At 93 years old, Aunt Dora was the last of her seven siblings. Spry and mentally alert, she acted as “Communications Central” for her grown seven nieces and nephews, with each calling on a different day a week to check in with her. As each person called Dora on his/her assigned day, she proved to […]
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Fight Club, Vegas and Parenting
The Mommybites Team and I just got back from a “business trip” to Las Vegas for the ABC Kids Expo. You all know the famous saying, “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.” So, say for example, one was in Vegas and wore a bedazzled Green Bay Packer’s shirt and sang Journey at the Bourbon […]
Homemade Food Makes a House a Home
As a writer on a parenting blog, I’m what you might call a sleeper candidate. My children like to joke that I’m a “slug mom” – as in, the opposite of the infamous “Tiger Mom” type. My laissez-faire parenting attitude springs from a cocktail that’s one part nostalgia for my casual Midwestern 1970’s childhood, one […]
Word Gap Guilt: How Parents Can Fill the Gap Even If We Work All Day
Parents are bombarded with the message that the more words a child hears each day, the more prepared they will be for kindergarten, for middle school and for life. Research has shown that children from economically disadvantaged households enter school with roughly thirty million fewer words than children from affluent backgrounds, and that disparity haunts […]
Busy Parents Eating Healthfully
I don’t mean to embarrass anyone. Especially not my awesome business partner and partner-in-crime, Mommybites co-founder, Laura Deutsch. But what are friends for? It is my honor and pleasure to tell you that Laura has spent the last year taking classes at the Integrative Institute of Nutrition and is now a certified health coach! Through […]
Ask Dr. Gramma Karen: The Gogos of Swaziland
Dear readers, As we in the United States celebrate National Grandparents Day on Sunday, September 13, I thought this would be an appropriate time for my friend, Hannah Laufer-Rottman, to talk about the important role the grandmothers, known as the Gogos, are playing in Swaziland, a country in Africa. (Gogo is an honorific title that is […]
Ask Dr. Gramma Karen: Aunt Has Issues with Her Niece
I live in a multi-generational home with my mother, her husband, and my sister and her two daughters, ages two and nine. The problem I need help with is in regards to my nine-year-old niece, Emmy. Some background: My sister is 38 and I am 36. She is a good provider and we do get […]
Testing and Tired Toddlers: Making Sleep a Priority
I have a toddler at the moment. He’s two. He likes to test. He likes to look right at me as he’s doing something he knows he shouldn’t. Sometimes he even gives me a little smirk. Normal toddler behavior, yes. But it can be really trying. We all know about the Terrible Twos, and now […]