With all the Halloween decorations popping up around town, it is a good time to talk about children’s fear of the dark and bad dreams. Just on the way to school today my son asked why there were bones coming out of a neighbors frontyard and a skeleton hanging from a tree. Do people live underground, he asked. I could see his little imagination running wild and wondered if this would be a topic of conversation at lights out later that night. Once I got my kids sleeping through the night with an established bedtime routine, I thought I was home free. The kids would be all tucked in, my husband …

I am a writer, so it is no surprise that I like to write thank you notes when I receive a gift. I learned calligraphy as a child and aspire to keep the art of handwriting alive. So when I started seeing more and more articles about schools considering doing away with teaching handwriting, I cringed. Do away with handwriting? The mere thought is laughable. Just to be sure it isn’t lost in my family, out came a kid-sized table and chairs with tons of paper, crayons, colored pencils and markers. It doesn’t go with my family room décor, but to hide it in the basement playroom would be a …

Growing up in a town very similar to Lexington for close to 20 years, I got to know my neighbors very well. I recall many times when a neighbor picked me up from school, ballet class or kept me from being locked out of the house. Some neighbors became lifelong friends celebrating holidays and vacations together. As a child I learned a lot from these friendships but also from the friendships I saw my parents having with our neighbors. When you are young you don’t always think of your parents as people with friends. Parents work, help with homework and play catch, but kids often forget that …

Let’s face it: Getting the household chores done is not on the top of anyone’s fun list. Even adults sometimes have trouble tackling the day to day tasks that keep a home running. So, why should we expect our kids to do them? Off the top of my head, I can think of several reasons. Kids love feeling proud of themselves. Ask a 3-year-old to help you sweep the kitchen floor with a fun kid-sized broom (my son also has a kid-sized dust pan and brush) and show him the clean floor afterwards and you will surly see a huge smile. I asked my 5-year-old to pull out the weeds that had grown in some …

I felt like I woke up Monday morning with the weight of the world lifted off my shoulders. At first, I thought it was because I made it through the first full week of school with two happy kids. Then I realized that wasn’t it at all. I breathed a sigh of relief because the 10 th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks had come and gone without incident -- with my kids! My head had been so filled with back-to-school insanity that I hadn’t really thought about if my kids were ready to learn about the horrendous attacks. Then, all of a sudden, a friend was telling me she was keeping her first-grader…

The first day of school has come and gone here in Lexington, but most of us are still working out the kinks of the morning routine. Let’s face it, it isn’t easy getting kids to do what you want in a short time frame, especially when they would rather play or, if they are older kids, sleep. I would rather do the latter, but would also rather not deal with the, “Why can’t you just get your kid to school on time” look from my kids teachers, so I have tried to perfect the art of the wake up. I think we all know the basics by now, right? Put them to bed, get them up at the same time everyday and …

My children experienced two natural disasters here in New England in the past week and, although they were minor in our area, they certainly raised many questions. Even though we didn’t feel the Virginia earthquake on Aug. 23 and Hurricane Irene on Aug. 28 only caused a short power outage, it was on everyone’s minds -- especially my young children’s. So, how do you handle all of these questions? Sitting them down in front of the local news is not high on my list, but talking to them is. I wasn’t able to see the Virginia earthquake coming like Hurricane Irene, so I had to be on the ball as the…

I had been declaring my annoyance with those July back to school ads all over Facebook and Twitter, but will admit now that the reality of it had crossed my mind even then. With my daughter starting Kindergarten in two weeks and my son continuing in his school without his big sister in tow, I knew I had to do more than the usually, “Wake up kids, it’s a school day”. Come to think of it, I needed a little transitioning too! My kids had the same school routine for years now. Instead of waiting until the last minute to get my kids ready for the school routine, I decided to ease them into it …

It’s that time of year again. No, I don’t mean back to school. While I am still knee deep in sunscreen and beach days, but I am talking about my kids back-to-back birthdays. Some parents-to-be plan out their beloved’s arrival based on the cutoff date for school entry, while some just wing it and end up with two kids who have birthdays one week apart! To top it off they aren’t the same sex and they don’t have the same friends, which means a joint party is out of the question. Fortunately, in my former life I was an event planner, so the craziness, competiveness and overindulgence that seems to…

For adults summer seems to wiz by in the blink of an eye, but for kids sometimes it seems to drag on forever. Since I am about to take a weeklong trip with my kids without my husband I thought I had better come up with some fun activities for everyone.  Here are my top ten “boredom busters”: Scavenger hunt -- this is a classic that can be as basic as putting toys around the house and asking your toddler to find them, a bit more challenging for grade schoolers by involving a written list of things they can find around the house and yard (or even a neighbor’s house), or very intricate by using …

