OT Month: The Gen A Nervous System

A few months ago on Instagram, we ran into a ton of posts about how you canโ€™t parent Gen A kids like they did in the 90โ€™s because they have a different nervous system.

We thought it was an interesting claim; despite that when โ€œinfluencersโ€ copy the same material word-for-word, itโ€™s usually a sign of clickbait. They even referred to kids having a โ€œDigital Nervous Systemโ€, living in a high-speed brain environment.

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Our Rage Room Mom date

Yay! New blog feature.

Weโ€™ve written extensively on PPD and how important it is for moms to take time for themselves. This recharges our social battery and keeps us balanced, so our entire lives arenโ€™t completely ruled by our kids.

Looking forward, I came across a teen parenting account that said that one of the reasons teens stop looking to their parents for advice and quality time is because their parents arenโ€™t fun. During high school, my parents never really had friends. They would work, make dinner, and watch something on the couchโ€ฆeveryโ€ฆdamn…night. I love an introverted bed rot, but seriously no other people anywhere in the radar? Not even a best friend that Iโ€™ve ever heard of?

I feel like most of the parents I appreciated growing up were those that had their own social lives; they played more roles than just being a parent or an employee. They had interests and hobbies and would go out for girls nights. Their personal schedules were just as involved as their kidsโ€™. Overall, I feel like their homes were just lighter; and consequently, their villages were bigger.

So, Mary and I would like to propose a trade. We will exchange two playdate reviews, for two Mom date reviews. We love doing fun stuff with our kids, but weโ€™d also like to try out some fun, new things that are a little more age-appropriate for us.

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Mommie Dearest

The classic story of a mother off the rails, Mommie Dearest recounts the parenting years of Golden Age Hollywood actress Joan Crawford and her demanding, irrational behavior towards her two adopted children. Sure, itโ€™s campy, but it doesnโ€™t feel that far off when we have our own bouts with mom rage.

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Post-Holiday Hangover

The glimmer and glow of the holiday season has seemingly come to an end.  The lights and decorations go back in their boxes, the tree is put away (or finds its new purpose as mulch), and the joy of opening presents will need to wait until the next birthday or holiday event. Although most of us are just fine with the holiday season ending and look forward to going back to the usual, some of us, especially kiddos, struggle with the shift.

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Child(ish) Reads for Kids: Emotional Regulation

For the last two weeks, weโ€™ve been talking about emotional regulation and how we can model and assist our kids to be more mindful in tough situations. In this episode of Childish Reads, we wanted to flip the script and pick books for kids to help with this type of regulation at early ages.

Last week, Mary and I hopped down to Barnes and Noble to find some new and classic kids books to help lay the foundation for emotional recognition and processing.

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