Adventures in Parenting

“It’s time to get up.”
“Get up now or you’ll be late!”
“GET UP NOW OR I’LL KILL YOU!”
How many times and how many ways do you have to wake your kids up for school?
I used to yell, scream, shake them to get them out of bed for school. I get so frustrated that the rest of [...]

As your children grow older, can you still read together?
In my previous post, I talked about reading with your children. But reading out loud together when they reach middle school or high school doesn’t make sense.
When they reach their teens, what I do is read alongside with them the books that they read, particularly their [...]

When my children were little, we loved to read together out loud.
We visited the library several times a week to return books and check out a stack of new ones.
When is your favorite time to read together with your children? I read to my children in the middle of the afternoon when it’s downtime, and [...]

“Hey mom, are you still up?”
It was close to midnight. I was just dropping off into dreamland when my 19-year-old son called me on the phone.
“Sure, sure. I’m still up. What’s going on?”
I can miss any amount of sleep to talk to my son.
I can drop anything I am doing if my children need me.
That’s [...]

“Mommy, come swimming with me,” my daughter called.
Well, I don’t want to get my hair wet…I should get dinner started…I hate the smell of sunscreen…my swimsuit is tight…I don’t have the right goggles…chlorine dries out my skin…I have a zillion reasons why I don’t want to go swimming with my daughter.
Then, I stopped myself, changed [...]

So what do you do when your children drives you up the wall with their constant fighting?
In my previous post, I gave suggestions for proactively building good relationships among siblings. But if the fighting is so constant that they make it impossible to have any normal family time, try these Do’s and Don’ts:
DON’T take [...]

Several people have told me that my children are strange.
My children do not bicker.
We can go a long road trip with absolutely no fighting in the backseat. They share their toys and play games together.
I have three children - my son is 18 months older than my daughter, and there is a 6-year difference between [...]

I am not big on getting toys for children.
Most of the toys are marketed to the parents. They look cute and pretty that parents think the kids will be entertained with the toys for hours. But frankly, kids don’t play with toys.
What children want is someone to play with. And since adults don’t really know [...]

The memories I have of my father are generally ones that involves lecturing, or discipline. He is a typical non-expressive, stern father.
While my father and I have a good relationship, I am not particularly close to him. I wished he was more warm and fuzzy.
But now I understand that in some respects, the father’s [...]

In the last post, I placed the responsibility on the parent and practically held the child blameless when the child throws a tantrum at the mall.
Let me explain.
Imagine you are putting together some piece of IKEA furniture. There are no English words in their instructions. After three hours, it is just about finished, except for [...]

A friend with a 2-year-old asked me how to deal with her daughter’s temper tantrums.
“Tell me what happened.” I said.
“We were in the mall shopping, with my daughter in a stroller. And she started screaming and crying, ” my friend told me.
“How long were you at the mall?”
“About two hours.”
Do you honestly expect a 2-year [...]

Every baby needs a swing for some down time.
My children really enjoyed the swing, up to about six months old. However, I had to catch myself from putting my baby in there too often. It is tempting to use it as a convenient babysitter.
Here are some guidelines to make the most of the Baby Swing:
When [...]

A friend of mine paid me a huge compliment. It’s not about my hair, or my clothes.
She said, “If you wrote a book on parenting, I would read it.”
I know for a fact that I am not the best mom. Nor do I know all there is to know about raising children. I don’t pretend [...]