Does your child-care provider love your kids?

I’m a stay-at-home mom, but my kids go to a nursery school/day care two days a week. I staggered their schedule so each kid gets some one-on-one time with me once a week, but so I also have a day to myself. Not that I ever get to do anything fun on my kid-free day, unless you think getting the oil changed and the cat vaccinated is fun. Either way, the kids seem to really enjoy their school and I enjoy being able to go grocery shopping alone occasionally. Everybody wins!

The teachers and aides at the school have been nothing but warm and pleasant. In fact, one of them even moonlights as our weekend babysitter. Besides her, though, the only people who have ever watched my kids are relatives. When my mom or my sister-in-law...

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She’s just not that into me

Dating stinks. It’s been 14 years since I’ve had to deal with everything that comes with dating — the games, the anxiety, the let-down, the ego bruising, etc. Three cheers to marriage! Here. Here. (You gotta celebrate the wins.) So why am I having this feeling all over again? Because apparently my son’s friend’s mom “is just not that into me.”

How do I know you may ask? Because I asked her out on a date — a playdate, to be precise — and I got turned down. It only took me five months, two weeks and a day to get up the courage to ask another mom to come to our house for a playdate. Here’s how it went down …

My son had been asking for weeks to go to Blankety-Blank’s house. I had to explain the...

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Before I was a mommy, pampering was the norm

Before I became a mommy, I loved few things more than a massage and a facial. Or a pedicure. Or a manicure. Or getting my hair done. Hell, even getting waxed. Pretty much any kind of pampering was right up my alley and an afternoon at the spa was exceptionally high on my list of favorite activities. And why not? What else did I have to do? I look back on those days, when I was young and naive and essentially without obligations, and it often feels like I’m looking back on the life of a completely different person.

That isn’t to say I’d trade what I have now for the treats I enjoyed then — as cliched as it can sound, my little boy is the best thing that has ever happened to me. The way my life has changed is for the better, but I’d be...

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Throwing sand and other bad parenting decisions

As a general rule, I try not to judge other parents. But sometimes . . . well, sometimes things are so in your face that they are hard to overlook.

Today we took advantage of the warm, albeit dreary, weather and headed out to our favorite playground. All were happy in my family, as were the other children who were playing there, when a final group arrived. As they walked up, the father immediately said to his three-year-old-ish son, “You can’t play in the sand box or else we’re going home.” Well, you can imagine what ensued.

This playground has a particularly fun sandbox, the kind that has two diggers in it that can be manipulated with levers to pick up and dump piles of sand. All of the other kids there, including...

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When germs sicken mommy friendship

As our family is finally emerging from the grip of a stubborn stomach bug that ruled us for nearly a month, I’ve been reflecting on the dynamics of “germ etiquette” in my mommy friend network — and how I often feel like my (and my kids’) social survival hinges upon my mastery of all its subtleties.

Admittedly, I may have made some beginners’ missteps as this illness ran its course (my kids are rarely sick), but I am downright rattled by how, in the realm of germ politics, a fellow mom’s judgment can be harshly swift.

I was administered a particularly stinging germ etiquette slap when, in the midst of a family and friend get-together, I unexpectedly had to rush my 3-year old daughter to the bathroom as the...

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Did you call my kid fat?

The other night the kids and I made the annual trek to the pediatrician for their well visits. Now I am blessed that both of my kids have been very healthy so we seldom visit the doctor except for these visits so I look forward to seeing how they have grown from the previous year. This year everything was going along swimmingly as the kids stood on the scale, against the wall, read the eye chart, and then headed into our room.

Once we were settled in, the nurse entered all the data into the laptop and when she finished asked me to review it with her. I heard that my son was pretty much right in the middle percentile range for his height (both Daddy and Mommy are short so this wasn’t any surprise) and his weight was slightly lower, producing...

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Carpool confessions

Love makes you do weird things, especially when you have teens. Me? I spy on my kids.

My sleuthing is spurred by a new trend. The more time my kids spend at school, the less inclined they are to talk about it. Their silence might stem from fatigue, but I suspect their reticence is caused by a baffling condition known as adolescence.

Spying is the perfect way to combat this malady, and I do my best work in the carpool line. Fortunately, I don’t have to work hard to be inconspicuous, because the teenaged mind naturally blocks out parental objects. My surveillance usually goes as follows:

At 3 p.m., I drive over to school and assume my position in the carpool line. If I’m early, I chat with other...

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I’ve never looked better

I’ve never looked better … on paper, that is. Ah — it’s that time of year again when we all decide, “THIS is the year we are going to lose weight. THIS is the year we will get back in shape.” Well for me, my perspective and my relationship with my body, has changed. Perhaps it’s the fact that this year’s birthday landed me in my “mid-30s” or maybe it’s my 2 beautiful kids that have changed my perspective in every way imaginable. Either way, it seems these days I’m just not quite as concerned about the outside as I am the inside. (Sorry, dear.) Perhaps it’s because I’ve come to terms with my “pouch” and that one dimple (you can guess where) that just won’t go away, or perhaps it’s the fact that my dad had his...

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We live a wired life

By Colleen PHILADELPHIA MOMS BLOG

I suspect my household could not get more wired and I can’t stop wondering how this technology will impact my blossoming toddler and pre-schooler.

One desktop with two humongous monitors to make Web design and toggling between Web sites ultra-seamless. One laptop for Mommy to blog. A keyboard for our TV to surf the web with our Nintendo Wii. Two bonus extra mini “netbook” laptops so we can be ultra mobile on the road or on any floor of the house to jump online. And let’s not forget our iPod Touch — our super-powerful and sleek ticket to unlimited info with a few taps of our fingertips.

Dad...

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