One of my 2009 New Year's resolutions was to prepare my daughters' school lunches the day before, instead of racing around on school day mornings in a panic trying to get them to finish their orange juice and cereal while I put together a rushed lunch kit and hurry them out the door, toothpaste dribbles still drying on their chins.So far I've done admirably well, but not without a little preparation and thought. And since I know I'm certainly not alone in the packed lunch struggle, I thought I'd share some of my most successful tips with you:Plan lunches a... More »

My eight year-old daughter spoke at a school assembly yesterday, which made me really proud. The theme of the assembly was RESPECT. (Actually, my daughter shared what she'd learned about Mozart and the Magic Flute - the respect theme came later). At one point in the assembly, the grade ones read little compositions they had written, all prefaced with the phrase:"If you want to lose all your friends..."Their conclusions ranged from the funny ("put a frog in their lunchboxes") to the troubling ("whack them with a big stick") to the expected ("pull their hair", "stick out your tongue at them",... More »

Many Canadians are lucky enough to be able to celebrate Family Day this February 16. It's the perfect time for a holiday - mid-winter blahs are at their peak, and the period between Christmas and Easter is the longest stretch we have to endure without a holiday. So Family Day comes as a very welcome break!In keeping with the spirit of the day, many families will plan to do something together. We're contemplating our options in my family, but we're definitely planning some kind of an outing. We're considering skating on a pond near our house, taking a trip to... More »

 I've been thinking a lot lately about childhood (for one reason or another), and one of the things I cannot help but notice is the amazing influence technology has had on my children. I remember thinking of all the amazing advances my grandmothers had witnessed in their lives: the invention of cars, telephones, television, commercial air travel and the invention of the computer. Wow, I used to think, how mind-blowing that all these things I take for granted didn't exist when my grandmothers were girls.Now I pause a moment and think of the contrasts in technology between a single generation's... More »

My five year-old daughter and her friend playing make-believe in the living room:DAUGHTER: "Pretend I'm the mom, and you're the kid."FRIEND: "And you're a teenager."DAUGHTER: "Teenagers aren't moms!"FRIEND: "Some of them are."DAUGHTER: "Yeah, but I don't want to be a teenager mom."Whew! Now that's a relief!... More »