Parenting

Parenting

My spouse "Jaime," like their entire family, has naturally perfect teeth. I am not so genetically blessed, and if I hadn't had heavy-duty braces from fifth through eighth grade, my teeth would be horrifically jacked-up. Our 10-year-old daughter, "Sara," unfortunately seems to have gotten her teeth from my side.

As a divorced mom, one of the hardest parts of the holidays is facing Christmas morning knowing that I will not have presents under the tree unless I buy them and wrap them for myself. And as my kids get older, they've started to notice that I'm not unwrapping much on Christmas morning. But while they're old enough to want to shop for me, they're not old enough to go out and do it by themselves.

Laura Wellington is estranged from one of her adult daughters. The Connecticut 59-year-old is somewhat famous for this, in fact, or anyway famous for her response to it. Across Tiktok and Instagram, under the name "Doormat Mom," Wellington's railing against the supposed injustice done to her by a daughter she calls an "ungrateful little bastard" has brought her some 140,000 total followers.

I've been in a caretaking role for most of my life. We lost my dad when I was 11, and my mom had a stroke soon after. As the only girl in a Latino immigrant family, I grew up carrying responsibility early. That early experience of taking care of my family members, coupled with my take-charge personality, has shaped every stage of my life, including my decision not to have children.

If I'd thought my job was done after only one talk, my very shy, introverted daughter would never have come to me during a very scary time. She felt off 'down there' and told me. I knew that she had a new partner and I knew they were probably having sex; I was having sex at her age. So while she was a little vague, I knew that she'd come to me for a reason.

Not telling your wife that you're making a big purchase, knowing it could upset her, will just upset her more. Who wants to spend the holidays arguing? Do the right thing and have a conversation with her about how much fun the kids had at your sister's and how you'd like to keep the good times going in your own backyard.

My boomer mother thought it was hilarious to mock anything I liked mercilessly, no matter how harmless, not just to me but to anybody around. She embarrassed me out of liking so many things until I finally developed a screw you; I won't let you spoil this for me attitude about it. And no, she wasn't doing me any favors. To this day, I'm reticent about telling people about things I like because I'm half-expecting to be mocked.

I'm with you. It's a phase; it'll pass. What's the hurry? Indeed, "impatient" is an interesting word to describe how your husband is feeling about your child's eating. I am pretty sure he knows that eventually PB&J will lose its appeal ( especially if your 3-year-old eats it at every meal for weeks on end) and your son will want to expand his culinary palate.

not because he was in trouble but because the parents had called the school to complain about their son's scuffed water bottle and wanted it replaced. They asked for $23. I wrote a check and was tempted to add a snarky comment, but I didn't. Yes, my son should keep his hands to himself, but the water bottle is still functional. My son apologized.

Our son had a nanny in his early years. She took magnificent care of him, loves him, and he loves her. Though he aged out of needing a nanny, we still see her on occasion for meals and celebrations. We were scheduled to see her for dinner recently but the day before, well, she murdered someone. It was all over the news and social media, and we are shocked and heartbroken.

When I figured out that my son would be born in December, I was instantly worried that he'd deal with having his birthday overshadowed by the season. Luckily, over the years, my son developed a different attitude and began to think of Christmas as something for him. But I have still always been careful to protect his birthday as a separate festivity.

I'm a little ashamed to admit that when I arrived at the train depot in Durango, Colorado, for The Polar Express train ride, I had never read the book. I knew it existed and had been turned into a movie, but I was oblivious to the magic everyone at the station seemed to feel. Kids wearing Christmas pajamas jumped up and down in anticipation, parents took photos, and everyone was talking about the journey to come-a journey that would take us to the "North Pole."

If you're planning to travel with children and parents this holiday season, may the grace of whatever god you believe in descend upon you with alacrity. May you never grow weary, frustrated or borderline psychotic when your 80-something mom questions your every decision moments after you make it, or when your child loses that wildly overpriced souvenir hours after you finally agree to buy it.

My husband and I spoke to his teachers, looked at dance blogs, and learned as much about the ballet world as possible. He could try many options, such as summer intensives, competitions, attending an academy associated with a company, or applying to a college with a dance major. Most of these options meant sending away a kid much younger than 18 years old - something that scared me.

