Anti-Anti-Bacterials – Please don’t sanitize my kids

Walking into lego camp, the first thing the counselors did was ask my son to spritz his hands with a hand sanitizer because there are campers with food allergies and we have to be careful. No doubt – I don’t want to risk any child’s health. That said, I asked that my son be told to wash his hands in the bathroom to prevent contamination because santizers are bad for you. Obviously – if there is no running water, by all means, use an anti-bacterial gel or foam (but if their hands dry within 10-15 seconds...you need to use more).

But for allergies – that’s not going to help

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Device-off time - aka "breakfast"

Today's New York Times technology section highlighted a trend where families find themselves waking their teen's via text, lunging for laptops before and during breakfast, and basically feeling panicked if they cannot check Facebook before 7am.  This is not progress.  And this is setting up our kids to be stressed out and potentially very lonely.  There just isn't a device that can give a hug, celebrate achievements or wipe away a tear.

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I don’t negotiate with terrorists

We’ve been under assault – a sort of psychological warfare in the house this weekend. On the surface, we have a loving, playful and musical seven-year old. Beneath the surface, an instinctive plotter lurks.

Although the subject of this current dispute is piano practice, it’s not really about the piano. It’s about how he deals with a challenge. His response to a song, book, swim test or other task that is a stretch is to get angry, frustrated and combative.

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Reclaiming my pre-baby body

I don’t have body image issues. Seriously. When I went to buy a pair of black dress pants a few years ago and after 33 pairs, none fit, my frustration was with the people who design dress pants. It didn’t dawn on me that perhaps it was something wrong with my body. By the way, Jones New York makes great dress pants for women.www.jny.com/pants

About a year ago, I had surgery to remove my ovaries and fallopian tubes to reduce my risk for ovarian and breast cancer. The surgery also put me in menopause and I was concerned that I would have trouble maintaining my weight. Turns out, eating Gourmet Robert’s Smart Puffs during recovery was the problem. I gained about 5 pounds during my recovery on top of the 15 I never lost from my pregnancy with Ariel.

This past May, I decided I was sick of being bigger than my pre-pregnancy body.

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Summer Bliss - top ten things we're loving about summer

With the new school year looming, I can’t help but think about how much easier life has been over the summer.

1st – Camp is longer than Kindergarten. As of the 1st day of camp, I’ve had an extra 2 hours/day to get things done.

2nd – In some sick way, creating crazy car pools to get all of the kids where they need to be is challenging, but the sense of accomplishment is there too.

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Amber Alert, Drunk Driving and Hugging my Family

In the New York tri-state, people are horrified learning about a Long Island woman who drove on the wrong side of the Taconic highway (to be clear, there's a large grassy highway divider between the sides) and caused a head-on collision that killed her, her daughter, her three nieces, and three men in the other car.  Today, the news announced she was both drunk and high. 

Jonathan Fickies for The New York Times

Apparently six drivers called the police prior to the crash to report the wrong-way driving.

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Working with your child's natural wiring

When my first son was 4 weeks old, we attended a talk on how to raise a Jewish child in an assimilated community. The most memorable comment had nothing to do with the actual topic – it was parenting advice so logical and practical, I’ve shared it with everyone I know:

“I’m not a childcare professional or psychologist, but as the father of 9 children from 5-17, I think I am a bit of lay expert in the matter of children –

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Technologies we love for practical parenting

According to What's Going on in There and Einstein Never Used Flashcards, the very best toy for the development of a child's mind is wood blocks - no technology needed.  But balancing the requirements of work, family and activities is tricky and thankfully there are great technologies that have emerged that let us focus on parenting - and hopefully give us more time to be with the kids.

My top ten favorite enabling technologies for parenting (see them all here in their screen shot glory):

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Great back to school bargains from Parenting

Parenting published a gallery of 25 money'saving products for Moms (and Dads).  The sure shoe-laces got special kudos on Twitter today - and I'll be buying those for our boys who seem to shred shoelaces weekly.

My thoughts on the others:

  1. The shoe-laces are a must buy and I'll be doing that today.
  2. Re-usable cloths to wipe up are generally a very good idea - ecologically and financially
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Children and dogs or when I learned my two year old can walk the dog

Our dog, Doida, is a spritely 11 year old who wasn't all that happy when we brought home the first baby and only becaming marginally more resigned over the years. Apparently the demotion from baby to dog was very hard to take. The first word for all three of our children - Doida. No Dada or Mama here - just a very clear Doida. Often followed by "No". For a long while, all dogs were Doida - until they realized that was her name.

Years ago, we watched a young boy of about 6 run with Doida, who was then 6 months, across a soccer field non-stop for 2 hours.
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