Blog Posts by Parentables

Punishing your kids with the use of force is the unthinking approach.From signs that bullies may be targeting your child through keeping kids safe from guns to violence in fairy tales, any discussion of parenting must sadly include the discussion of violence. But while we know that exposure to violence - including parental spanking - can negatively impact children's behavior and emotional well-being, what I hadn't realized is that it can literally change a child's DNA too.

Read More: 14 Ways to Help Your Child Defend Herself Against Bullying. Hint: Be Prepared Before it Happens

USA Today reports on new research showing that children exposed to violence actually physically age faster than their peers:

Bill and Giuliana RancicFinally, some good news for Giuliana and Bill Rancic: After struggling with infertility for years, and then receiving a breast cancer diagnosis last year, followed by a double mastectomy, Giuliana Rancic is going to be a mother. The couple announced the happy news on the Today Show early Monday morning, and the well wishes have been pouring in ever since.

Read More: Surrogate Keeps Couple's Baby, Then Sues for Child Support

But her infertility issues and breast cancer haven't been cured overnight. In fact, Giuliana's not even pregnant. The Rancics are using what's called a gestational carrier, a woman who carries the fertilized embryo of the parents. So, while another woman is carrying the baby to term and will deliver, he or she will biologically belong to the Rancics.

Read More: Did Victoria Beckham Choose the Sex of Her Baby?

Giuliana and Bill aren't the first celebrity couple to welcome a child using a gestational carrier, either. In early 2011, Keith Urban and Nicole

Vaccines Save LivesWay too often, parents back-burner their own medical needs in favor of handling those of their little kids. Many of us incorrectly believe that vaccines last a lifetime, which is simply not the case all the time. Scarily enough, this puts thousands upon thousands of unsuspecting people at risk for contracting dangerous diseases. In fact, estimates claim that 40,000 adults die every year of diseases that could have been prevented with a simple needle stick or two.

Read More: How Opt-Out Parents and Their Unvaccinated Kids Are a Deadly Threat to Us All

In addition, unvaccinated adults often run the risk of passing disease along to people with compromised or underdeveloped immune systems, like infants or cancer patients. Often, otherwise healthy adults can fight off diseases like whooping cough, while these other people can't. So, if you think there's even the slightest chance that you might come into contact with such a person, talk to your doctor about obtaining the following

ToysOne of the things Jim Bob and I realized early on in our relationship was the idea that we have expectations that we sometimes can't live up to. We all have ideals about what we expect from our loved ones, and this is something Brother Elmore, who is our preacher and pastor at our church has talked a lot about.

Read More From Michelle Duggar: Learn How to Spring Clean Like a Duggar

As a mom I could have an expectation of a clean house (or a semi-clean house) so I can at least walk down the hallway without tripping over toys, or the expectation of a good night's sleep of eight hours. Whatever those expectations are, our pastor has explained, may be way up here in the clouds, but our actual reality may be down here with what we're dealing with, and everything in between is frustration. And you can find yourself getting very angry and put out about the way your life is because you've got all these expectations of how you thought it was going to be, or what it was like when you were

The Great Cloth Diaper Change If you're looking for something earth friendly to do this weekend with your baby and like the idea of being part of a Guiness Book of World Records official record, then find the "The Great Cloth Diaper Change" event closest to your home. On April 21, 305 hosts across America and 15 other countries will bring together parents who are interested in spreading the word about cloth diapering and attempt to break the world record for most cloth diapers changed simultaneously.

Read More: A Poop-o-Phobes Guide to Cloth Diapering: It Really Ain't That Scary

This year's event aims to beat the record set in 2011, the first year of the event, which had 5,026 participants at 127 locations in 5 countries (although there were more unofficial participants) so it looks like the chances are pretty strong that a new record will be set this year. In addition to breaking a world record, the event is asking for donations to the Real Diaper Association, a non-profit organization that provides

DollaramaDollar stores are are a boon for people on a budget, and can be a lot of fun, cruising the aisles. But you have to be careful; their business is buying overstocks, seconds and discontinued lines and you don't always know what is in them, and it isn't always good for you.

Read More: Why I Killed Baby Ava

Environmental Defence, the big Canadian green org, has just started a campaign called JustBeautiful to let people know what to look for. They write:

Here's something you're probably not thinking about when you're brushing your teeth, changing the little one's diaper, and putting on deodorant in the morning: before you even make it to the breakfast table, you've probably used almost 15 personal care products with over 100 host of toxic ingredients. The chemicals in your face cream, your diaper cream, your shampoo, and your lipstick have been linked to cancer, birth defects, infertility, and a long list of health concerns.

Read More: My Daughter Went to a Birthday Party

Discovery Kids PuterbugsWe all recognize how technology is changing our everyday lives: Instead of sorting through a heavy, outdated encyclopedia, I Google information I need. Instead of poking around for my torn-up atlas, I talk to my GPS as if it's human. And instead of never speaking again to that cool person I just sat next to last week on the airplane, she's now my Facebook friend.

Read More: Can Video Games Make Your Kids Smarter?

Although I take most of these everyday uses in my life for granted, it made me wonder -- is technology changing our brains? And what about the brains of our kids? So I dug a little deeper -- with the help of technology, of course!

Read More: Can Technology Make Your Kid a Better Student?

Ok, so maybe playdoh is a slight exaggeration, but one cool fact I discovered is that our brains are moldable like plastic. In fancy science terms, this neuroplasticity means our brains can make on-the-fly changes that represent the new knowledge we just acquired,

Jeremiah Duggar lends TLC a helping hand in Birmingham, Alabama, after a devastating tornado tore through the town.Besides learning the basics of homeschooling, like math and spelling, we work with our children on something called character qualities, which we think kids are never too young to begin learning about. There are 49 character-building qualities, and each quality has an opposite so that we can give our kids more of a reference point.

Read More From Michelle: Michelle on Homeschooling: How the Duggars Learn Together

For a month we focus on that quality and memorize it together. For instance, we might learn about taking initiative and its opposite, unresponsiveness. We look for ways to practice initiative creatively. Once we decided we would have secret acts of initiative and help bless other people's lives with it. We would do something that needed to be done before we were asked to do it and try to do it in secret and then see if later in the day someone noticed it.

Read More From Michelle: Michelle Duggar's No. 1 Exercise Motivator

So somebody would come along and clean up