• Last updated 3/20/13 by mamazee

We are at the ocean with friends. I have my three children with me. My sixteen month old is thrilled with the tide. She is standing at the water’s edge squealing with delight . I stand right next to her and my hands are within inches of her armpits; ready am I to lift her swiftly if need be, however, I let her interact with the ocean on her own. I let her experience the water on her terms and make her own discoveries with the current. At one point the water comes in fuller and I recognize that its force is strong enough to make her lose her balance,... read more

• Last updated 3/15/13 by mamazee

This article suggests that parents are pulling kids from day care as the economy falters. As is often the case in journalistic trend stories, the writer only provides some anecdotes and interviews to make his point, and no big-picture numbers. Probably none are available at this early stage. However, I don't doubt that this story is true; every economic contraction creates a pattern like this. But what does it look like on a family by family level? You do see spikes in stay-at-home parenthood; people make do with a lower standard of living and try to enjoy the time... read more

• Last updated 3/15/13 by mamazee

We’ve all been through it, the hours battling a small body to fall asleep, the endless tossing and turning and the “I don’t wanna go to sleep. I’m not tired yet.” We cajole. We sing. We dance. We offer favorite toys. We offer promises (bribes); five nights without a battle, and you can get a new toy or whatever it is with which we can bribe them. And later, when our patience runs out and they really need to be to sleep, we start threatening and trying to reason with a small tired body that is already beyond reason. Two... read more

• Last updated 3/14/13 by mamazee

Welcome to the new Mothering podcast! Subscribe here to have Mothering’s newest audio content delivered to you as it is published. We kick off our podcast with “Breastfeeding Beyond Infancy,” a radio documentary by producer Vanessa Lowe, featuring the voices of fourteen women who have breastfed their children between one and four years. Extended breastfeeding is arguably among the most heated and controversial child rearing choices, occupying an emotionally fraught landscape along with co-sleeping, sleep training and discipline. The goal of this radio... read more

• Last updated 3/14/13 by SmilinMomma

By Colleen Lowe Smith   I know that children, especially toddlers, are literal, but it still catches me by surprise sometimes.  Cassidy and I were reading a book the other night: “... and the cat jumped out of his skin!”   “Mommy.” Cassidy says.  “Where his skin?”   We started Montessori toddler class together, which is a whole other story.  I’d been a Montessori pre-school teacher for twelve years and the toddler curriculum is familiar to me, and though there are challenges as mommy/teacher I will expound on another time, there are also surprises.  We don’t... read more

• Last updated 3/8/13 by mamazee

  Another Sink Moment; I Guess I Really Am A Sink Mom Honestly, I’m so deep in parenting I don’t even realize it sometimes. I have a friend coming in from out of town tomorrow. I don’t have a nanny. I don’t have a house cleaner. My bathroom doesn’t clean itself. So, that would leave my 18-month old daughter’s morning nap as the obvious time to mop the floors and scrub the sink. And yet, during this “break” (her nap,) I don’t want to spend it cleaning. I want to write my rock and roll memoir, my parenting book and my Mothering blog! I want... read more

• Last updated 3/8/13 by juliemarie13

     Before I was even pregnant, years before really, I began to develop some beliefs about what parenting was going to be like. I felt strongly (and still do) about the value and importance of toys without lights and whistles and ones that don't do all of the playing for a child. I felt passionately certain that I would have the most amazing breast feeding experiences of anyone, ever. I believed that cloth diapers would rock my world and that my precious little son or daughter would never watch television and instead we would frolic happily through the yard;... read more

• Last updated 3/7/13 by mamazee

There was a little girl, who had a little curl... James was carrying the baby yesterday and her legs looked so long. She sits on my lap at the table, or in her high chair, and shovels brown rice and grated carrot and bits of potato pancake (stopping to poke a finger in the sour cream and smear it on her tray) into her mouth. “Nursing’s just for snacks,” Athena says. “Now she eats real food.” What happened to our tiny newborn? She’s morphed into a walking almost-talking toddler. I don't know what you think is important in... read more

• Last updated 3/7/13 by mamazee

Who knew that a 14-month-old could show so much affection? My son Michael has reached the stage of massive exploration, having just gone from three steps to steady walking within a week. But he has also started to give us endless cuddles and kisses. My favorite is his “pat pats”: when you pick him up if he’s upset, or in need of some cuddles, he gives us little tiny baby hand pats on our shoulders and back. It makes my heart melt to think that a child who can’t talk or walk can show us how much he loves us by the look in his eyes, expressions on his... read more

• Last updated 3/6/13 by Momsteader

Liko (my son, 3-yrs old) looking through fridge: What are these? Mommy: Beets. Liko: What are beets? Mommy: They're kind of like sweet, red potatoes. Liko thinks for a moment, then: Is that what you make borscht out of? When I was a lad in New Jersey and Michigan in the 1970s and '80s, hamburgers, pizza, and french fries were the very height of kid cuisine. My wife (who grew up in Hawaii as part of a relatively sophisticated and omnivorous Chinese-American family) has labored for many long years to repair the damage inflicted on my palate and broaden my tastes enough so... read more