Child Safety

Motherhood is tough, no doubt about it. As if there isn't enough to worry about with our kids, we also have to worry about hiding the Tide pods from our teenagers, and I recently found out that there’s a condom snorting challenge?! On top of school violence, and oh you know, just the regular everyday illnesses that can affect our kids, I am over it!! This motherhood thing is so darn hard. I'm amazed that moms are not wandering around in some Apocalypse Now daze. It's hard to believe that some people actually question why moms are on anti-anxiety medication. You need them even if you haven't been medically diagnosed ... it’s called survival!! I got pregnant for my oldest son...

In response to the recent walkout conducted by teenagers all over the US, people took to social media to express their opinions. This didn't surprise me. What did surprise me were the general themes of what I saw in the responses. The very same people who were voicing frustration just days before, following yet another school shooting, were also complaining about how this specific population chose to act on those frustrations. They saw the peaceful protest in commemoration of the fallen and the effort to generate a national conversation about gun violence as ineffective and an immature attempt to skip class.  I guess that's what they think kids are into these days. Teenagers are often decried as being obsessed with...

On Wednesday, I was planning on starting a silly post listing all the nonsense reasons why I am still awake at 11:30pm on a weekday. It’s a phenomenon I’m sure all moms have experienced. We are exhausted at the end of a long day of mothering, yet we stay up until the wee hours doing nothing, because we finally can. But there was nothing silly about why I was still awake at 11:30pm this past Wednesday night. Since mid afternoon, my heart had been flooded with the pain of the families and fellow students of the children involved in the school shooting in Florida, reaching a paralyzing crescendo when the final death count was announced. Seventeen people. How could this...

Disclosure :: this post is sponsored by Children's Hospital.  Get a Jump Start on Heart Disease Prevention With Your Little Ones February is National Heart Month! To observe this very important month of awareness for heart disease, we would like to share a few ways to work to prevent Heart Disease before it is even a problem – in childhood! While heart disease is primarily a health issue in adults, and not children, many of the factors that cause heart disease begin in childhood. According to the CDC, one in every six children in the U.S. are considered obese, a statistic that concerns doctors and parents alike, as many of the unhealthy habits that contribute to childhood obesity can lead to...

She sat on my couch, shocked, devastated. As she began to tell her story, she pulled her feet up and sat with crossed legs, arms folded over the pillow she had drawn in to her chest. Even her body told the story. She was protecting herself. “She knew. She knew because he did it to her,” she whispered. Now in her 40’s and a mom herself, she had just learned that her own mother had been sexually abused as a child. The devastating blow was learning that the same man who abused her had also abused her mother when she was a child. “How could she not protect me from him? She knew what he was! I mean, that’s a mother’s job!...