Dear Prudence, I've been friends with "Tania" for a long time. She is very anti-kid. Not just child-free-she doesn't like children at all and will say so often. Some of it is pushback against gendered expectations in her family, which I sympathize with, e.g., she is expected to regularly care for her infant niece while her brothers and brothers-in-law (including the father!) are never handed a child and diaper bag the moment they're through the door to visit. Still, her dislike of kids is extreme.

The hope was that these payments would teach children to save rather than spend. But not everyone was a fan of the idea. Sidonie Matsner Gruenberg, an influential writer and educator, argued that some uses of the allowances confused "the give-and-take of family life with the buy-and-sell of the market place"; a 1935 article in Parents' Magazine argued that the payments would turn a child into a "calculating, hard-bargaining adult."

I've watched her type her applications, and it sparked a flashback to when I sat in the kitchen of my run-down college apartment and learned I was pregnant with her. I'll never forget the look of the brown linoleum floor illuminated under the harsh fluorescent light, its buzzing the only other sound competing with my sobs. My boyfriend held his head in his hands, the positive pregnancy tests fanned around him like the color sticks at a nail salon.

My older daughter got into a car accident while driving my younger daughter's car. The damage amounted to a few thousand dollars, and my older daughter did not want to pay for it. I offered to cover the expenses in hopes that it would settle the dust between them, but it didn't. My youngest feels that her sister should've at least offered to help cover the costs and accuses her sister of always being careless.

On this episode: Lucy Lopez, Elizabeth Newcamp, and Zak Rosen are doing a double listener question episode! First up, a parent is OVER their current television show rotation. The 'Rents give recommendations for shows in the eight-year-old to fifteen-year-old range that aren't overly preachy or totally mindless. Then, they sympathize with a parent dealing with a clingy sixteen-month-old who won't stop screaming and going full Hulk-mode every time a tiny thing goes wrong.

Most of us received minimal, awkward, or fear-based sex education. We had to learn in small, fragmented ways, like ripping open the sealed section of a Dolly magazine or attempting to find things out from our peers (who were honestly just as clueless as we were). Pleasure was rarely, if ever, discussed and our bodies were seen as problems we needed to fix or manage.

My son has gotten ahold of my credit card information and has been using it excessively and without my permission. He is 23 years old. He has a job and lives on his own. This feels like a violation to me, but my husband thinks I am overreacting and that my son probably thought it was OK. From what I've gathered, it seems like he has my information attached to his tap-to-pay, because he's used it for in-person purchases. This feels deliberate to me.

Soon after I had my son, I was shocked when someone asked when I was going to give him a sibling. Economic strain and limited support systems make raising a child a very big commitment. We might be one and done with our family. We want our son to have it all, and I want a life, too. "So, when are you going to have another child?" I was freshly postpartum the first time I heard this question, and I couldn't even fathom a response.

This is a tough time to be a kid in our society. Adults are behaving badly everywhere, from the nightly news to the holiday dinner table. Anger has become the go-to dialect of choice in politics and infiltrates our living rooms and our minds-including those little minds that are playing with their trucks under the coffee table during 60 Minutes. Righteous indignation is the new patriotism. Everyone is upset about something. And the kids are watching.

I always felt like there were two divergent paths for me to follow. One led to New York City, where I would live my best Carrie Bradshaw life, fiercely independent. The other led to a partner I really trusted, and a large family to structure my life around. Soon after I met my husband, Demario Davis, I realized I was moving along the second path.

My husband and (especially) I are deeply uncomfortable with technology for kids. I worked in cybersecurity and have a no-screens policy for all my grandchildren (all of them are under 8 years old) when they're with me. I have a great relationship with all of them. When they're here, we play lots of games, do crafts, and do plenty of outside activities, like skiing.

You know that saying about how we should never judge someone because we have no idea what's going on in their lives? I honestly feel like that advice should be used every single time we interact with another mom. Not because we need to excuse them being rude or justify them being snappy at preschool pickup, but because we need to give every mom some grace, no matter the situation.