• Last updated 11/13/12 by Melanie Mayo

  Contributed by Mothering blogger Sarah Clark   As I watch attachment style mothers sometimes I wonder if some of us forget that attachment parenting is called attachment PARENTING not attachment MOTHERING.     Attachment as a style of nurturing and loving our children is a beautiful thing.  It also can be quite exhausting- especially if all the attachment, co-sleeping, feeding, loving, holding, answering, nurturing, and touching is done by just one person.     Mom.   But it isn't called attachment mothering, is it. It is called Attachment... read more

• Last updated 1/15/13 by Cynthia Mosher

Our friend, Ron, and his two boys; a great dad! A mother wrote into Mothering.com’s Ask The Expert about her son’s preference for his father. Enjoy this excerpt about supporting the father/son bond. Dear Friend, I am sorry for your sorrow. It is so hard not to take this personally as a mother! I would take comfort from the fact that your son prefers you dad “when you are there,” by which I could infer that you son will accept comfort and company from you when his father is not an option. Almost every son goes through a huge “daddy... read more

• Last updated 1/16/13 by Cynthia Mosher

It was 1979 and only four girls made it to the T-ball championship game at Penmar Park, in Venice, California. The game was slated to start at 4pm on Sunday. Our family was on a backpacking trip with friends the week before the game. For some reason, the rest of the group left the trip a day early, so the last day and night my father and I got to experience the wilderness by ourselves. We spent the day scampering up a rock face that also served as a flat waterfall. There were areas so slick that a slip would have ensured a fall at least 6o feet, but... read more

• Last updated 3/30/13 by mamazee

How to illustrate a magazine article, in this case: an article titled “Handsome in Pink,” written by a dad, Matthew Rushford, about his little boy’s love of the color pink. 1. Hire Ben Hatke. Email Ben, whom you know from a previous job he did for Mothering, briefly describing the story, budget, and deadline. Ask whether he’s available. Send the story and an excerpt describing the scene which you think might make a good opener: I stood with my two-year-old son, gazing at the wall of shoes at Payless Shoes. In our immediate range of vision... read more

• Last updated 3/13/13 by mamazee

1. Love your children, and let them know it, even if it might feel a little awkward because your own parents were not comfortable with showing affection. 2. Be fair. So consistently that your children know they can count on your fairness, even when they don’t like it. (And as they watch you consider both sides of an issue, they’ll grow to understand that things are not ever necessarily black and white—or as simple as they might have first seemed.) 3. Listen to your children, even when their ideas might seem a little out there. (This is a corollary to... read more

• Last updated 3/30/13 by mamazee

By Jeremy Adam Smith My son Liko has one developmental issue. It's usually called mixed dominance, but you can also call it cross-dominance, mixed-handedness, mixed laterality, or hand-confusion--genuine ambidexterity is a rare manifestation of mixed dominance. In Liko's case, this means, for example, that he tends to eat with his right hand but draw with his left. Is this truly an issue? He may very well be ambidextrous; he may gradually end up favoring one hand. We're seeing an occupational therapist to sort it out, but I'm not terrifically worried. Indeed,... read more

• Last updated 3/30/13 by mamazee

By Jeremy Adam Smith Lawrence Kutner had seen his teenage son play video games. But like many parents, he didn't know much about them. Then in 2004 the U.S. Department of Justice asked Kutner and his wife, public health researcher Cheryl Olson, to run a federally funded study of how video games affect adolescents. Olson and Kutner are the co-founders and directors of the Harvard Medical School’s Center for Mental Health and Media. Kutner, a psychologist, had never examined video games, either in his research or in his life as a dad. And so the first... read more

• Last updated 3/30/13 by mamazee

By Jeremy Adam Smith “Keep yer stick on the ice!” yelled one dad, his voice filled with anger. “Come on, number fifteen!” yelled another. “You skate like a girl!” Liko and I were watching a youth hockey game at the Yerba Buena rink in San Francisco. We were surrounded by fathers watching their boys play hockey...and, man, was it ugly. As the kids battled on the ice, you could feel the tension rising among the parents. Then I heard a lone, small voice from the other side of the bleachers: “Have fun!” it said. I looked up, and so did the other... read more

• Last updated 4/7/13 by AdinaL

By Jeremy Adam Smith The "Twenty-Five Ways for Dads to Change the World" series will resume next week; I usually take a break from blogging in December. Right at the moment I’m in Florida for my brother’s wedding, and I thought I'd share this little incident: In the courtyard of my future sister-in-law’s apartment complex, I met a neighbor I’ll call Judy. She told me my brother is wonderful, my future sister-in-law is wonderful; she told me about her work buying and selling condos; I mentioned that I have a son. Then she asked: “Where are you coming... read more

• Last updated 3/30/13 by mamazee

By Jeremy Adam Smith Sure, sharing is caring. Sure, you've carpet-bombed your kid's brain for years with messages about the joys of toy-sharing. But what do you share? Seriously, dads and moms: How often do you share what you have in your daily life? Maybe you do it all the time, but I have to make myself share. In my day job, I edit a site called Shareable.net--and let me tell you, it does not come naturally. I'm often uncomfortable when I have to describe our mission to strangers. "It's, um, a site about sharing," I say with a touch of embarrassment. Then... read more