Perspectives in Parenting

I can't think of a time in my life I've needed a great friend more than when I became a mom. Throughout my teenage years and through college, friends, at least to me, were simply the people you hung out with on nights and weekends. If you were lucky, you would find someone you had a decent amount in common with and you could share some great conversations, too. My view on friendships changed drastically when my best friend entered my life. Though we weren’t fond of each other when we first met, she stepped in during a time when I really needed a friend. The patience and kindness she showed me when she hardly knew me proved to me that friendship...

7:42 a.m. Day 1 of summer break. My youngest, 11, comes up to me and lays in my lap as I am working. I already know what she is about to say because we have been here so many times before. "I'm boooooored," she moans. "I can't help you. You have plenty to do." She marches off, mad and mumbling to herself. I remember being that age and home during summer break. I spent my afternoons playing outside or with friends. I never told my mom that I was bored because she would just give me chores to do. I learned that lesson pretty quickly. My kids have also learned the same lesson. When my children were younger, I would plan out their summers. Bucket lists of...

All it takes is a big milestone to hit you right in the face to make you wonder “am I present enough?” and “am I doing this mom thing right?” “Am I a good mom?” I truly applaud the moms who are stay-at-home moms. That job is not easy and needs to be appreciated more. I just can’t do it because I am the best version of myself when I am working. But am I? I’ve worked multiple jobs and also had a full-time gym life since my oldest was born. My oldest is attending Kindergarten this fall, and that milestone hit me like a ton of bricks. I had an out-of-town event to work on his last day of Pre-K, at...

When our daughter was just two years old, we noticed her starting to limp. At first, we thought maybe she had fallen and hurt herself, but when we looked closer, we noticed her toe, ankles, and knees were swollen. After looking at her, our doctor sent us to an orthopedic specialist for more testing and several more rounds of x-rays. During those few months, Makaylah basically stopped walking. When she woke up in the morning, she could not stand or walk. After several months with the Orthopedic Specialist, we were referred to a Pediatric Rheumatologist who immediately diagnosed Makaylah with Polyarticular Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis. During this time, we were concerned and overwhelmed. We just wanted Makaylah to feel better. I...

Screen time gets a pretty bad reputation in the millennial parenting world. It seems that from the time we give birth, we’re encouraged to hold out as long as possible to give our kids an iPad to have some downtime to ourselves (how selfish). I’m here to take a stance that screen time is not a lazy parenting hack. In moderation and with heavy content monitoring, it’s a pretty awesome thing. The panic-inducing, finger-wagging statements made about screen time are, generally speaking, not based on a great foundation. Like many other generalizations that have been made regarding parenting, the studies that are used to shout to the skies that screen time leads to obesity, poor development, etc. are all based...