Blog Posts by The_Stir

Looks like actress Liv Tyler recently had a little run-in with a woman scolding a toddler and allegedly hitting the child as well.

Tyler says she "couldn't take it" and "had to do something," so she got in a minor shouting match with the woman.

Do you think Liv did the right thing?

In her book Bad Mother, Ayelet Waldman calls this "busting a Bad Mother." And, for me, these are pretty murky waters - when to step in and when to stand back and assume the mother or caretaker has the situation and/or (gulp!) herself under control.

I mean, it's pretty rare to see out and out child abuse along the street. However, it's not that rare to see a parent who has, well, snapped in a frustrating moment (whether it's one in an awful cycle of frustrating moments, we do not always know...).

In a recent article In Defense Of Kate Gosselin (Well, Sort Of) that takes a look at the Kate Gosselin "spanking incident" and all the follow-up judgmentalism, Sweetney writes, "we're lying to

I still have my diary, circa 1983, from the summer I was 12yo, in which I wrote about the trip to the east coast I made with my mom to visit family. During that trip, I explored my feelings about God and about my grandmother who was dying of cancer. My grandmother died less than three weeks after we returned home.

That little orange diary, even today, holds secrets, dreams, and memories - good and bad - I will always hold close in my heart.

Perhaps your kid, tween, or teen would like to start a journal or diary this summer? We have some great ideas to get them started.

My son's kindergarten teacher told me I could have my 6yo continue to keep a journal over the summer so he could stay in practice with handwriting and word-making in the months before first grade begins. "Let him write about anything he wants." Keeping it fun, personal, and free seems to be the key.

Of course, this idea won't work for every kid, but some kids can really get into it.

Here are eight

I need a babysitter for my daughter so I've been perusing the listings on Sittercity. Most of the child care providers on there are female, but the other day, I came across a "manny," and I hesitated.

A lot of moms must have this reaction because he wrote in his profile: "Let me put your fears to rest," and "the woman in my profile picture is my wife."

I guess a lot of people feel funny about hiring a male babysitter to take care of their kids, which is kind of strange when you think about it, because most dads are men. I have absolutely no problem with my husband or my daughter's grandfathers taking care of her so I'm not sure why I felt a little "twitch" when I saw this guy offering his babysitting services.

Some people are okay with having men watch their sons, but not their daughters. Yet according to Janet Rose Wojtalik, author of The Seven Secrets of Parenting Girls, it can be a very positive thing for girls to have a male caregiver.

One mom on our site asked if

Great news! Your toddler is potty trained!

Bad news! Your trip to the beach this summer will be loads of extra work!

Your tot is so proud and excited she finally "made it." Now she needs to and wants to go all the time. And you can't suddenly ask her to start "holding it" after all that talk about listening to her "urges."

These are some of the scenarios you have to look forward to:

1. Trudging to the public potty with your toddler every half hour or so. The toilets are so far away that by the time you get back to the blanket it's almost time to turn around again.

2. Dragging along all of your other children, who are moaning that they don't have to go ... You explaining for the 10th time, "What, are you crazy, leave you guys alone near rip currents?"

3. Pleading with your newly toilet trained toddler to just go pee in the ocean, leading to a scene and a tantrum (it's just not as easy as it sounds).

4. Giving up and pulling out a diaper (NOT recommended).

Recently we came across one mom who's facing a difficult dilemma that no mom with teenagers would envy. Her 18-year-old son was arrested for a DUI that resulted in an accident. Thankfully, no one was seriously injured; but now, she's trying to decide whether to leave him in jail until his trial date to teach him a lesson or bail him out.

It's obviously been tough for this mom to leave her son in jail. As a mom, she has practical concerns for his safety and says, "It's hard to see your child that way."

However, she also recognizes how serious his offense is and thinks that serving jail time might be the only opportunity to teach him an important lesson. "Despite realizing that it's not really that uncommon of a thing for someone his age to be out drinking and partying some, I couldn't overlook the fact that he made a conscious decision to drive drunk," she says.

Every parent tries to make the choices they feel will best help their child in the long run, and this comes down to

Unfortunately, most the moms I know tend to take on a lot of, mostly unfounded and unnecessary, "mother guilt."

So I was so happy, when asked the other day about putting my kids in more child care, that I realized I didn't feel guilty.

Until I realized I felt guilty for not feeling guilty...

The other night we were going for our nightly walk, and we got lured into our favorite neighbor's kitchen, once again, for homemade cookies (kinda ruins the whole walk thing but whatever; we love her, and we can't resist her husband's cookies).

While chatting, I told her that this week, since my paid work has become full-time work, my older son Clyde would start a five days a week summer program through the YMCA and that I'd be moving our toddler Leo from three days to five days at his current preschool.

She looked at me and said, "Do you think Leo will do okay? Being away from you that much?"

Inside, I laughed. I laughed because, seriously, Leo will be fine. He already

In his "Advice to High School Graduates," a New York Times writer talks about the fact that schools don't focus on teaching kids to be truly happy, but rather only prepare them for decisions that will make them only "marginally happy."

For example, classes and instruction are focused on helping young people to choose careers, make money, and achieve status. Sure, these are all necessary to get by in society. But do these help kids to be happy?

What about the areas of life that have a bigger impact on happiness? Why are there no classes for making and keeping friends, choosing a spouse or partner, or controlling one's impulses? Young people are pretty much left alone to figure these things out for themselves.

The writer makes an interesting point about the holes in curriculum when it comes to some life lessons. But I wonder if school is the appropriate place to learn about these intimate relationships and topics.

What do you think? When it comes to your own kids, are

New research suggests a link between bedtimes and teen depression. The study finds that teens who stay up past midnight on weeknights have a higher chance of being depressed or suicidal than teens whose parents enforce an earlier bedtime.

Specifically, the results show that "middle- and high-schoolers whose parents don't require them to be in bed before midnight on school nights are 42 percent more likely to be depressed than teens whose parents require a 10 p.m. or earlier bedtime."

This is particularly worrisome given that teens these days are "multitasking" (texting, surfing the Web, watching TV, etc.) at all hours of the night instead of sleeping.

Experts recommend that teens and tweens get as much sleep as younger children-at least 9 hours a night, if possible.

Does your teen have a bedtime?

Written by Kim Conte for CafeMom's Big Kid Buzz