Thanks to everyone who entered the book contest. If you didn’t win, keep reading anyway for some tips from the author on dating a guy with kids.
Congrats to Trig, the winner of the book contest for STEPMONSTER: A New Look at Why Real Stepmothers Think, Feel, and Act the Way We Do by Wednesday Martin, Ph.D.
Trig said:
I would love a copy of this book because I’ve been a step-mom through marriage and it looks like I’ll be doing it again. This time I would like to do it and approach with a little more knowledge on educating the rest of …read more

Parenting isn’t easy, is it? No matter how cute and cuddly our children are, each one also has his own way of throwing a tantrum or breaking a curfew. They shower us with surprise hugs and kisses one breakfast morning, then storm out of the room when they don’t get their way. How does one learn his way around parenting? There isn’t a clear-cut way, is there? That’s the beauty of it.
1. There are a lot of books on how to raise a child, and the right book for each one of us can illuminate a lot of things. One …read more

How often have you heard this line from your friends: “I don’t want to turn into my Mother!” or “I fear becoming my father when it’s my turn to be a Dad.” Parenting is difficult. There are moments when you wonder if you’re doing anything right at all, moments when you reflect on whether you’re doing the best that you can.
Then there are moments when you wonder how close to your mother or father your parenting style is. The reflections can take a positive or negative spin, depending on your perspective of the moment. It’s more comfortable to emulate the …read more

In case you are not aware of what kind of parenting style you have, Parenting.com offers a new Web application that can explain it to you in big, fancy words. The application, designed by a bunch of PhD types with Signal Patterns, offers “new insight into the rich complexities of parenting approaches far beyond relaxed/strict descriptions and is the first such test to shed light on potential parenting conflicts among couples.”
The application features an assessment questionnaire to identify what Signal calls your hidden parenting traits. You can also take the test “for your partner” so you can discover differences in …read more