Blog Posts by Mommyish

Calling Dr. Drew! Or A&E's Intervention! My daughter just returned to camp and I need help!

For most children, going to day camp or overnight camp is about having the time of their lives. For us parents, it is a bit of a break. But, although I know camp is not a cult or an addiction - unless you consider sleeping in bunk beds, rock climbing and water skiing a cult or addiction - I find that most of the children I know, including my own daughter, need a "deprogramming" after returning from a session at camp.

I have felt that I've needed to call in Dr. Drew for a special "intervention" for children who go to camp, thanks to my daughter's new attitude and her new habit of eye rolling, talking back and overall impatience with me. None of which she had before going to overnight camp.

I realized this last year, for the first time, each day when my daughter arrived home from day camp. There was just something different in her tone of voice, like she was annoyed with me. There

Jours Aprés Lunes, a French clothing brand, has created a collection of "loungerie" for young girls - very young girls. The company's collection marked under "fille" depicts bras or "brasseries" and "triangles" for girls as young as four years old.

The majority of the collection is very tame as anyone who has a little girl, or has been one, can attest that most panties are just like these: pink, frilly, and with lots of bows. The collection also features tank tops and shorts with bows, ideal for the hyper feminine little girl who likes to slumber in style.

The lingerie aspect of the collection is introduced with little pink bras or bralettes rather with matching panties. Another set offers a black and white triangle bra, also with accompanying panties in the same design. The term "loungerie" seeks to distance these products from being sexual, while at the time placing lingerie on children. Lingerie, it can be argued is to be worn intimately regardless of whether one is an

Forget the "Mommy Wars", there's a whole new battle being waged by women everywhere. It's not concerned with how you raise your children. The new debate is whether we should have them at all. The Today Show and the New York Post have profiled women who choose not to have to children and the struggles they go through defending those choices. The "Childless By Choice" movement is growing, and its battling unfair stereotypes of anger, selfishness and social ineptitude. Personally, I agree with the growing number of people who have made the decision not to have children. I don't think that parenthood brings about a magical transformation that lets you know more, feel more or experience more than anyone else. Or at least, it doesn'talways. Unfortunately, my personal story flies directly in the face of their argument, because motherhood really did make me a better person.

I had my daughter at a young age. I was 21, with an irresponsible jerk of a boyfriend when I got pregnant. I was

Giving birth in the United States has reached a new point of concern as more and more complications threaten the lives of both babies and mothers.According to the World Health Organization, C-sections are only necessary in no more than 5 percent to 15 percent of all deliveries. Yet, one in three births now occurs via c-section, making a cesarean the most popular form of surgery in America - but also not the most conducive to a healthful outcome.

C-sections are often being performed for the sake of convenience, either for the doctor or mother, or for other elective purposes. According to The Los Angeles Times, "caesarean-section births [are] a major contributor to the disturbing trend" of mother mortality which has been on the rise in the United States in recent years. In 2010, a study of the maternal mortality rate ranked America as 39th in a global ranking of other countries.

At the same time, elective c-sections and induced labors are posing more risks to babies. Doctors

I hear a lot of mothers gripe about summer vacation and what the heck they're going to do with a full house all that time. For expat mothers like me who are also primary caregivers, summer is a time for heading back to the motherland, which can generate exponential anxiety.

The benefits of a home visit - quality time with family, reunion with friends - usually outweigh the disadvantages. But then there's the time away from your spouse, if he or she is lucky enough to have a job in your adopted place of residence. And the close quarters: all of a sudden you're not only play-dating other families, you're often bunking with them, too. They're seeing you at your (and your children's) worst. And everyone's making judgments about the other's parenting style.

This year I embraced all that transparency. I likened it to summer parenting school - or an internship that might, eventually, qualify me for the job. Sure, my peers could be aggravating at times (please don't pull out the

My husband and I have this idea that we can still live a semi-nomadic lifestyle with our two children in tow. I'm not talking about applying for a World Passport (yes, it's a real thing), or hopping on a private jet, but we envision a life in which we have a home base somewhere that we're able to use as a jumping-off point for random and not-so-random adventures to the more affordable parts of the globe. If it were just the two of us, this would seem to me like the perfect set-up for a fun-filled, free-spirited lifestyle that would pay untold dividends in the form of a never-ending world education. Can it do the same for two small children?

The more we talk about it, the more we find ourselves coming back to the same set of concerns. How important is a "home," when defined as four walls in one place that never moves? And how important is a perfect attendance record in pre-school? What about friends that you see every day? How vital are these things to the healthy development of

Welcome to Splitsville. This weekly column will focus on parenting after a divorce, break-up or one-night stand thatdidn't end like a Katherine Heigl movie.

When a friend of mine got pregnant with her second child, she told the world by giving her daughter a bunch of "Big Sister" shirts. It was a cute way to share the news with her friends and family. Her daughter would pull off her jacket and my friend got to watch as the realization dawned on those around her and everyone started to squeal in delight.

I guess my ex (who we're going to start referring to as John, as in John Doe) was going for the same kind of surprise when he bought our daughter Bridal Barbie. Actually, he bought her the entire wedding set, complete with groom, flower girls and cake. At first, I thought that she must have picked out the set, begged and pleaded and coerced her way into a new toy. I couldn't blame John for giving in, my daughter is pretty persuasive when it comes to buying Barbies. I'm pretty

We live happily in the city - Brooklyn, to be exact - but whenever we head out of town into the great expanse of lawns, big-ass grills, backyards and double garages connected to the house (!), my husband and I get disoriented by our attraction to suburban life.

We start doing calculations to justify our existence in the crowded and expensive place where we reside:

Urban lifestyle = ten options of capoeira lessons for kids + late night delivery of Vietnamese food +/- the possibility of witnessing crazy and beautiful moments constantly = having your own damn swing set and not having to negotiate the politics of one tire swing in the park with John and Jane Public and their kids Jade and Jude + good public school options for all - a certain soul = Suburbs.

The Big School Debate: Education Vs. Social Life

It's a special form of calculus we do.

We've tossed the city vs. suburbs debate around at home and on road trips to visit family and friends in their houses with