Parent Question: How can we nurture the big sibling when a new baby wreaks havoc on their only child universe? Parenting with a Ph.D. Response:  From the moment he pulls that “I’m a Big Brother!” shirt over his tiny head, life as he’s known it is history. Now he’ll be expected to share everything:...

I quit my job. I did it two days before Christmas. I couldn’t stop sweating as I made the phone call. My voice had this weird shrilly pitch that comes out when I’m nervous. When I said the words, I started laughing. Thinking back on it, I probably sounded like I’d had a few too many...

Parent Question: When you have an older child who is pretty independent and high-spirited, how do you discipline her and get her to bend without breaking that spirit and independence? Parenting with a PhD Response: “Bending without breaking” is a great way to describe the challenge you face. On the...

By Harmony Hobbs: HOLY CRAP. If you are a parent of just one child, you may want to stop reading here, lest you be frightened out of having any more. Going from one child to two is hard, like really hard, like the OMG-I-may-not-survive kind of crazy hard that really cannot be explained. In order to understand,...

By: LK Whitney Jingle, jingle. Ho. Ho. Ho. Merry Christmas, y’all. I don’t know about you, but our household is six-feet-deep in a tinsel-tinged, yuletide coma: the tree glimmers and glows; the gifts, they keep piling up under the tree; our cheerful little children are giddy and bright with visions...

Parent Question: I’ve researched this online and haven’t found something that works. How do you get a child to stay in bed??? My three-year-old daughter has a bedtime routine and we’ve tried consistently putting her back for as long as 45 minutes, stroking her hair, reading to her, even taking...

By Kate Agliata: I recently took on a personal challenge to try and create a more efficient home, one that is also a better representation of us as a family and our desire to live green. While tackling each room one at a time, I’ve put a good deal of effort into de-cluttering household items that are...

Parent Question:  Say you have a child with Autism that exhibits behaviors that are not desirable. How do you explain to a younger sibling that what big brother is doing is not what he should do. I am not just talking about the outbursts and tantrums, but he has quirks and other odd behaviors, for lack...

Today we tried to have a quickie during naptime. The babe woke up just as we were gettin’ down, screaming all bloody hell, and suddenly my boob was in his mouth. And then it was time for my partner-once-lover to go back to work. And our desert grew dyer. And I couldn’t help but wonder if we (the...

By LK Whitney: What I’m about to say might grossly offend you. It’s Tuesday morning.  The sun is shining through a fluffy herd of big white clouds.  There are waves crashing just about fifty feet from where I sit now.  It’s the Atlantic Ocean.  I’ve found a moment alone during a two-week...