Blog Posts by Parentables

Years ago, before I became a Mom, I went to a friend's house for lunch and while we chatted her toddler played quietly with his toys. When he was done, and it was time to put him down for a nap, she prompted him in a sing-song voice, "OK, it's time to do your chores before naptime."

"But... but... he's only three. Why does he have to do chores?" I asked.

I'll never forget her calm, simple reply. "Because he can."

And sure enough, I watched as he carefully picked up a pre-determined number of toys to return to their proper places, his Pull-Up occasionally peeking from the waist of his jeans making the sight even more surreal. He wasn't completely potty-trained, yet he had daily chores that, it seemed, he did without complaint.

I thought, I'll never make my toddler do chores. That's just mean. Kids should be kids. They shouldn't have to worry about chores at three. Oh, those were the good old days of having all these ideas about parenthood minus a drop of experience.

Post and photo by Sarah Fernandez.

As parents, when we decide to have another baby or "give" our child a sibling, we know there will be occasional fighting, but we mostly envision the special bond they will have with each other. However, there is something about siblings that seems to allow them the freedom to do whatever they want to each other-things that if anyone else did to a person, they would probably be seriously punished for doing so. My older sister recently brought up a story about the time that I was practicing the piano in junior high school, and she and my younger brother couldn't take it anymore. I was playing a Native American chant song over and over again, and she and my brother dragged me away from the piano and upstairs to my bedroom where they tied my hands to my brass bed with old splintered plastic rope from our swing set. My mother was home, but she was wallpapering her bedroom and kept telling them to "knock it off" but they didn't care. It got me

This post was written by Nina Perez.

I should be excited. After all, this is my favorite time of year. I look forward to using the fireplace again, cuddling on the sofa with cozy blankets, steaming mugs of cocoa, picking pumpkins, Thanksgiving menus, Christmas lists, and lazy Sundays watching pro football.

And while all of those things still remind me why I appreciate my favorite season, autumn also brings with it a dreaded task that plants a nervous ball of tension in my stomach: shopping for my daughter's Halloween costume.

Read More: 10 Low-Cost, No-Sew Halloween Costumes That Stand Out from the Crowd

It began two years ago when Kali was ten. She had outgrown the kids costume category and graduated to teens. When she was four, she'd made the most adorable Dorothy I'd ever seen, so I was excited when Kali agreed to dress up as her again. And this time, she had a new baby brother who'd make an adorable Scarecrow. I went online shopping at various costume sites,

This post was written by Katie Morton.

I subscribe to the Flylady newsletter, which helps me keep our messes manageable. While my home is hardly a bastion of asceticism, it's absolutely less cluttered now than it's been in the past. Lest you think I'm bragging, let me assure you I've still got a lot of work ahead of me. This morning I became more determined than ever to keep on top of my goal of a less cluttered and more orderly home. Here's why.

Read More: 19 Ways to Beat Clutter Forever

When I read this morning's newsletter, I was delighted (delighted! I'm not using the word sarcastically!) to read the story of a mom and her formerly cantankerous, aggressive 5-year-old son. As punishment, this mom cleared her son's room of all the toys that were cluttering up the space.

She wrote:

This post was written by Christine Lepisto.

Parentables celebrates life, rejoices in the process of bringing a new person into the world and raising them to join the human race. But we must also accept the imperfections of nature's delicate process. Most of us know October as Breast Cancer Awareness month, but did you know that it is Pregnancy and Infant Loss awareness month too?

I have been struggling with how to approach this issue since my sister-in-law recently lost her little girl to an umbilical cord accident only weeks before she was due to give birth. The loss re-opened the wounds of my mother's loss of my little brother, only 24 hours after giving birth.

My sister-in-law points out that the grief of those who have lost their children before the rest of the world got to know them remains unique: "A person that loses a partner is called a widow. A child who loses a parent is called an orphan. But there is no word to describe a parent

This post was written by Sarah Fernandez.

My son has now officially been in kindergarten for just over one month. Most aspects of it have been much as I expected and he seems to be doing well with his school work, making friends, and generally adjusting to this big milestone in his life. But what I wasn't expecting was that he would suddenly have such an attitude about things, and it is clearly the result of going to school.

Read More: How My Cheers for Kindergarten Turned into Tears for Kindergarten

When he gets on the bus in the morning, I often get a hug and he drives away waving out the window. But in the afternoon he gets off that bus, barely makes eye contact with me, and walks into the house before he will even say hello. What happens to my child during the day? It's as though he knows he's a part of a family unit in the morning, but throughout the day he realizes that he's a big kid with independence, and he doesn't want the other kids to know that he still

This post was written by Ryan Johnson.

Radio stations have been holding contests for their listeners for about as long as they've been on the air. And scandals surrounding those contests are just about as old. In 2007, a 28-year-old California woman died from water intoxication after competing to win a Wii gaming system, and way back in 1938, a radio station broadcast an adaptation of the novel, War of the Worlds, which caused panic and hysteria among its listeners.

The latest contest added to the controversial list comes out of Ottawa, Canada. CNN is reporting that Hot 89.9 hosted a contest for couples to try to "Win a Baby!" Here's how it worked: Couples wrote essays on why they think they should be chosen to win. From those entries, the stations chose five couples to compete. On Tuesday, the winner was announced, and all five couples were awarded the grand prize of three IVF treatments each.

While the title of the contest seems a little sensationalistic (and maybe

This post was written by Susan Wagner.

My sons wear uniforms to school: navy shorts or pants, white polo shirts, school sweatshirt. On Thursdays they trade the polo for a dress shirt and they add a tie. They would give up the tie if they could, but we all love the uniform -- no worrying about what to wear, no arguing, no disappointment because some favorite shirt is in the laundry. The uniform makes our life one million times easier (no exaggeration).

A Mom Uniform can do the same for your life, whether you're going to an office every day or staying home with the kids. When you have the right pieces, getting dressed in the morning is easy, and a uniform requires no thought or planning -- just put it on and go.

A successful Mom Uniform does two things: it makes you look great, and it makes your life easy. This leaves out yoga pants and track suits, in case you were hoping to make either of those your uniform. What's the alternative? Here are three options.

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