Role models don’t look like they used to. Call me naïve, but I honestly didn’t think at age five I would be talking to my daughter about pop singers. I hear names like Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga and Madonna in some of her conversations and find myself asking how she knows about these people. We don’t watch any TV outside of PBS and an occasional Pixar movie, but we do listen to the radio. Kids Bop CD’s are taking over the world it seems, so maybe this accounts for a portion of the race into what I thought was reserved for teen behavior. Aren’t role models Presidents, Olympic athletes and …

I love eating out and have been doing it since I was a small child. My parents took me and my three older brothers out to family-style and higher end restaurants here and in Europe our whole lives. I have fond memories of these times and decided it was something I wanted to be able to do with my kids, as well. So, when I started hearing about McDain’s restaurant in Monroeville, Penn., banning children under 6-years-old, I was curious. What would push a business owner to ban a segment of their community? Isn’t there a way for restaurant owners to make all of their guests happy without going to…

It’s hot in the city! So the kids and I headed off to the beach to cool down and have some summer fun.This is a regular occurrence for us now, so we have the ordeal down to a science. But it wasn’t always that way. The first time I realized I would be going to the beach with the kids without my husband because he was on a business trip, the whole idea made me rethink my love of the ocean. Was sitting in an air conditioned house all weekend really that boring? Could I handle all of the “stuff” needed to make it to the beach? And, would I have any fun at all or would the day be a flurry of …

Summer is in full swing and most families are up to their eyeballs in barbeques, beach trips and bocce ball. As I think about all of the fun summer activities we enjoy, I also try to keep the learning going. Books are such a great way to engage, teach and calm children, so I thought about how to incorporate them in a more formal way this summer for my own kids. After checking out the Cary Library and seeing their wonderful summer reading lists, I was inspired to create one for my kids, who are three- and five-years old. Then I realized that a summer reading list could be just as beneficial …

Whether or not you have been watching ABC’s reality show, Jaime Oliver’s Food Revolution, you certainly know the growing concern over America’s public school lunches. Think back to your school lunches and pizza, chocolate milk, french fries and rolls surly top the list. I remember those cute little chocolate/vanilla ice cream cups with the little wooden “spoons." What I don’t remember is fresh fruit, chicken (discounting nuggets cooked in oil), fish (no, not sticks cooked in oil), fresh local vegetables or a dessert that isn’t complete junk (Think: Oatmeal raisin or cranberry cookies or even …

Father’s Day always makes us remember our fathers or those who are father figures to us. For me it was always a chance to tell my father what he already knew: That I loved him dearly. From the homemade cards to the moments by the fireplace ultimately known as our “fireside chats," time with my Dad was cherished then and longed for now. As I think back now, I can recall so many things my Dad taught me -- from how to ski, sail and drive a stick shift to "new math," like balancing my check book and doing my taxes. But I have to say the memory I always seem to come back to is the hot dog story. …

Do you ever think about all of the things you say to your child in a day and wonder how much of it is lecturing, nagging and repeating requests? I do. And I don’t even get the result I am after: focused time to talk with my kids. I have finally found a place that allows my children’s attention to be on me and I now use it chat with my kids about everything from school issues, responsibilities at home and big picture topics, like who is God. In a world of iPods, iPads and iPhones, and in which after school activities are piled as high as Big Macs, parents need a place to talk to their children…

I don’t know how my Mom does it. After more than 50 years of being a parent, you’d think she would have more than a few choice words on how I parent. Maybe it is because she agrees with my parenting. Maybe it is because, after 4 kids, she has hung up her parenting hat or maybe it is because she already knows “the rules." Grandparents walk a fine line between caregiver and friend and, in a time when grandparents are being asked to take on more than the traditional roles, they often fall prey to eye rolling, side comments and sometimes even estrangement. So what are “the rules” you ask? They …

Memorial Day signals the beginning of summer and beginning of travel season. According to AAA, an estimated 35 million people will travel 50 miles or more this coming holiday weekend. And whether it is by car or by air, traveling can be particularly trying for those of us with kids. We all start out with the fantasy of joyous times, smiles and memories to last a lifetime, but reality is soon ushered in by the delayed flights, meltdowns and endless chants of “are we there yet." The stakes get even higher when you travel alone with a child. Out of desperation and fear of shear boredom, I once …

The movers are packing up our house even as I write this article, and the distinctive sound of tape peeling off the roll closing up boxes of memories takes me back to the day my parents moved from the only house I ever knew. Twenty-five years in one home is a lot of time, a lot of memories and, for me, a lot of happiness. I had some time to come to terms with it, but as I walked around my childhood home I realized it wasn’t enough. I wondered if the movers knew they were packing up my life. If they knew they were unveiling the best hiding spot in the house as they moved the two blue sofas and…