Blog Posts by Parentables

King of the statueBecoming a parent is likely to be the biggest responsibility you have in life. That's a daunting thought, and it causes many of us to have the urge to draw the curtains and never let our kids see the light of day, lest they get hurt.

Read More: 6 Ways to Boost Your Happiness and Be a Positive Role Model for Your Kids

Unfortunately, overprotectiveness never serves the purpose we intend. By shielding our kids from life's realities, we stall the inevitable lessons they will have to learn for themselves. Give your kids a leg up with these 6 tips so they can be fully equipped to meet life's challenges by the time they are ready to forge ahead on their own into adulthood.

Read More: How to Take More Pleasure in Parenthood: 4 Tips for a Calmer, Happier Existence

Photo: AndreChinn / Creative Commons

It's natural to love in other people what we love about ourselves. Unfortunately for our kids, the opposite can also be true: we may have

AVOID.Overheard: 11-year-old, Chet, to 6-year-old, Maia, "Come into my room. I'm having a Black Friday sale. If you buy one GoGo, you get one for free…only today."

Read More: 7 Reasons Why Coupons Rock

With three kids writing extensive lists to Santa, I am busy searching for deals. The idea of Black Friday sales appeal to me, but I am not willing to get out of bed before the sun rises to stand in line. So I'm online deal hunting.

Read More: 3 Apps to Make Your Shopping Easier

Here are 10 tips to help you search for deals online this holiday season.

1. Bookmark and check websites that organize and present Cyber Monday deals like www.CyberMonday.com.

2. Look for Black Friday deals in circulars and on websites like www.blackfriday.com. Last year, my dad set out for Best Buy pre-dawn and came home empty-handed, while I logged in at midnight and snagged a deal. I'd seen the laptop I wanted in a newspaper circular, which did not indicate whether or not the sale price would be

Thanks!Kids get excited about Thanksgiving Day. Besides being thrilled about a having a few days off of school, they're looking forward to seeing extended family members and, of course, eating their favorite foods. But are they involved in the process of preparing for Thanksgiving Day at your house?

Read More: 8 Ways to Cut the Cost of Hosting Thanksgiving Dinner

Thanksgiving Day is a golden opportunity to give your children ownership of small pieces of your festivities. Think of it as assigning them a Thanksgiving Day job. You'll definitely appreciate taking a task or two off of your checklist. But more importantly, your kids will feel like they contributed to the overall feeling of goodness that the day brings.

Read More: 3 Thanksgiving Crafts for the Uncrafty

If you're interested having your kids help you get ready for Thanksgiving, use these five simple options as a starting point:

1. Prepare a side dish. If your kids are interested in cooking, let them make a side

Preschoolers.My son's nursery school moved locations over the weekend. Since I'm on the board this year, I helped out a couple nights with cleaning and painting and got to see the fun transformation of a drab, empty space into a new, colourful, activity-filled room for energetic preschoolers. Spending time at the nursery school setting got me thinking about the teachers and what a tremendous job they do. These women throw their hearts and souls into their work, caring for kids who belong to other people, comforting the sobbing ones, calming the agitated ones, and always exhibiting such impressive patience.

Read More: How Using Paid Childcare Could Make You a Better Mother

It's tough for me to imagine working there because, despite being a stay-at-home mom and loving it, I don't gravitate instinctively toward kids. My parenting style is very hands-off; I don't like getting down on the floor to play with blocks or cars, or dress up, or make play-doh critters. I love having kids around, but

Spot the rainbow!Living on Long Island through the largest recorded Atlantic hurricane on record has been a humbling experience for me. Despite being spared the worst of the destruction, the effects of the storm have been acutely felt by our most precious resource, children. What has been a traumatic for many adults, has been even more devastating for kids.

Read More: Parenting Through the Hurricane

For a child, seeing their favorite playground underwater or a friend's homes demolished by downed trees can feel very overwhelming. Not only did my daughter see both of those, but she also waited with me on long gas lines, walked by the empty shelves at the grocery store, and slept through cold nights without heat.

Read More: 5 Tips for Handling a Power Outage With Your Kids

Homeschooling has offered us a unique opportunity to incorporate lessons about weather, natural disasters and how to cope with the aftermath of these events. In the days following the storm, my family moved into action

Sweet.Fall is my favorite time of year. The leaves start changing colors and it's just beautiful. We pull out all of our fall decorations for the house -- right now they are scattered all over the place! We've started to decorate for the fun harvest season and we're getting ready for Thanksgiving.

Read More: Movie Night with the Duggars

One of our favorite Autumn traditions is to go for family drives in the Ozarks. It's absolutely beautiful when the leaves start changing colors. The family has been doing this ever since Josh was a baby. We decide on an afternoon and just hop in and buckle up. Sometimes we'll stop and have lunch at a park or somewhere where the kids can play. We'll pack a simple lunch with sandwiches and just enjoy -- it's amazing to see all of the beautiful colors on the trees and the mountains are really gorgeous.

Read More: The Duggar Family's Favorite Homeschool Field Trip

One other family activity that we continue on into the fall is volleyball. We've

Tween.Twelve, it seems, is the new terrible. In one month, my son will turn 13, but I've already spent almost a year in the throes of an attitude problem that I expected wouldn't rear its unwashed head until he was closer to 16. My parenting friends with their own tweens tell me I'm in good company. That shared misery is oddly comforting.

Read More: 14 Ways to Help Your Child Defend Against Bullying

Although I don't feel like I've mastered anything in the last 11 months, my family and I have survived. In fact, my husband and I still have a decent relationship with our son and a close bond to each other. More importantly, our sanity is mostly intact. We have, at the very least, learned a few things.

Ugh. It's such a cliché, but it's also necessary if you don't want to spend the next few years arguing non-stop. Our son is determined to test every single boundary we've ever set for him, sometimes all at once. My instinct is to push back and reassert my authority,

Money!Negotiating is an important skill. I teach my kids that it's perfectly acceptable to negotiate a price on something if you've done your homework. If you feel like the price might be a little bit exorbitant or a little higher than what you are willing to pay, ask for a lower price. Especially if you're paying cash.

Read More: Why the Duggars Rarely Buy Anything New

For example, say you find an item you want on Craigslist. You check around to see what similar items are going for and find the price is a little high. If you've already researched it, I don't think it's rude to ask them to lower the price. You're not offending them by asking because they know what they can take for that item and what they've got to get out of it. Most people will be honest and just say, "You know, this is what I can take. I can't take any less than this." And you have to make the decision, "Am I really willing to put forth that much or will I wait for another better deal later down the road?"