Your husband would be perfect if he just … stopped slouching, remembered you hate red roses, offered to drive the carpool once in a while, stopped biting his nails, etc. And your kids? Also perfect they would stop procrastinating, clean their rooms and put down their phones! Do you keep these constructive criticisms to yourself? […]
If your husband needs to find male friends who aren’t work friends or golf friends, but other dads—hook him up with a local Adventure Guide program through the YMCA. Another benefit? One-on-one time for dad and daughter or dad and son. Rob Faurot, a Wilmette Adventure Guide dad with an 8-year-old daughter, says that the […]
In the season of giving thanks, I often think of a family I will call the Renfields. Their first child, Ray, was diagnosed early in life with moderate autism spectrum disorder. Some parents are overwhelmed by such a finding, but the Renfields stayed positive. “This is a child with real strengths,” the dad told me. […]
My son’s sleep issues are infamous in our neck of the woods. He didn’t regularly sleep through the night until age 6. The poor kid had issues—colic, asthma, hip dysplasia—and spent most of his first year crying and coughing while sporting an uncomfortable-looking leg harness. He rarely slept, and I responded to every call, […]
My son’s sleep issues are infamous in our neck of the woods.
We love the summertime: sun, shore, strolling, sleeveless clothing, shorts and plenty of sweet, thirst-quenching treats. But we loathe the sweat, and the acne that it can produce. “Unfortunately, sweat often mixes with oil and dirt on the skin, which clogs the pores and may cause blemishes,” explains Northbrook dermatologist, Steven Mandrea, M.D. And while […]
How do you convince your kid that even though the sun’s still up, it’s bedtime anyway? Maybe you don’t. Maybe you just … chill. “Our summer rules are more relaxed, and for us, one of the perks is running around the backyard with the neighbor kids after dinner instead of the usual march to […]
Before baby, work was your schtick: You were good at your job, and it was your life, your role, your title, your priority.
Preschool teacher Judy Rundell of Highland Park couldn’t find a CD that would occupy the children who couldn’t nap during rest time. So she started recording her own—she now has two volumes of Quiet Time Stories, each with more than an hour of contemporary fairytale adaptations set to music by Chicago composer Derrick Procell. Many […]
Parenting teens is a paradox. We don’t want them to get into trouble, but we also don’t want them to get us into trouble. One of the riskiest behaviors for both teens and parents is underage drinking—because parents can be held legally responsible when kids drink in their home. Many of us are familiar […]
