Choosing Child Care: Your choices for home based care
All we want is to find the perfect someone who will be really invested in taking care of the baby. But the irony is that when you want the most information and strongest standards of quality, you won’t find it for infant care. So most of us start with our closest family and keep widening the circle of possibilities until we come to a solution we can afford and think will work. There’s no point in pretending; child care is do-able, but complicated. (more…)
Going Back to Work: The Search for Quality Child Care
Child care for babies is an emotional hot topic among moms. Everybody has an opinion on the subject and to say we feel “torn” about how to manage our lives, or our employment, or our careers while raising our children and trying to have a life is definitely an understatement. Best-selling books and articles are written about it and we pay a great deal of attention to how others work out their own situation. Why? Because there is no single answer, no single solution that is adequate for everyone. (more…)
Dads: They’re not trying to be perfect Moms
Last week I was doing some research on father’s engagement with their babies and ran across a short report with a blazing headline: “I’M NOT A SUBSEGMENT!” Published by Yahoo Advertising Solutions, the report gave some interesting statistics about the central role many dads have in the everyday duties of housekeeping and child care. From 39% to 60% of 1000 dads surveyed reported that they are primarily responsible for (more…)
Hype vs. Reality for Developing Your Baby’s Brain
A few months ago, I attended a lecture from a speaker who talked to parents about the remarkable nature of brain plasticity. She was a Ph.D., well informed about brain anatomy, who told us that we could achieve almost anything with specific brain training for our children. Then about a week later I read a blog post written by a popular parenting educator that suggested the same thing. I’m sure it won’t be long before someone will be pitching a “Build-a-Brain” business on the ABC television show “The Shark Tank.”
At the opposite end of the spectrum I attended a scientific meeting of neuroscientists and developmental psychologists who are doing research on brain development. It was VERY CLEAR (more…)
Special Needs: When Research is Your Only Hope
There is no doubt about it. Sharon Fiedler-Shimanovsky is a warrior woman. Just six years ago, she was happily raising her infant son, Miles, with her husband Boris Shimanovsky. Elated to find out she was pregnant with her second child, Sharon had family, friends, career, and home–everything had fallen into place.
But then came a shocker that kept Sharon and Boris in the wringer for the next 3 years. She was diagnosed with Stage III, triple negative breast cancer during her 10th week of pregnancy. She made the choice to take the greatest risk and fight for her unborn child, her life, and her family. She and the baby made it through chemo and his delivery. Sharon underwent additional chemo, major surgeries and radiation intended to head off any risk of further malignancies.
As life returned to a new normal, Sharon and Boris were More >
Rituals and Routines – The first “discipline” of consistency
I have an 8X10 photo of myself almost 1 year after the birth of my youngest daughter and there are two dark holes with a little speck of light where my eyes should’ve been. I was more messed up than I thought! With too many things only I could do and not enough of me to complete the list, I needed an intervention!
Let’s just tell the truth. Many of us moms secretly love the chaos of motherhood. It gives us purpose—to face each day as an unexpected surprise and then see how effective we can be against the challenges our children present. Babies have a way of being just unpredictable enough that something is bound to come up that throws you off the rails.
But here’s the catch: (more…)
