Parenting Stress

By Natural Family Online

Practicing focused breathing exercises can help you relax and relieve the tension you’ve built up during the day. Our everyday lives tend to weigh on use, causing us to be in a constant state of arousal, even if we have nothing to be excited about. This can cause emotional problems including irritability, anger, and depression along with physical symptoms like headaches and stomachaches. Relaxation breathing can relieve these symptoms. These methods can also be used to calm yourself before you go to sleep. This way you get more of a better quality sleep that leaves you feeling rested and rejuvenated. (more…)

By Julie Jordan Scott

My day started merrily today. Please read that again, with your tongue firmly entrenched in your cheek. Yes, my day started merrily today. I’ll put it in a nutshell for you. Sam, my five-year-old, is having challenges with his digestive system.

When it looked like it was a temporary challenge, I lit a candle and set it on my entry way altar. I recited my most recent quote-to-live-by, “My work is to love.” Mary Oliver said it so it must be true. (more…)

By Alicia Bayer

All mommies everywhere kiss owies to make them better, but I’ve learned a few other fun ways to make things better.

• My friend Trevi taught me about throwing owies in the street. When her daughter Simone was hurt or sad, she would scoop up the imaginary owie and dramatically fling it toward the window. She’d shout at it and make a grand scene of chastising it. It worked every time. (more…)

By Elizabeth Pantley

Question:

I find myself getting angry with my kids much too often. I can’t seem to help myself — they really know how to push my buttons. When they purposely disobey me, or are outright disrespectful, I fly off the handle. How can I control my own anger when it’s the kids’ misbehavior that makes me so mad?

Think about it: Is it your children’s misbehavior that makes you angry? Or is it your view of their behavior that creates angry feelings? There’s a big difference. (more…)

Question: My 18-month-old toddler wakes up twice per night to nurse. We sleep together, and we like it this way. Many of my family and friends express sheer horror at learning of our situation, though, and my mother swears I will live to regret it. Will I? Am I doing something wrong? (more…)

Review by C. Delia Scarpitti

Confessions of a Slacker Mom (DeCapo-Lifelong Books) by Muffy Mead-Ferro is a call for parents to trust their own instincts when raising their children. Her advice runs counter to the “Supermom” trends of (more…)

Mommy Wars

Written by Leslie Morgan Steiner
ISBN: 1400064155
Buy now on Powells or Amazon.
Review by C. Delia Scarpitti

In recent years, media outlets have been chronicling an apparent divide between women working for pay and those remaining home following the birth of their children. Writers have debated and disputed about this topic (more…)