographs of your kids:

Just about all of us overeat during the pregnancy and perhaps gain a little more than we expected!. It’s the one time that society tells us, “You are eating for two!” And we do so with gusto. As a result, some women gain up to 60 pounds and even more at the time of birth. I distinctly remember my doctor telling me that 20-25 pounds was the most he expected me to gain during pregnancy.

by James Lehman, MSW

Are you facing the new school year with dread because you have an unmotivated or underachieving teen or pre-teen? Is your child’s answer to everything, “I don’t care” or “It doesn’t matter?” In Part I of this two-part series, James Lehman, MSW explains why your child does have motivation—and how you can coach them to better behavior.

Nowadays, children behave differently than they did many years ago. This is why new ways of rearing a child are constantly being discovered. Child rearing method for every child is different. As a parent, this is something you should acknowledge. You have to be able to guide your child in every aspect of his life so that he may become a good person someday. In order to raise your child well, you need to know how to do it the modern way.

Most families rely heavily on TV ratings when it comes to appropriate programs for their children to watch. They trust that “kids” channels will broadcast limited to no violent content and rarely feel a need to monitor those programs. According to a study published in March of 2009 TV ratings don’t accurately reflect aggressive content leaving your child viewing interactions you may otherwise disprove of.

Researchers Kevin Kieffer, assistant professor of psychology at Saint Leo University in San Antonio FL and Jessica Nicoll, also of Saint Leo University conducted the first large scale review of multiple studies on video game violence and aggression in children. They found that violent games with protagonists that hunt, maim and kill are linked to at least short-term aggression behaviors in children.