Blog Posts by Parentables

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.

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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.

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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?"

Steamy tea.Becoming an early riser is one of those intentions I've had for quite some time. I've always wanted to be one of these moms who gets up and goes to the gym for a workout in the wee hours while the rest of the family sleeps. And indeed, it felt great each and every time I've gotten up at 5-something, slipped out to get my exercise, and then come home to get some work done on my laptop in the still-dark house.

Predictably after several days, however, my feeling of accomplished smugness unravels into a heap of cranky exhaustion. I thought I just wasn't meant to be an early riser.

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Recently, I've made the resolution anew, although more out of necessity than a desire for self-satisfaction. I signed up to do a lot more writing for Parentables, plus I'm still in the early, heavy-lifting stages of launching my business. I'm planning

Let's do this.Costume planning for Halloween usually began in September for my family. It was an unspoken rule that all costumes would be made from scratch, so they required a fair bit of forethought, lots of materials, and time to assemble. I decided what I wanted to be and Dad would figure out a way to transform me using cardboard, paint, fabric, and random household props. The result was a spectacular array of strange homemade costumes.

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The best was the Knight in Shining Armour. Using varying sizes of sono tubes (the cylindrical cardboard molds used for pouring concrete footings), Dad made a set of hinged armour that fit my torso, legs, and arms. We painted it silver. I had a wooden sword, a cardboard shield, and a helmet with a movable visor. That year I won the prize for Best Costume at the local Halloween party. Over the years, our family costumes have included a paintbrush, a carrot with a leafy top, a sunflower, a

Yum!Apparently, today is National Pumpkin Day, so I couldn't pass up the opportunity to share a seasonal twist on an old favourite. Rice Krispie treats are one of those things that never go out of style. Kids love them, and adults love them because they remember loving them as a kid.

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As just about every parent knows, these are really as easy to make as anything you can do in the kitchen. If you are having a Halloween party this weekend, add these pumpkin spiced treats to the dessert table. They have just enough of a pumpkin flavour to make them a bit different, but you'll still recognize the familiar childhood treat. I used my homemade pumpkin butter, which worked beautifully.

This recipe is from the website The Way to his Heart.

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Pumpkin Spiced Rice Krispie Treats

3 Tbsp unsalted butter
1/4 cup canned pumpkin puree
12 oz mini marshmallows ( about 1

Hugs.Last week I had the worst day in my life as a parent. It started out with the usual irritations: wake-up call at 5:30, incessant whining, refusal to use good manners, complaining, picky eating. The three-year-old bullied the baby, took away his toys, and tried to ride him like a horse. My nerves were already on edge when we went to do some errands. At the paint store, my son kept running away, had a tantrum when we left, and screamed "No!" when I told him to say goodbye to a friend. As I prepared lunch, the kids had a fleeting moment of happiness while they drummed on the new paint cans with stir sticks.

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I should have known better than to let them near the paint cans. Before I knew it, an entire gallon of deep, dark orange paint got knocked over and started oozing all over the floor of the entrance. The baby sat in the middle, joyously mucking with his hands. My other son dabbed his fingers in it and rubbed the paint on

Growing.We all want the best for our kids. If you're reading a parenting blog, it's highly likely that you want to do whatever you can do to give your child an edge in school and in life. The great news is that these four tips are extra-easy to implement. In fact, you might already be practicing most, if not all of these four ways to give your kid's intellect some extra oomph.

This one might be easier for some parents than others. Be sure to offer praise more often than you reprimand your child; kids that are praised more show improvements in memory, learning, and are better able to control stress responses.

Parentables blogger Sami Grover wrote about research that suggests that positive reinforcement improves behavior, and actually encourages brain growth.

McGill University Neurologist Michael Meaney found that baby rats that had been licked and groomed more by their mothers did better at finding their way through

A bargain.We rarely buy anything new for our household items. Of course, we will buy packages of undies and socks that are new at discount stores. We buy the big family pack where you get a better price. That's a great way to save money. But those would be the only items that we buy new on a regular basis.

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For the most part though, everything else is used. We'll shop in thrift stores, pawn shops, furniture auctions and yard sales. We try to get bargains on everything. We even buy our cars used because there is such a high depreciation on them. The same goes with furniture. You can get really nice things that are like brand new because somebody's moving away or doesn't need them anymore.

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As a matter of fact, [my daughter-in-law] Anna told me last night about a great deal she got -- she was so excited. She said, "We got a play set with a slide and swing