Please click here to view the photo story of Brandi's adoption! “I never said I wanted to adopt, ” I explained once again, to the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services' social worker. As a single…
“It’s just a little scary these days,” Barbara reminisced reflecting on her childhood days of knocking on neighbor’s doors and being allowed to yell, “Trick or Treat.” “But that was another time,” Dave, her husband, was quick to add to…
When it comes to making Resolutions for 2019, the kids in the household ought to join in on making it a sustainable family activity. A joint effort (not talking about “pot”) for New Year’s Resolutions can bring some real accomplishments…
While there are many techniques parents employ in hopes of ensuring their children grow into adulthood as productive and socially accepted citizens, President Donald Trump’s “calling out Nordstroms” on behalf of his 35-year-old daughter, Ivanka, is an example, I suppose,…
No matter how racist, bigoted, anti-women, or the other attributes that tell us who President-elect Donald Trump is, the burden of decency remains in the hands of parents preparing children for the world in which they will have to live.…
The experts are publishing. Well, don’t they always? According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Across the United States, up to one in five children suffers from a mental disorder in a given year.” This equates, according to…
While she went to the counter to pick up the food order, Mom left her blonde curly-haired, dimpled darling at the table in the small eatery. Upon her return, on the restaurant wall was a huge smearing of ketchup and…
Since we aren’t perfect people, there is no way perfection graces us just because we’ve become a parent and are in charge of our children. And Let’s take this one step further: There are no perfect children. Some years ago,…
How early for money management? The sooner the better and the use of simple day to day experiences go a long way as teaching tools! 5 year-old Andy gets a $25 Toys R Us gift card for Christmas. Andy’s first…
The business consultant said his grandmother told him he was bound, in all situations, to tell the truth, but cautioned him to recognize that didn’t mean the same thing as telling everything he knew. The bank manager said his mother…
I can’t help but wonder why the #BlackLivesMatter movement hasn’t included in its target of eliminating deadly force against “the people”, The Maury baby-daddy Show. While the show doesn’t depict cops with blazing guns or dead bodies of young black…
Home environment sets the tone. Unfortunately too many parents don’t see things that way. “All he wanna do is fight,” said the distraught father about his young son. It’s okay to take up for yourself but nowadays being a bully…
Parents of current times seem to have generated an important check-list question when leaving home with the kids in tow. Back in the day (an expression which was frequently used when the elders, folks my age, started talking about yesteryear)…
My Daddy is better than your Mommie The Democrats roll in to Philly this week and the Ringling Brothers Circus, second act, with magic fanfare, costumes and just perfect make-up will be…
Chile said she didn’t believe I could get on a stage, talk into a mic, capture the attention of the audience AND make them laugh. And so, during my years as a stand-up comedian working clubs and comedy rooms…