Blog Posts by genConnect.com

So Easter is approaching, and whether or not you celebrate it, you see chocolate eggs and bunnies everywhere these days. If you find yourself with some spare Easter candy lying about, why not make good use of it by becoming creative with your Easter treats!

Turn Easter into a time for some sweet romance with these tips:

1. What to do with the chocolate rabbit: Enjoy the sensuous pleasures of that chocolate rabbit! Rather than devouring him in a mindless minute, allow your whole body to be ravished by the rich flavor and creamy texture of luscious chocolate slowly melting in your mouth. Better yet - do this in front of your lover as an enticement for what may be to come!

Related: Why Chocolate Is Okay to Eat - And Other Diet Rules to Break

2. What to do with chocolate kisses: Place some Hershey's Kisses on the seat of his car, or in his briefcase. Chocolate kisses or little Easter eggs are the perfect easy way to remind him that you love him and you're thinking about him. BetterRead More »from 5 Adult Things to Do With Easter Candy

Regardless of your family culture (where it may be taboo to discuss financial and estate matters) at the very least heads of households should give their families the information about where to find important documents.

Young parents facing terminal illness are particularly conscious about leaving a legacy for their children. They may create videos, audiotapes and/or written materials with photos. They may also write letters to be given to their children at certain milestone periods. Their purpose is to provide assurances of devotion and support when they are no longer physically present. Then there are those times when unexpected tragedy hits leading a family in shock and unprepared.

We should all have a list of our physicians and their telephone numbers, emergency contacts and medications and health conditions. These should be located where emergency personnel can find them should no one else be at home when an emergency occurs. The names of attorneys, financial advisers,

Read More »from 20 Documents to Have Just in Case

By Dr. Gregory A. Buford, MD FACS, genConnect.com

A few short years ago, having a baby meant giving up your figure. That has all changed … Mothers deserve to look their very best and she can with proper nutrition, exercise, meditation and (for special circumstances) cosmetic surgery.

In many plastic surgery clinics such as mine, we have seen a growing population of young mothers who are living a healthy lifestyle but not seeing the results. They feel as though they look like they threw in the towel after having kids. They are also proud of their families but want to do something for themselves. They want as little recovery time as possible and they simply don't want to look artificial. While their first comment is that they don't want anyone to know that they have had anything done, their next is that they have a literal line of girlfriends waiting to see how they turn out before they also come in.

And so where do most of them begin?

For many of my young mothers, the aging

Read More »from What Moms Are Getting Done ... From a Plastic Surgeon's Perspective

Susan Lucci AKA Erica KaneGoodbye, Erica Kane. We may be witnessing an end of an era.

ABC announced Thursday that it is canceling daytime dramas "All My Children" - which made actress Susan Lucci and her character Erica Kane, icons of the genre - and "One Life to Live."

Career expert Vicki Salemi, author of Big Career in the Big City: Land a Job and Get a Life in New York and The ABC's of College Life, lamented the move, but noted that in the end, the soap business is still a business, after all.

"With the cancellation of 'One Life to Live' and 'All My Children,' we're sadly seeing the stamp of a classic television genre go by the wayside. Although there are four lone survivors of soaps ('General Hospital,' 'Young and the Restless,' 'Bold and the Beautiful' and 'Days of Our Lives'), it still feels like the end of an era!"

Salemi adds: "Most of us can remember watching vivid story lines unfold after school from middle school and/or high school or even college! It's disappointing that future

Read More »from Goodbye, Erica Kane ...

Just like parenthood, auntie-hood - becoming aunt to your sibling's or close friend's new bundle of joy - is a rewarding and challenging experience. As you grow into your Savvy Auntie status, caring for your nieces and nephews will start to feel like second nature. What's great is knowing that your instinctual urges-those delicious desires to hug, kiss, and cuddle a newborn; the strong pull you feel inside you when the baby cries-are what's guiding you toward better and better auntie-ing skills. This is stuff that you probably don't need a book to teach you. But it's also some of the best stuff about auntie-ing, so I couldn't help sharing.

1. Affectionate, loving touch is essential for developing newborns' brains and bodies. Science has shown that preemies develop more quickly when caressed, and babies tend to cry less when held.

2. Responding to a baby's or young child's needs makes him or her feel secure, and a secure child grows up to be a secure adult. So put down that

Read More »from How to be 'the cool aunt'

Can you imagine a world where your children grow up without tuna fish sandwiches? With 70 percent of the world's commercial fisheries in decline, that is the world we are eating our way into. It's enough to make you want to forfeit fish for tofu.

Luckily, here at the Agriculture 2.0 Conference in San Francisco, I discovered some exciting companies that are poised to help keep fish on our plates. All are involved in new high-efficiency, high-yield aquaculture, which refers to raising fish under controlled conditions.

"The romantic notions are going to have to be dispelled," said aquaculture pioneer Neil Anthony Sims, president of Kona Blue Water Farms in Hawaii. "It's been the Wild West out there (in the world's oceans) and the results show in the management of wild stocks."

Neil is talking about the fact that our oceans are at capacity. Yields of wild-caught fish have remained static for more than a decade, indicating that we've already passed the point of so-called "peak

Read More »from Are We Eating Our Way to a World With No Fish?

When we heard that Muslim women in France are no longer allowed to wear face veils or head scarves covering their face or eyes in public, we reached out to Dr. Sara Nasserzadeh, Social Psychologist and Chair of the Middle East Sexual Health Committee at the World Association for Sexual Health (WAS), and co-author of The Orgasm Answer Guide. Dr. Nasserzadeh said that when societal issues involve culture and religion, just passing a law may not have the desired effect; in fact, it may lead to further isolation of Muslim women living in predominantly non-Muslim communities. She writes …

Within the Muslim community there are various practices when it comes to the men and women's outfits. These are mainly based on different gender roles within the community. Please bear in mind that Islam is a religion for some people but for most has become a part of their everyday life. In becoming so, it has evolved and integrated with each culture in a slightly different way, which is why you

Read More »from Is France's Ban on Face Veils a Positive Step for Muslim Women? Expert Weighs In

By: Dr. Alan Tepp | genConnect.com

Many people know that intelligence plays a key role in a child's academic achievement. But many parents do not know that a child's ability to self-regulate - to pay attention to a task and inhibit impulsive behavior - is actually more predictive than intelligence for early academic success.

Simply put, children who can control their impulses do better in school.

This was recently discovered by a team of researchers at Penn State University led by psychologist Dr. Clancy Blair. The study focused on 3 to 5-year-old children and showed that preschoolers' capacity for self-control was the best predictor of their performance in math and reading in kindergarten. Scores on intelligence tests, which for a long time were thought of as the most predictive of academic ability, was actually less correlated with academic achievement.

Related: Are You a Bossy Mom?

A child's ability to monitor his or her thinking and behavior develops very rapidly

Read More »from What really plays a key role in your kid's intelligence