Cut Yourself A Little Slack

There is a lot of parenting advice out there. So much advice. Sometimes it feels like we're drowning in advice.  And the wild part is, we don't really know if any of it works - and especially if it will work for our kids. Because the main goal, I think, for most parents is to raise decent humans. And not only do we not all agree what it means to be a decent human, but we won't know if the way we did it worked until they're adults. By then, even if I tell the next generation every single thing...

When it comes to keeping kids busy during long, brutally cold Minnesota winters, I'm the fricking champ. When my son was little, I did in-home childcare for some friends’ kids. Spring, Summer, and Fall, piece of cake. We played outside and did crafts on the deck and went on walks to the playground and all that jazz. In the Winter, we had a lot of busy small people in one small house during very frigid weather. I had to get clever with what we had in the house to keep them entertained and to maintain my sanity. And so, cotton-balling...

Growing up, I loved everything about the holidays. I remember making krumkake with my grandma, watching classic movies with my little brothers, and running to the tree early on Christmas morning. Now that I’m a mom with two kids of my own, I’ve tried to make holidays as special for them as they were for me. We do the cookies. We do the tree and ornaments. We look at lights and wrap the gifts. Good enough, right? Not according to the “Magical-Mom’s of Pinterest” (lovingly referred to by me as MMOPs). These people don’t really exist and are just projections...

Picture this: Your kid wants to be a dinosaur for Halloween. But not just any dinosaur. Because many years ago you thought a Dinosaur A-Z book would be a great gift and he has since become obsessed with obscure and specific dinosaurs, so he wants to be a Spinosaurus. When you see a generic dinosaur costume at the store and suggest that he just be that, he explains that it does not have the correct features and would require larger claws and a spine along its back. He shakes his head, disappointed in your ability to distinguish "Spinosaurus" from "cute, non-specific...