Growing Up

Barbie, Made For Mothers And Daughters "We girls can do anything, Right Barbie?" That was the slogan I would proudly sing aloud as a little girl playing with my Barbie dolls back in the mid-80’s. If you’re a young Gen X / elder Millennial Mom (a Xennial, if you will), you were probably singing along too.Barbie was not without controversy, but for many of us she symbolized what we hoped to be; beautiful, independent, successful, and happy. Luckily, for little Black girls at that time, Barbie could also be Black! Thanks to Mattel’s Chief Designer of Fashions and Doll Concepts, Louvenia (Kitty) Black Perkins, the first Black Barbie was created in 1979. Barbie was living her best life and she...

Books For Boots It was on a Monday in mid-March of 2023 when I got the call that no parent ever wants to get from their child. The call came from my oldest daughter Mackayla, just days after her 19th birthday. She was crying and it was hard to understand her until I finally made out “Mom … I’m hurt. They found something in the MRI … stress fractures in my hips …” The hardest part of being a parent is hearing your child cry, knowing they are hurt, and knowing there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. Little did either of us know just how much that phone call would change our lives over the next few months. Towards...

Please Don't Runaway, Little One It’s happened twice now. Once when she was four, and most recently when she was six. I’ll be completely honest with you, I took it very personally. It hurt my feelings and I felt a sadness in the core of my heart. In both instances, as I tried to understand her logic and point of view, I failed to remind my face that I was a strong person, and tears laced my cheeks like a warm, inviting blanket. She was so serious, too. She carefully, but messily packed her clothes into a suitcase. While she packed her favorite stuffy, she not-so-quietly whispered to Baabaa, her stuffed cow that she thought was a lamb half her life,...

That's Enough Screen Time, Little One I am a middle child, through and through. Mischievous, attention-seeking, too smart for my own good, and always in trouble. I was a poster child for talking back, rolling eyes, and plotting everyone’s evil demise. In second grade, my family went to Disney World for a week, and I never saw the fireworks display because I was grounded every evening. That’s pretty much how most of my childhood went, punished and forced to entertain myself. But during all the time spent alone while punished, I developed an insatiable love for reading. I began to read like it was as essential as food and air. When I was seven, I remember sitting down with The Three Musketeers,...

No screens before 24 months. Thereafter, children should have a maximum of 1 hour of screens until age 5. Why is this? We have all heard the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations, but does it really matter? Is that just for television time or does that include educational content as well? What our family has learned from heeding screen recommendations. Some of the reasons for the recommendations of no screen time until 24 months is because research has shown that there are zero benefits to screens, educational or not. What studies have shown are that screens before 18 months of age affect children’s speech and language skills including reading skills and attention in the long-term. What do we do in place...