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VIDEO: How to Deal With Sleepovers

July 3, 2013

How to Deal With Sleepovers You’re a parent and your child is invited to a sleepover. You panic. What are you supposed to do? Alternatively, you’ve temporarily lost your senses and have agreed to have a gaggle of very excitable and loud kids at your home. Worried? This was the question - and many others […]

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Monday Musings: How Much Do We Tell Our Kids?

July 1, 2013

How much do we tell our kids? It’s a question that we, as parents, grapple with on a daily basis. I’ve spoken before about my particular view of parenting, and how I don’t believe that we should be “friends” with our children. There needs to be a clear demarcation between adult and child, so that […]

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How to Clean Your House in 15 Minutes or Less

June 28, 2013

The phone rings or you get a text: “Hi! I’m in the neighbourhood and I’m coming over. See you soon!” You freeze. After all, if your mother-in-law, long-lost friend from grade school or pastor is in the area, it’s really hard to tell them “no,” and that they can’t come over. There are repercussions, you […]

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Over-scheduled Kids and Parental Guilt

June 14, 2013

Soccer practice, Ballet then Gymnastics. Hockey, Little League and Karate. Whatever the sport or activity of choice, it may very well be too much. Our kids are over-worked, over-scheduled and overly-exhausted. In our frenzy to be the best parents who raise the best and most successful kids, we’ve thrown out the baby with the bath […]

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CBC RADIO INTERVIEW: Parenting in the Digital Age

June 4, 2013

Meltdown in Aisle 5: Top Parenting Tips From Multiple Mayhem Mamma ————————— My favourite topic was the subject of discussion recently. Parenting in the Digital Age, an ongoing topic on this blog was the basis of discussion for my opinion on CBC Radio’s Fresh Air program. Some of areas that were covered included the pervasiveness […]

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Baby Name Shame

May 25, 2013

Anal? Rogue? Lucifer? These certainly don’t sound like names that would adorn a sweet and cherubic bundle of joy, but surprisingly, they are. Though hard to believe, parents have actually bestowed these lovely names on their children, leaving their unwitting charges to fend for themselves in the playgrounds of their futures. Whatever would possess a […]

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Monday Musings - Can’t We All Just Get Along?

May 13, 2013

Helicopter Parents vs. Free Range Parents. Elimination Communication vs. conventional potty training. Tiger Moms vs. Permissive Moms. Apparently there’s a war of not only words but ways of life and parents are being made to draw a line in the sand…or sandbox as the case may be. Depending on your vantage point, you may be […]

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CBC RADIO INTERVIEW: Best and Worst Mother’s Day Gifts

May 11, 2013

I was the in-studio guest for CBC Radio’s Ontario Today program just in advance of Mother’s Day. The topic at hand was Mother’s Day Gifts, specifically the best and worst ever received. Listen to the entire segment below for some interesting stories of Mothers’ Days past. Some of the gifts given as told by the […]

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Monday Musings - Are Hyphenated Last Names For Kids A Good Idea?

May 4, 2013

To hyphenate or not to hyphenate: that is the question. These days, it’s one that most parents think about to some degree, given the growing number of women who choose to keep their maiden names after marriage. Certainly one can understand this desire; after all, there are a myriad of reasons as to why a […]

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CBC RADIO INTERVIEW: Kids and the Cult of Celebrity

May 1, 2013

There’s no way around it, celebrity culture is everywhere. It’s no surprise, then, that our kids are affected by the latest actions of some of their favourite stars. This would be fine if the object of our kids’ affection was one that we thought was a positive role model. The reality is, though, that many […]