Kate

When my first born was a baby, I used to anxiously wait until she was asleep, then I would whisk through the house and clean up. When she woke up, I would be all eyes on her, sitting and playing and taking care of her until at last she would…

We were driving through the beautiful countryside yesterday and my husband said, “Hey Kate, stop looking at your phone and look at the scenery.” I was in the worst mood ever (we were joking about it) and I said, “Oh would you shut up and let me look at my…

I like dogs, I really do. My kids like dogs too, but only when the dog is on a lead, is close to their owner and isn’t acting like a lunatic.

Understandably, nobody wants their child to grow up into a spoiled, ego-centric adult. But, is purposely teaching kids that they are NOT the center of the universe, the right way to do it?

It’s a stab to the heart… When your gently raised child starts biting, hitting, pushing and smacking. You always hear that children learn by watching their parents… but YOU do not bite, hit, push or smack, so why is your child? It’s baffling and it can become quite frustrating to…

The little boy at the playground could not have been more than 20 months old. Although I had seen him with his parents before, when he came wondering slowly over to the water play area, his parents were nowhere to be seen. My girls had asked for permission to get…

“There’s Nothing to be Scared About” is Something I Never Say to My Kids. Her whole body was trembling. She was terrified. Margo’s swim lesson last week, was the last lesson of the day. She had been going to swim lessons at a different pool for a few years, but we…

Children see no difference between playing and learning, as long as the learning is fun! ’Fun‘ does not mean things have to be flashy, shiny, loud, expensive or exotic (although they certainly can be). I swear, give a kid a cup and some water and they might play with it…

My kids were bouncing around on the bed tonight, singing ‘Ring Around the Rosie‘. I told Margo (the older one) to stop (for the eighteen millionth time) because the little one is still a toddler and clumsy on her feet. Margo didn’t really listen and I didn’t really have the…

The past week at the beach, Margo (nearly 4 years old), has been on a serious mission to make new friends. She’ll spot some kid (usually a girl dressed in pink), who is relatively her age, but often a quite a few years older and says, “Mom, do you see…

Energy reserves start to plummet into oblivion and the room starts to spin. The demands from my kids get louder and more persistent…

“Oh, Hi little one“, said this excited lady, flapping her arms, at the shopping center, “It won’t be long until Christmas… Santa is going to come and bring you lots of presents… Are you excited?!”  I did the ‘ol smile and nod as she walked past.  She was speaking to…

Nursing Aversion: The toe-curling, blood-boiling, rip-your-hair-out, bite-the-back-of-your-hand and want-to-go-running-down-the-street-screaming feeling that you may get when your toddler asks for the boobies

I was being a smart alec tonight, and just for fun, I started googling the following ‘mean parenting‘ phrases to see what would turn up.  Here are just a few that I looked for: How to get your kids to obey by smacking them Ways to punish a child so…

To me, just saying ‘sorry‘ is just lip service. Actually, in some cultures, the term ‘sorry‘ is rarely used because it is considered awkward and insincere. Of course, I’m not bashing anyone for ‘actually‘ teaching their kids to say sorry.

Just about every kid’s most frequently used word is ‘NO‘. It sometimes comes out even when they mean to say ‘yes‘! Really, it’s bizarre behaviour and can often be quite maddening for parents.

Raising Children Without TV Sometime today, the house got quiet… like real quiet. The motormouth had stopped motoring for a few moments and I went looking to see what sort of trouble my three year old was getting into. When I found her, she was sitting on the couch, glued…

This morning, it was raining, I didn’t have the car, I was recovering from a 3 day long headache, and Margo was driving me absolutely bananas!

There’s all this silly controversy in the baby world of debaters and ‘experts’. The attachment parents (AP) say, ‘nurse your baby to sleep‘. The anti-AP (Is there a term for these people?)

Night-Waking, Night-Weaning; It’s Not All Night-Mares The attachment parents (AP) always cop it hard on this one: night waking. We don’t let our kids ‘cry it out’, we wear them, we co-sleep, we breastfeed on demand, and some of us even take our babies to the toilet (called elimination communication),…

Since Margo is about to turn three, I’ve recently been thinking a lot about her birth. Margo was born in a hospital setting and her birth was considered a ‘natural childbirth’.

Human Breast Milk Donations A few years ago, I read in the news about an ice cream shop in the UK that was selling ice cream made from human breastmilk for something like $25 a pop.  At the time, Margo had just been born and I had already been breastfeeding…

Co-Sleeping Conundrums It’s all fun and games until someone gets head-butted in the eye…  Don’t get me wrong, I love love love co-sleeping with my babies… actually, it’s not that I love it, it’s just that I can’t imagine it any other way.  Okay, but occasionally, sleeping with a baby and…

I’m a firm believer in only starting a baby on solids only when they reach certain developmental milestones: sitting, able to put things (food) in their mouth, etc.

No Poo in My Hair… Finally got my hair cut today! Not as much for the little one to grab!   Also got my new Didymos baby wrap… cute, huh? ‘You use WHAT to wash your hair!?’ my hair dresser barked at me today.  ’Yes,’ I replied, ‘I use baking…