I’m a big fan of stand-up comedy. John Mulaney, Jerry Seinfeld, Russell Peters, Key and Peele—I love them all and dozens of others. To me, stand-up comedy is good medicine—especially during rough times. Laughing for an hour or two straight is good for the soul. Unfortunately, there aren’t too many stand-up comedians I can share with my daughter yet. Whether it’s foul language or insensitive remarks, I’m just not prepared to explain the premise of some jokes. That’s why I was so excited when I was surfing YouTube and found a stand-up special by Greg Davies from 2011. Old, sure. Funny as hell? A ..read more

Quarantine and lockdowns may be lifted in most states, but social distancing is still a real priority. It’ll likely be this way for some time. As parents, we’re all asking ourselves when it’s okay for our kids to see their friends again or in what capacity. It’s tough. Personally, I’ve been straying more stringent with my social distancing. We still wear masks when we go out and try to keep a six-foot barrier with the people around us. My daughter has had a friend or two over to play outside, and we’ve talked about how distance is important for preventing the spread of germs. Still, it’ll be n ..read more

There are, quite literally, thousands of kids’ movies to stream right now. You’ve got the Disney classics. Netflix Originals. Animated blockbusters. Spinoffs. Sequels. Watch a kids’ movie on any streaming service and your recommended viewing selection will be flooded with options. There aren’t enough hours in the YEAR to watch even a fraction of them. So, what should you watch? If you’re asking me, I’m the wrong person. My viewing preferences swing toward movies like Knives Out and Birds of Prey—definitely not kid friendly. Instead, I decided to ask my daughter what her top picks are. Here’s h ..read more

I’m a problem-solver. It’s something I pride myself on. Being able to look at a problem and assess possible solutions is a skill I’ve worked hard to develop throughout my life. So, imagine how frustrated I get when I offer someone a solution and they flat out refuse it or don’t want to even try it. I just can’t stand it when someone points at a problem and says “look, a problem!” As a parent, my over-emphasis on problem-solving can be troublesome. I have a tendency to want to solve problems for my daughter. The issue is, if I do all the work and solve all the problems, she never learns to do t ..read more

10 seconds is both a very long time and a very short time. 10 seconds while you’re late for work, waiting for a light to change from red to green can seem like an eternity. Then again, it might only take you 10 seconds to embarrass yourself with a stupid statement or a glib comment. When you’re a parent, 10 seconds can absolutely make or break your response to a situation. Let’s say your daughter is running around the house chasing the dog. She rounds a corner, bumps into a bookshelf and knocks over a picture frame, shattering glass everywhere. Pause. The next 10 seconds can determine a lot. I ..read more

Since I was a kid, I’ve probably changed my mind a dozen times about what I wanted to be in life. First, I wanted to be a firefighter. Then, an astronaut. Then, Spider-Man. I went through about a dozen more career choices before settling on “scientist.” Scientist stuck, but even then, I wasn’t sure what area of study I wanted to be in until I hit college. Heck, there are even days when I wake up and say to myself, “I would love to be an architect.” The point of it all is that few people really know what they want to do in life and even fewer know early on. But that doesn’t stop parents from as ..read more

There’s a growing movement among parents of newborns to raise their children in a gender-neutral way. Think painting the nursery green instead of pink or blue, or naming them Bailey instead of Jack or Jane. But gender-neutral parenting goes far beyond sticking to the middle of gender lines. There’s a certain psychology behind shielding children from gender bias. For parents or people on the outside looking in, the idea of gender-neutral parenting can seem bizarre or even ridiculous. But it’s important to realize this parenting style has less to do with engraining gender in a child and more to ..read more

Most soon-to-be-parents choose a name for a special reason. They like the way it sounds (first and last name) or it reminds them of something they like. It might be a family name. Even pop culture plays a role—after Disney released Aladdin in 1992, the girl’s name ‘Jasmine’ boomed in popularity! There have been no shortage of oddities when it comes to famous baby names. You might remember when Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin named their daughter ‘Apple.’ Well, that’s got nothing on Elon Musk and Grimes. On May 4, 2020 they welcomed little baby X Æ A-12 into the world. If you’re like me, your ..read more

I don’t know about you, but my house has been a beehive since the shelter in place rules started. For the past two months, my girls have been home 24 hours a day… which means all the energy they’d usually expend out in the world is concentrated right here, under one roof. There are days where it’s nonstop motion and activity from sun-up to sun-down. I relish those couple of hours after they go to bed where there’s sweet silence! After weeks and weeks of high-energy, pent-up living, I could feel my fuse growing shorter and shorter. Little things would happen that I’d find myself overreacting to ..read more

Every parent wants to be the “cool” parent. The one their kids think is laid back and easygoing, who doesn’t ever make them do chores or tell them what to do. But we know it’s impossible to always be the cool parent. You have to say no. You have to make them do their chores. You have to scold them when they do something wrong. And when you do, all of the sudden, you go from being the cool parent to the mean parent. We all know the difference between being a cool parent and being an effective one… so why does it suck so much when you’re not the cool parent? Survey says, it’s psychological. We w ..read more