Family

For most of my life, well, at least since my turbulent teen years, I have been well aware of my desire to do things my way. This desire made its way into every imaginable situation: My relationships with family members, my friends, and especially my many bosses who over the years had to listen to my "expert" advice on running their businesses.

I am the mother of two girls, a seven-year-old and a three-and-a-half-year-old. I don't spank. I remind myself I don't spank at least a dozen times a day. Sometimes the reminder doesn't take and I yell, or worse, smack one on the butt. I lose my cool.

So now the baby is running around spitting out watermelon seeds with the rest of the neighborhood pack, and you can't get into his closet because of all of that cutesie teddy bear baby junk you collected for him. What to do with all of it?

Here are three suggestions:

What's in that jarred baby food in the cupboard? Chances are there's a ton of sugar and preservatives in it, that's what. The majority of baby foods on the market add sugar to everything, even chicken and peas. And that's not counting the extra salt!

About four and a half years ago, my son was diagnosed with Type I Diabetes, aka Juvenile Diabetes or Diabetes Mellitus. This precipitous event has changed not only Alex's life but our lives, forever. What has surprised us the most over the years since are the gross misconceptions and the trivialization surrounding the disease, so I thought I'd try to let parents know what diabetes is and how it can affect your child.

Littleton's tragedy shook me to the core, as I'm sure it did you. I wanted to wait, and reflect on it, before I said anything here. And what I say, I'm going to keep brief; I think there's been enough said already.

Coincidentally, this summer is my 20-year high school class reunion, and so I was thinking about high school anyway before this happened. Those years are summed up for me in the word "miserable."

I really want to emphasize that it's not a checklist, it's not this checklist that makes you an attachment parent or not. I mean, many adoptive parents who are unable to breastfeed are wonderfully attached parents. Then again, I see lots of breastfeeding parents who are not attachment parents. It's really more about your thinking about your relationship with your child. These are some core parenting tools that many families use to facilitate attachment."

Recently I started questioning the amount of time I spend with my children. I quit my job last summer to spend more time with my children and to launch my writing career full-time. At first, the novelty of being with my children all the time was wonderful, I really got to know them. Then I began to miss the interaction with adults, and all but forgot about the other reason for quitting my job--my writing, my passion, one of several parts of my life I can't live without.

I didn't like my breasts very much before I became a mother. They are quite small, so small in fact that I do not even know what cup size I should wear. When I was in the eighth grade I wore a training bra to be like the other girls but I found it uncomfortable and depressing. I stopped wearing it when I read that if you put a coin underneath your breast and it falls to the floor you are allowed to go braless and I haven't worn one since.

It's happening more and more around my house these days. The kindly lady at the furniture store asks my daughter how old she is. "I'll be four in two days," she answers. "Oh, well, then you'll be going to kindergarten soon. Won't that be fun?" Random adults engage in advertising for the public school system. Everyone assumes that she can't wait to get out there in the "real world." Usually, my daughter doesn't answer. Sometimes she'll shake her head. It doesn't sound fun to her, and quite frankly, it doesn't sound fun to me.