In the age of LOLspeak, smiley faces speak louder than words. We’re drenched in emoticons. Even the over-forty set is guilty of a LOL or a >.< every once in a while, no matter how buttoned down we try to keep it. So when my kid brought home a paper graded with a less-than-smiley face, my over-analytical mamma brain went into overdrive. Did the teacher really mean to draw a face? I admit, it was before my first cup of coffee, but after my shower, so there were a few brain cells firing.  I glanced at the paper and did a double take. Where was the usual big grin my son’s teacher usually drew at the top of the page? I scanned the answers. Nothing glaring, nothing worth a ‘meh’, but there, plain as day, was a less... [Read more]

I’d like to talk about my tag line here on Solomother: “All the responsibility. Half the time.” It can be taken two ways, depending on your situation. If you share custody, you are shouldering the full burden of your children all the time, but they don’t live with you all the time.  If you’re a single mother without a partner, you have all the responsibilities, but only half the allotment of time in which to get everything done. Either way, it can get exhausting.  We need all the help, support and community we can get, moms.  If your kid has ever found the Sharpies and gone Picasso on one of your walls, you know what I’m talking about. Moms need time outs, too. Time outside the house and away from the kids! ... [Read more]

Walking through the blogosphere today, I’m struck by some very interesting, and very different, points of view. I was writing about discipline a few months ago, ending for the nonce with asking parents to imagine, if they use corporal punishments to sort out discipline, what’s going to happen when their kids are old enough–and big enough–to hit back? Over at Solo DOT Mom, the tightrope walk of disciplining teenagers has begun, so help her keep her sanity, please? An interesting comment here on Solomother today, from a father whose wife is divorcing him. With a six month old daughter he’ll probably never see, this man is deciding to withdraw from that baby’s life rather than put her through the pains of having... [Read more]

The day is half done, so to speak.  I’ve been diligently working away at my computer all morning, doing this and that, fiddling with the other… but I haven’t really got anything done. Welcome to my brain on Mondays (yes, yes, the rest of the week too, but work with me here).  No one has the corner on the market in disorganization, and if you’re anything like me, all the self-help, organizational, motivational drivel in the world will amount to only one thing: another excuse to procrastinate. EAT YOUR FROG That’s a phrase that the wise Shani and her friends coined and it has stuck in my head ever since. One year, I even got a frog wall calendar to remind me every day. Eat your frog. First. No, this does not suggest... [Read more]

I don’t care what the experts say. Sugar makes my kid nuts. It creeps up on him.  A fruit bar with lunch, maybe some yogurt.  A boxed drink.  The teacher’s aide gives out some candy as a reward.  One kid’s mom brings in donuts from the bakery where she works.  The neighbor brings him See’s butterscotch lollies back from her trip to San Francisco. There’s leftover Valentine’s candy all over the house. You see where I”m going with this? Suddenly, my usually sunny, always argumentative, very inventive boy is in a craptastic mood.  He’s too sensitive, he takes everything the wrong way, he’s irrationally angry about something, he’s throwing a temper tantrum…  so we start putting... [Read more]