Toddlers: Not For the Faint of Heart

Stop me if you've heard this one before. The Triumvirate had just finished up their breakfast and I was lulled into a false sense of security because Dora, The Explorer (The "Explora") was on. The problem here was that things were quiet. I mistakenly attributed this lull in the action to the fact that Dora had been mistaken for the Snow Princess and was asked to help find the real Snow Princess so she could smile into the Crystal before the witch's spell turned the Magic Snowy forest back into a desert. It clearly had me pretty enraptured.

That was until I heard a crash. Not just any crash, but one that sounded like a magic crystal breaking, but, you know, in real life. I didn't think I was going to smile into this one. Then I heard one of my twin son's say, and I'm fairly certain that evolution has evolved two year old's voices to evoke a visceral response in the mother when they hear this particular set of syllables come out of their toddler's mouths, "Uh oh".

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Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

What No One Tells You About First Time Parenting

It is well known that children are expensive. Unfortunately, the information you receive on being a parent will usually end there. How much aren't people telling you? Here is the honest truth about parenting.

Your children will attempt to destroy every "nice" thing you ever thought you were keeping for posterity. Your friends without children will absolutely treat you differently. The world will treat you differently and have completely unrealistic expectations that you will never be able to live up to. You will have completely unrealistic expectations that you will never be able to live up to...


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How to Approach Your Spouse About Marital Counselling... Without Starting a Fight.

Don't worry, it won't be like going on the Dr. Phil Show. No one will cheer or jeer you based on right or wrong answers. In this case, it’s like going to class, Relationships 101, entitled: “How Not to Get Divorced”. There’s a problem in your marriage. You know it and your spouse knows it. Whether you, or they, believe yourselves to be the cause or the victim; neither of you knows how best to fix it. Once you’ve realized that you can't solve this problem on your own, that's when you start considering marital counselling. But will your spouse feel the same? Will they think this is just another way of saying it's all their fault. They are probably just as concerned as you are. The key is to stay focused. There are no simple solutions. Now is the time to lay all your cards out on the table. If you can’t be honest, then you might as well be single. Now is the time to start down either path.


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What Atheist Parents are Teaching Their Children

As Richard Dawkins has pointed out on many occasions, children are not born into political parties. No one ever refers to a small child as the, “Republican girl” or “Democratic Boy” over there. Although being raised in a strong politically minded household certainly has an effect on children; it is not uncommon for a child to grow up, examine the issues for themselves, and become an entirely different political affiliation than their parents. While this may cause some bickering at family dinner table, only in the most extreme cases does it tear families apart or cause an irreparable rift.

When speaking about a child’s religious upbringing, however, there is a noticeable difference in the initiation process.

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Do PBS Budget Cuts Affect Preschooler Science Education?

Many adults with children of preschool ages have vivid memories of watching Saturday morning cartoons. Unfortunately, their educational substance amounted to little more than leaving children with the impression that using explosives was the preferred way of resolving feuds amongst sarcastic anthropomorphic woodland creatures. When their parents insisted that too television would “rot the brain” there may have been a lot of protesting, however, there was little a kid could say to counter the accusation. As the years progressed the producers of TV programing seemed to have appreciated that entertainment need not be incompatible with education. Understandably, parents have been skeptical that the television could be a helpful tool in teaching and development; however, the shows and their writers have been difficult to ignore. However, with threats from Washington lawmakers that subsidies for Public Broadcasting Stations could be significantly reduced or cut off altogether, the timing has never been more urgent to spread the word regarding their efforts to provide the nation’s youngest citizens with quality academic tools right inside their living rooms.

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Full Frontal Feminism Leaves Few Options for Teen Girls

Jessica Valenti is a popular, outspoken blogger from the feminist website Feministing.com who has taken her column to print in her new book, “Full Frontal Feminism”. The book touts itself as a wake-up call for a generation of young women who have grown up in a world spurred on by feminists but where the actual word “feminist”, carries for them a negative social connotation of pushy, angry, self-absorbed, man haters. While some view her book as an excellent primer for a group of girls not yet versed on the basics of feminist theory, others see it as an immature hodgepodge of dumbed down, self-help sound bites that neither educates nor adequately portrays neither the feminist struggle nor the ideals to which the fore-mothers of the women’s suffrage and feminist portions of the civil rights movement gave their passion, sweat and blood.

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Religion Not Necessary for Human Morality

It was once said that one’s concept of God is modeled after one’s experience with one’s father. A rather Freudian assessment; it certainly sheds a different and rather interesting light on the various religions of the world. Perhaps it causes one to wonder what the world would be like ecumenically, and even politically, had the founders of those religions only had different dads. Regardless of this little thought experiment, there does seem to be an inherent tendency to assume a correlative relationship between organizations with rules and the ability to follow them. However, the mere existence of rules, does not necessarily assume that the rules were formed in the best interests of those that are to follow them; or that even if they were formed with that intention, that they accomplished that goal. There are many kinds of religion and not all of them organized as such. Some individuals and smaller communities create spiritual guidelines to grant a sense of ethereal meaning. However, what are the natural morals that must then be adopted if there is no ethereal plane? What, then, if there is no religion at all? Let us take the time to really imagine.

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The Benefits of Infant Massage

Infants spend 40 weeks encapsulated in a warm environment that is gently moving and massaging them throughout. At birth that constant movement stops and its effect felt by the infant abruptly. There are many positive reasons to continue stimulating the infant. An infant’s musculoskeletal system is in a uniquely precarious position and especially benefits from any assistance they can get. It may seem intuitive that human beings enjoy being touched; however, the medical benefits can still be surprising as the immediate effects appear merely psychological. It would be a mistake to think that massaging an infant contributes only to the psychological bonding or mental welfare of the baby and/or parent when the physical yields abound, as well.

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Parent's Guide to Raising Triplets: Without Losing Your Mind!

The Art of Raising Triplets

"You must have your hands full."

The truth is that you will hear this phrase almost every time you go into public with your children. If anyone speaks to you, they will use this phrase when they can’t think of anything to say or appropriate to ask. The problem is that the real reason you are annoyed is not because it is the only other thing people say to you other than, “Are they all yours?”, sadly, is not only do you have your hands full, but they are quite literally overflowing. Making your life easier is all relative. The ability to shower more than twice a week would make your life easier right now. However, all’s fair in Love, War ~and~ Sanity. When it comes to raising triplets you are going to need secret weapons for all three.

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