It takes a village to raise a tween
As my baby grows into this new, beautiful, moody, long-legged creature, I know she will have questions I can’t answer, problems I can’t solve, fears I can’t comfort. I know our friends won’t be able to solve all these problems either, but I’m enormously grateful that I’m not alone in this new stage of our lives, and neither is Alice.
Family photo session round-up and more tips for rocking your own photos
Family portrait sessions are one of my favorite things that people do — there’s no better way to capture where your family is at the moment. The sessions are also super diverse — you can shoot in the intimacy of your home, at a park or playground you frequent, or anywhere.
Talking to tweens about sex and masturbation: keep calm and spank on
Parents face a potential challenge that will likely rear its head sometime in the tween years: how do you talk to your kids about masturbation and sex without the conversation making everyone uncomfortable? Nicole from Moms Who Drink and Swear recently had to face the convo with her twelve-year-old head on, and here’s how it went.
Beautiful Freak: The Eels, my daughter, and me
[My daughter] Schuyler has always loved music, which is no surprise given that she’s been surrounded by it from day one, and I’ve always sung to her. The other day, we were singing an Eels song, Beautiful Freak. “Daddy,” she asks, “Am I a freak?”
Thinking of my ‘tween: should I be for censorship?
I’ve always prided myself on my support of free speech. While I don’t agree with what everyone is allowed to say, I do support their right to say it. My whole philosophy is coming under fire with my oldest son’s foray into the “tween” years.
5 movies that will make your kids want to go to summer camp
I have always had a bit of a curiosity about summer camp. This is mostly because I never went to one, unless you count the strange religious camp I went to for two weeks that resulted in a case of the hives and broken furniture — which I don’t. I did, however, spend LOTS of my time as a young ‘un watching movies, and plenty of these movies were about — you guessed it — summer camps!
My kids will have a decade between them and I think that’s awesome
Ten years ago I took a pregnancy test that resulted in two blue lines — those two blue lines. Now I’m getting ready to have my second child and loving that my kiddos will have at least ten years between them.
10 Young Adult novels that don’t suck
As a middle school English teacher, I’ve read a lot of young adult literature and, quite frankly, there’s a lot of crap out there (I won’t even climb on my anti-Twilight soapbox). Navigating the muddy waters of YA lit can be akin to, well, teaching middle school, but there really are some amazing reads in this genre.