Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Did you tell your children about the tragedy in Connecticut?
The first thing I did when I read about the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut was weep. The second thing I did was tell myself that I would never let my children, ages 3 and 8, know that something so horrific had happened in the world that they live in. It would be easy for me to shield them from it. We don't have cable and we never watch the news with them in the room. My 8-year-old is very sensitive and we shield him from the many horrors of the world, regardless. I didn't want something so terrifying to even enter his consciousness. The fact the the tragedy happened on Friday gave me the weekend to ruminate on whether or not we should share the news with our sweet boy. It started to sink in that children at his …
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
What my kids have taught me about gratitude.
It's that time of year again where I reflect on all the things that I am grateful for. Being a parent has helped me to not take things for granted and to appreciate many simple moments in life. Here is a list of the top 10 things that I've learned to be thankful for since I became a mother. 1. The value of a good night's sleep. Seriously, I had never known true exhaustion until I became a parent. Now that my children sleep soundly through the night, I thank my lucky stars for 8 hours of uninterrupted bliss. Without it, I turn into a crazy person. 2. A closed bathroom door. It's rare that I spend time powdering my nose without a child following me in there. Oh, but those moments that I do escape are so beautiful, even if both of my …
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Disconnecting from social media helped me reconnect with my children.
Being a Stay-at-home Mom can feel isolating, especially if you have young children at home with you. There was a time, when my youngest was a baby and my other son was no bigger than a grasshopper's hind leg, that I felt alone in a sea of diapers and burp cloths. The days would drag on between naps and nursing and I needed a network of people that I could reach out to. Enter Facebook. Social media became a lifeline for me at a time when I needed a connection. Between finding friends from my past, new friends, and eventually blogging friends, I felt a sense of community whenever I logged in. At first I only checked in when the kids were napping. Grabbing a handful of minutes to read everyone's updates to get a sense that I was an active …
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Intel stops donations until ban on gay scouts and scout leaders is lifted.
Financial supporters of the Boy Scouts of America have been under firm pressure by gay rights organizations demanding that companies take a stand against the youth organization whose policy discriminates against people based on their sexual orientation. The push might just be working. This week the BSA lost funding from their largest corporate funder, Intel, which reportedly gave the youth organization more than $700,000 in 2010. The move resulted from a campaign launched by Eagle Scout Zach Wahls, founder of Scouts for Equality, who started a campaign at Change.org. He urged Intel to pull funding for BSA after an American Independent report disclosed that the company gave large contributions to the organization. With the support of …
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Sites mock parents who share too much information about their kids on Facebook.
It's super exciting that your little toddler piddled in the potty for the first time and you want to share photographic evidence of the moment with all of your friends on Facebook. Well, you might want to reconsider before you hit the "share" button. There are a slew of websites these days dedicated to informing over-sharing parents that their childless friends are over reading about their kid's crap, literally. Take for instance, the blog ST*U, Parents, a submission-based "public service" blog that pokes fun at parents whose Facebook statuses have been hijacked with inane updates about their children. The author of the site, known simply as "B," created the blog in 2009 in response to annoying parental over-share posts that popped up in …
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Atlanta parents arrested for student's poor attendance.
School started recently for most counties in Georgia. While many moms were busy packing lunch boxes, two Dekalb County mothers heard deputies knocking on their front doors. Cheryl McCoy and Danelle Swanson were each placed in handcuffs in separate incidents and charged with educational neglect because both of their children had too many absences from school. The truancy round up came from a 2009 ordinance, which is now being strictly enforced. Atlanta parents could face a $1,000 fine, up to 60 days in jail, or be required to complete community service when their children skip too much school. According to The Atlanta Journal Constitution, Atlanta has a troubling truancy problem. Almost 44 percent of high school students missed 10 or more…
Saturday, April 23, 2011
In extreme cases, an over-stressed parent can lead to tragedy.
A friend called me recently to tell me about a sad story she heard on the news. When she finished the story, I was in disbelief. I immediately began to research it, hoping to find that she was wrong about the whole thing. So I searched for it. "Mom Drives Into Hudson River, Killing Self and 3 Children" On April 13, 2011 police reported that a mom drove herself and her 4 kids into the Hudson River. Her 10-year-old managed to roll down a power window and get out. She was in a domestic dispute with her husband 10 minutes prior to driving her minivan into the water. Her 10-year-old was picked up by a passerby. He alerted a fire department, but it was already too late. The mom, age 25, and 3 children, ages 5, 2, and 11 months, all died. The …
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Thanks to our official groundhog, General Lee, we're already thinking about summer!
Moms Talk is a new feature on Norcross Patch that is part of a new initiative on our Patch sites to reach out to moms and families. Norcross Patch invites you and your circle of friends to help build a community of support for mothers and their families right here in Norcross. Each week in Moms Talk, our Moms Council of experts and smart moms take your questions, give advice and share solutions. Moms, dads, grandparents and the diverse families who make up our community will have a new resource for questions about local neighborhood schools, the best pediatricians, 24-hour pharmacies and the thousands of other issues that arise while raising children. Moms Talk will also be the place to drop in for a talk about the latest parenting hot …
Crystal Huskey
1:15 pm on Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Mine are too young, but my eight-year-old niece has been literally sick over it. She threw up a few times after she found out. I think it's really, really hard on some kids, but at the same time it's much better to hear what happened from your parents, in a safe environment, than at school. more ›