Dealing with separation anxiety when kids return to school can be heartbreaking. Whether kindergarten or university, many parents struggle with tears and phone calls during this time of change. It takes strength and trust in the teachers to leave your child in a state of duress. Here are a few ideas of what may help to mitigate the anxiety for both of you.
One of our most popular posts is about how to connect more with kids. I came up with 36 topics to chat about around the dinner table, and this seems to have filled a big need with readers. Our family could certainly use a few more – especially during a pandemic when we’ve been together for a BILLION YEARS. Ok, 12 months. But that is an awfully long time, even if you all love each other a bunch. Here are 50 family dinner discussion topics (pandemic version), which happen to be a bit deeper than the first batch. Covid. World ending. People dying. Go figure!
Every time I enter DisneyLand, Walt Disney World or one of the Disney cruises, pixie dust fills my lungs, families get giddy and stress is stomped like a marshmallow. Not this year. Like most of us, hugging Mickey has not been in the cards due to pandemic travel bans. Sometimes, even with being showered with love and good fortune, I’m ashamed to admit that I don’t always recognize the blessings around me. I allow myself to get stampeded by life and *gasp*, complain sometimes. In past travels to California and Florida, Disney taught me several things, and my goal for 2021 is to incorporate as many of the lessons into my own life as I can. Even when I can’t go there at the moment. Here are my 12 Disney-inspired New Year’s resolutions.
It’s almost the end of an epic-ally horrid year, and time to set some goals and evaluate all that is amazing in life. What better way to connect with your kids than sitting down to a new classic Disney film! Mulan is the story of a fearless young woman who risks everything to become one of the greatest warriors China has ever known.
How many of us have been there: busy mass transit situation, your legs are killing you after a long day’s work. No available seats, so you stand, exhausted though you are. Through it all, blissfully oblivious, several teens sit comfortably in their seats, earbuds plugged in, heads bobbing. All while your calves and toes scream for mercy.
As the world changes and we all stay at home to limit the transmission of the virus, we are all looking for things to do and ways to learn. If your family is like mine, it’s a bit easier to convince the kids to learn when there is some sort of screen in front of their faces. Here are ten digital family boredom busters to get you through the next days and weeks.
Mothers of multiples, if they didn’t have them before, have to develop shrewd multi-tasking skills. Multiple kids will turn you into a multi-tasking mama.
Let’s face it, getting kids to eat vegetables is hard. If they manage to eat anything more than a granola bar or macaroni in a day, it’s one for the books. If they manage 5 servings of fruits and vegetables? Dinnertime dance party.
One of the best ways to increase interest in vegetables is by growing your own. Yes, gardening. We know, sometimes keeping a child alive is almost too much, much less a cactus or tomato.
Tending food inspires curiosity, ownership and appreciation. So how do we find time to grow it?
The change in my son’s behaviour was so gradual I almost didn’t realize what was happening. At first, I wrote it off as a bad day. I explained his emotional meltdowns as tiredness or hunger—I know how a guy can get when he needs a taco.
One bad day turned to two, and two turned into a week. Before I knew it we were living a new normal. An emotionally unhinged, can-other-kids-possibly-be-like-this normal.
So here I am today, writing from Toddler Hell, where the red cup is never blue enough and shoes are evil feet-demons.
As your child gets older and more independent, the summer break takes on a whole different vibe. Your now-teenager has successfully navigated middle school, some of high school, and possibly even completed Drivers’ Ed (eek!) At this point, they’re likely pretty entrenched in their daily routine: getting to class, completing assignments, attending practice, and (hopefully) doing their chores. And then summer arrives and it all falls apart. Your once busy teenager suddenly has hours and hours of time to play with and no direction creating a situation that can quickly escalate out of moms control—so here are some summer tips for moms with teens to help nip it in the bud right from the start.