Blog Posts by Parenting.com

© Courtesy of NASA

By Elina Bolokhova
Meet the real deal: Karen Nyberg can fly through the air as if there weren't any gravity. That's because where she works, there isn't any. She takes a break from training in Star City, Russia to chat with Parenting about preparing to leave her husband and 3-year-old son behind to spend six months at the International Space Station.

The number one thing that our Parenting readers will probably want to know is: what is it like to be in space?
It is absolutely incredible. I was there in 2008 on a shuttle flight. Unfortunately, that was a very short mission of only fourteen days. I remember the first day we opened the big door of the space shuttle and I was able to look out at the back windows of the flight deck. It's pretty much indescribable, how beautiful it is. The feeling of floating like a superhero is amazing. I'm so excited to do it again.

Plus: Parenting Advice from Celebrity Moms

How do you feel like becoming a mom has changed the way you

Read More »from NASA's Astronaut Mom Opens Up Before Six-Month Stint in Space

© WOIO/19 Action NewsBy Judy Dutton for Parenting.com
I lost my 2-year-old daughter on a crowded playground once: I blinked, and she was gone. Panic rising in my throat, I ran circles around the park's perimeter, screeching her name, before finally spotting her by the swings. From that point on, I vowed I'd keep my eyeballs glued to her in public. A few months later, I lost (and found) her again. So much for that.

Call me a horrible mom or call me human, but those few minutes where I couldn't pinpoint my daughter's whereabouts were the most frightening of my life. That's why I can't imagine what it would be like to be the parent of a truly missing child like Amanda Berry-who, in 2003, vanished just a day before her 17 th birthday and remained MIA for ten years. My heart pounds, my knees weaken, and my eyes get teary at the thought.

Plus: Sandy Hook Mom Opens Up About Child's PTSD

But unlike many other kidnapping cases, Berry's story has a happy ending: On Monday, the 27-year-old escaped the

Read More »from Amanda Berry and the Ohio Abductions: What Lies Ahead

Courtesy of Parenting.comWe surveyed a few kids for their mother's day ideas and thoughts. We loved the charming things they had to say.

© VeerBy Janelle Hanchett
When I thought about writing this post, I was going to use it as a forum to scold those horribly annoying people who can't have lunch with you because they're too busy tweeting about having lunch with you.

And then I realized I am one of those people and I grew immensely uncomfortable.

I used to be normal. Then I got an iPhone.

I used to have this wretched little Blackberry that did nothing - and even that it does poorly. I would gaze at my husband's iPhone with a longing in my heart: the touch screen, the plethora of apps, Facebook so clear and bright. So when it was finally time for an upgrade, I splurged on my own iPhone.

And now it's like crack to me.

Plus: Life in the Fast Lane (For One Day, At Least)

If I don't have the lil sucker with me I feel like somebody removed my pants without me looking.

I'm like a blind puppy searching for her mother: "Come back, come back! I'll die without you."

When I can't find my phone I think my

Read More »from Confessions of a Social Media Addicted Mom

Courtesy of Parenting.comBy Shawn Bean for Parenting.com

It's Mother's Day, 2006, and I'm shopping for Mother's Day. That afternoon, I arrive at our family's holiday gathering with a card and a potted petunia from the Home Depot. As the other moms and grandmoms dive into their gifts, I hand my wife, Brandy, the recyclable, unfertilized tokens of my affection. "I'm so lucky to have you in my life," reads the card's handwritten sentiment. "You've made me a better person and a better father." She smiles sweetly.

Extend hand. Pat back. Repeat.

Plus: Easy Mother's Day Crafts for Kids

That evening, Brandy walks past the Mother's Day card I gave my mom, which sits open on the kitchen counter. She takes a peek. "I'm so lucky to have you in my life. You've made me a better person and a better father." More than half of the message was identical.

Caught in a deadline pinch, the writer plagiarizes his own work to make life easier on himself. It was a monumentally blockheaded move, one that kinda sorta

Read More »from The Greatest Mother's Day Fail of All Time

Funfetti cake with rainbow chip icing. DYN-O-MITE.

By Erin Zammett Ruddy

One of the many benefits to having kids is that I'm exposed to this crap more than I was pre-kids and, well, I eat it up...literally.

I must start this post with the disclaimer that I do not feed my kids the things on the list below very often. In fact, I'm rarely the one offering it to them (apart from the first one-guilty there a few times a month). My kids have a varied and very healthy diet, we all eat lots of whole foods, real food, organic fruits and veggies, meats raised without antibiotics, etc. I have read Michael Pollen, I belong to a food coop, I have a big organic veggie garden in my backyard and yet…I dig me some processed kid food. As I established in my last post, I am far from perfect and I break my own rules and I'm OK with that. Especially when the five foods below are involved. Because, well, yum:

Plus: Tips for Cooking with Kids

Macaroni and cheese-only from the box, obviously. To me, Kraft is the pinnacle (I once interviewed Top

Read More »from 5 Kid Foods I Can’t Resist

© iStockphoto

By Leonora Desar for Parenting.com
Could sleep-deprivation be causing your child to develop signs of ADHD? According to a new opinion piece in the New York Times, it just might play a role.

Dr. Vatsal G. Thakkar, the author of the piece and a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at the NYU School of Medicine, began wondering if a lack of sleep could cause ADHD-like symptoms when treating an adult who complained of procrastination and forgetfulness. The patient, Dr. Thakkar discovered, did not have symptoms as a child, which ruled out a diagnosis of ADHD. His conclusion? The adult was sleep-deprived, which was causing him to forget things and lose his focus. When the patient began to get more sleep, his symptoms disappeared.

Plus: 19 Celebrities With ADHD

"I don't doubt that many people do, in fact, have ADHD; I regularly diagnose and treat it in adults," Dr. Thakkar writes. "But what if a substantial proportion of cases are really sleep disorders in

Read More »from Is ADHD Caused by Lack of Sleep?

© Courtesy of Niki Taylor, March of DimesBy Leonora Desar

When she was 21, Niki Taylor became the first supermodel to grace six magazine covers in just one month. Now, at 38, Taylor is a mom of four to identical twins Jake and Hunter, 18; Ciel, 4; and Rex, 17 months. She's also a philanthropist, and on April 27th she kicked off the March of Dimes' annual March for Babies in Miami. We caught up with the superstar mom to chat about motherhood, modeling and her proudest parenting moment.

How did you get involved with the March of Dimes?
Their mission is to improve the health of all babies, and I'm a mom of four healthy children. It's my responsibility now as a mom to help out in any way that I can.

What's best parenting advice that you've ever received?
I think it's a process -- there really is no book or guide. As soon as that baby is born all the books and everything kind of go out the window. Do you have any tips from your own experience with your kids? I think the biggest one is that I just love them. I'm always Read More »from Niki Taylor, Supermom