Blog Posts
Trust Your Mom Gut When It Comes to Your Child's Education
Education is a hot topic these days as we face a new school year during a global pandemic. As moms, we have carried our families through all of the regular parental responsibilities in addition to the added emotional labor that has come with the difficult decisions regarding our family’s health and safety on a daily basis. We have navigated questions of how our families can safely spend their time, what to do about childcare, how to address health crises, and more during this time of COVID-19. Now, we are facing one of the most challenging decisions of all as we consider options for the model of schooling that best fits the needs of both our children and our overall family structure.
5 Ways to Help Kids with Coronavirus Related Anxiety
It can be especially difficult to feel that we are doing our best with parenting during this challenging time, as we are all facing our own anxieties and mental health challenges. Fortunately, there are some strategies we can use to help our children deal with COVID-19 related anxieties.
A Coronavirus Guide for Parents and Kids
This is a guide for parents to learn the facts about coronavirus, how to stay safe, and the tips and resources you need for talking to your kids about COVID-19.
How to Help Teens De-Stress
There is more pressure than ever on teens today between academics, after-school activities, sports, and social media. It is essential that teens learn to unplug, relax, and reset for both their physical and mental health.
How Your Family Can Have a Minimalist Christmas
Having a minimalist Christmas has become a goal for many parents, and for those parents who are not quite ready to go with a minimalist approach, there still seems to be interest in downsizing the overall gift-giving experience. There are many substantial reasons to attempt a more minimalist approach this Christmas. The benefits impact your children, the earth, and your wallet for the better.
Work/Life Balance Tips for Moms
How does Boston City Councilor Annissa Essaibi-George manage her full-time career as a politician, a small business, and being a mom to four boys? She lets us in on her biggest time-management hack.
A VSCO Guide for Parents
VSCO is a term that has been getting a lot of attention lately amongst parents. This Scary Mommy article which takes a candid and comical look at the whole VSCO phenomenon has probably shown up in your social media feed at least once this week. If you’re still not sure exactly what VSCO means, how teens use it, and what we should consider as parents, this article is for you. Spoiler alert: The term is definitely overused, unproductive, and doesn’t need anymore hype.
The 10 Best Trunk or Treating Themes
Warning: Your family might have more fun decorating the car than doing the actual trick or treating!
A New Study: How Sleep and Exercise Affect New Parents
A new study shows that sleep and exercise affect new moms and dads differently. My perspective here is that stereotypical gender roles and expectations run deep and are the x factor at play here.
It's Time to Ditch the iPads When Dining Out: Here's How!
Yes, we all need a break as parents, and no, every experience does not need to become a teachable moment, but if we want our kids to be able to adapt to situations in an emotionally healthy way, we have to try not to give them the easy out of an isolating and distracting activity. The good news is that there are ways to engage your children while eating out that allow for interaction and that quality family time you were hoping for!
How to Teach Our Kids to Celebrate Life's Little Moments
With so much celebration and hype constantly being infused into our kids’ lives, a level of sincerity and spontaneity may be missing from childhood celebrations. As parents, we know far too well that those big milestones that are often highly anticipated are not often the moments we remember and reflect on with the most emotion. It’s the small moments in life that we tend to truly look back on as the most precious. The major milestones mark the passing of time, but the smallest moments are usually the ones where we find our hearts still attached.
One Year of Pandemic Outdoor Living
Today, I was reflecting on how routine lulls the brain to sleep. Getting outside of our comfort zones is important to rediscover wonder, joy, and adventure, and that completely represents our past year.
Since I have high risk health issues and the four of us were primarily home all year long, we would have truly lost our sanity if we hadn’t focused so much on adding outdoor adventure into our lives. Being outside was our freedom, stress-relief, and inspiration.
Watch the video and read more below!
Sometimes our outdoor life meant family soccer in the yard, or a bike ride on the trail by our house, or a walk through a neighborhood that wasn’t our own to switch things up. Other times, we drove to different states for true adventure. We hiked, walked, skied, snowboarded, biked, scavenger hunted, explored, and whatever else we could find outside to maintain our sanity.
Of course, this wasn’t easy. Though I recognize with true gratitude the mountain of privilege we sit on having the choices to stay home and be able to spend time outside the way we have, it hasn’t been all smiles as our pictures show.
Our daughter developed some extreme anxiety issues during the pandemic. Almost every time we left the house this past year, it was hard for her. Not hard like taking on a small challenge, but hard like extreme panic and tears and emotional meltdowns. It was so sad for us to watch, and it also was frustrating and patience challenging and just another storm of emotions for each of us on top of everything else that everyone has experienced this year.
Everyone’s had their own hidden struggles as is always the case, but this year held up a massive magnifying glass for every person to sit with their darkest feelings. It’s been a year that shook all of our foundations. We’ve all learned to recognize the everyday heroes of our world in a way that we may not have been able to see before. We’ve learned to embrace highs and lows and worry and fear. We’ve all found our own way - with everyone comfortable on different paths of their choosing - to make our way through hard things.
I love watching this video because it reminds me of all of the smiles and the little braveries and how choices to push outside of our comfort zone can help us take tiny steps through big things. We’ve all made our way through this pandemic and through the hard things in general that we all face that remain away from the public eye in different ways. This video doesn’t capture the stress, tough choices, sleepless nights, hearts missing loved ones, and much of what I agonized over and spent the majority of the pandemic doing, but it’s one piece of this year’s truth, and I know I’ll be holding on to this tiny piece in future hard times and for always.