Full disclosure: I’ve wanted twins since I first saw Full House in 2nd grade. I thought that having a twin was the most special thing ever. I will always stop and watch The Parent Trap (both versions). But even though I got my life-long wish after 18 months of infertility, I still cried with worry when I found out. How the f*** are we going to do this?
Continue readingMary and I were in Las Vegas in February 2019 when she told me she wanted to start an OT blog. We talked about content and social media, and how the blog would combine her love of science with her training and with modern parenting. By November, she was ready to pull the trigger.
I was happy to join her on the project behind the scenes, but becoming a contributor in July has been an awesome collaboration. I knew I approached parenting in a different way, but this blog has helped me explore how being a good parent also helps me be a stronger partner and a better role model for my kids.
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There are a ton of articles about the major differences between Boomers, Millennials, Gen X and Gen Z; and how social media and screen time have driven huge cultural and sociological shifts. Now that Millennials are becoming parents, we have a very real fear: Fear that our kids could grow up to be really self-centered a**holes.
I think our most recent election is a prime example of how empathy influences our actions, our representatives, and our policies moving forward.
Here are some quick facts:
Unselfie: Why Empathetic Kids Succeed in Our All-About-Me World
By Michele Borba, Ed.D.
Instead of giving you a play-by-play review of this great book, I want to talk about the things that stuck with me; the great content that not only will help me raise my daughters for the future, but also can shed light on many adults in the present.
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If you read our first Childish Reads post on pregnancy books, you know that Bringing Up Bébé is one of my top recommendations for moms. I admit, I am a Francophile and having my daughters be prim and proper is a nice little fantasy. But, I didn’t want to pigeon-hole myself into thinking that one book was going to perfectly change my entire outlook on parenting.
To tip the scales in a different direction, I decided to read two additional and arguably polar opposite parenting titles. What could I take from all three of these books, and what could be chalked up to just parenting clickbait?
For this edition of Childish Reads, I’m giving you my takeaways of:
The Happiest Kids in the World: How Dutch Parents Help Their Kids (and Themselves) by Doing Less by Rina Mae Acosta and Michele Hutchison
Bringing Up Bébé: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting by Pamela Druckerman
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua
I’ve always been a planner. I remember wanting a date planner for homework…in elementary school…to go with my very adult Trapper Keeper. To-do lists, brainstorming, habit tracking: these are all my jams.
So after A&Z came home from the hospital, we used the BabyTracker app to get them on a concrete, fool-proof schedule. After six weeks, when Troy and I both had to go back to work, we had to find a way to adapt our daily schedule to theirs without having things fall through the cracks.
This scenario goes hand-in-hand with the first day of school, new jobs, or any big life change, like virtual schooling in a pandemic, maybe.
How can you best allocate your time without feeling exhausted?
How can you juggle everything without dropping anything?
Child(ish) Advice 