parenting

Books can be a remarkably useful resource for parents, but I don’t mean “useful” in the faux-lifestyle advice, What to Expect When You’re Expecting sense. Children’s books – the books we share with our children – can actually make your job as a parent EASIER, which is amazing, considering they are essentially some pieces of paper glued together.

My house is a mess, my patience is hardly a composure I explore regularly, and there are times when I feel like I am the biggest failure in the history of modern motherhood. Some days I’m just shooting for a participation trophy. There is no award for ignoring the laundry until everyone is out of underwear, or letting my 3-year-old watch Mulan 3 times before lunch. Did I mention I take my kids to McDonald’s once a week?

I was incapable of feeling. I could not show all the love and promise my heart held for those boys. Once I returned and started feeling better, we had to cope with a new challenge: mania and the onset of bipolar disorder.

Parenting can be challenging . . . at the best of times. So when we end up doing all the things we vowed we would NEVER do when we had our own kids, we often feel like we've failed as parents. Well, guess what? You’re not alone, and it’s OK!

Through the years, I've learned that our ideologies matter far less than the quality of the relationships we build with our kids. Your rules and my rules may be entirely different, but if we center our parenting around nurturing and compassion for our kids, we will achieve similar results.

You really can feel guilty about everydamnthing. Here are the cold hard facts: You are going to screw up. It’s happening. You might actually screw up pretty hard.

In today’s world, you give so much of yourself to others that, by the time you get home, you just want to crash and numb yourself on the Internet. But have you ever wondered what your children see when you choose an electronic device over play time?

There's this stereotype of the only child: that they're spoiled and self-centered. That their parents are the worst kind of doting, helicopter kid-worshippers. That they're inherently lonely.