Michelle Obama Was Right: Why It's Okay for Married Moms to Feel like Single Parents

When the first lady slipped up and called herself a single mother in an interview recently, it made a small news story bigger. Well, a little bigger. It was covered in a small blurb on Huffington Post, tweeted and Facebooked a bit, and then wrapped up in a paragraph on vegetable gardens for school kids and presidential fundraising.

But if the statement was made a bit louder, I suspect a good portion of the country would be nodding along in understanding as Michelle Obama stated, "Believe me, as a busy single mother- or, I shouldn't say single, as a busy mother. Sometimes, you know, when you've got a husband who is president, it can feel a little single. But he's there," in a television interview with a CBS affiliate in Vermont.

Obama clarified, "But as a busy working mom, and before coming to the White House, I was in that position, you know, as well. Working, driving kids to practice, not having enough time to shop or cook, not having the energy, you know, the resources weren't the issue but time and energy is key."

Single parents, particular those who are primary parents in the deal, get this. And so do many married parents who have a spouse with a demanding job, who live in separate cities, who have tensions or are working on big family issues, is absent or inattentive, is serving in the military or one of the many, many reasons a mother or father is not or cannot be there during the critical hours of after-school activities, dinner rush, hours in the ER waiting room, during sick and sleepless nights.

I used to cringe when I'd read a status update or hear a married friend exclaim that she'd be a single mom for the weekend while her husband was out of town. I'd feel frustrated at the blanket statement when (the assumption is) that the husband-father will return home with hugs and kisses and five minutes to take out the garbage and help with homework, no matter how weary or tired-eyed or crabby or wishing he was still in an office conference room or with his guy friends or tending to business in another city. I'd feel defensive about dads I know who complained about handling all the details while their wives were working or traveling or whatever, even knowing all might not be fabulous or secure or peaceful in that family situation.

You don't get to call yourself a single parent, I'd think, if the other parent comes back and participates.

By Spencer Cain, The Vivant

Kim and Kanye Kanye West has recently been receiving a lot of flack in the media for his behavior during his girlfriend Kim Kardashian's pregnancy. West, a known workaholic and creative type who needs to disengage to focus on his craft, has been camping out in Paris for the past few months working on his new album while Kardashian has been dealing with the stress of her second divorce (which was finalized last Friday) and her less-than-perfect pregnancy alone in Los Angeles.

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However, according to a recent report, that isn't exactly the case-it seems that West has been way more involved than anyone knew, and has made it a priority to be at every one of her doctor's appointments. But why haven't we ever seen him at the airport, a known stalking ground for paparazzi and fans? Because the rapper and fashion designer only flies private.

He doesn't own a

Old fashioned baby names are kind of a thing in my family. My daughters are Ingrid and Adair. I have nieces named Cora, Olive, Mary, Hilda, and Lucille. Some still find these old fashioned gems a little bit strange, but these names are actually on the rise! My husband and I hope to have more babies in the future, and I can't help but brainstorm name possibilities. Of course I love girly names like Margot and Winifred, but I L-O-V-E all of the options for little boys, too! Names like Gus and Oliver are so adorable. What do you think? Are these old fashioned names just a little too bizarre for your liking or do you find yourself loving these little "old man" names? - By Lacy Stroessner

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When did YOUR baby start sleeping through the night?Waking up in the middle of the night to tend to a crying baby is both a normal part of parenting and one that most new parents can't wait to get past. As much as we love our babies, it's very hard to function when you're sleep-deprived! You may receive lots of advice for getting your baby to sleep through the night, but the fact of the matter is that every baby is different. You'll find that a) sleeping through the night can mean different things to different parents, and b) the age your baby starts sleeping through the night may differ from your friend's baby. Here are a few real examples from moms on when their babies started sleeping through the night. Can you relate?

Question: When did baby start sleeping through the night?

"Honestly, first was 18 months."
- Julia, livepretty.com

"Both of my girls were sleeping through the night at a few months old, but they were still in our room and we woke them when we were going to bed. So at 5 1/2 months we moved them to their cribs and we

Kids have lots of fears, and not all of them make sense or have any basis in reality. Yet, as much as we might try to reason with our children and explain away those fears, they persist. Rather than get frustrated by this, or angry at them when they take these silly fears too far, I was thinking this morning that I should try and remember what it was like to be a kid and what terrorized me. I knew the answer immediately: flying cockroaches. With their papery brown exoskeletons and wiggling little antennae, roaches are creepy enough, by try ones bigger than a walnut with wings on for size. WINGS. It wasn't out of the realm of possibility to walk into a room unawares and get divebombed by a roach where I lived. This led me to wonder, what did my fellow moms fear when they were kids? I was surprised at how many responses I got when I asked, most of which had me laughing out loud thinking about how scared we all were. See whether your biggest fear was on their list, and share your own

dads with kidsOn the subway the other day, my son noticed his neighbor studying a map of the transit system on her smartphone. He leaned in close, attracted by the bright screen. "I have a subway map in my room," he told her.

"You do?" she asked, revealing herself to be an Australian tourist.

"Uh-huh. We ride the train a lot. I like riding the train. This is the 2 train and we're riding it downtown, to Bergen Street. Isn't that right Da-da?"

I confirmed that this was indeed the case, unable to hide a smile of both amusement and pride.

"You obviously know more about these trains than I do!" the woman said.

And then he changed the subject: "I got a new trike."

They went on like that, chit-chatting about transit and toys, sometimes with an interjection from me. I was more interested to hear about her life in the Australian bush than Felix, who just wanted to tell her about how he'd never been on a long airplane trip before, but has traveled by New Jersey Transit, a ride which also takes a while.

Photo: Laura St. John / Courtesy Renee Glick PhotographyA few weeks ago, I shared some personal experiences about how to raise a confident child by avoiding common labels: When I grew up, there was no athletic one, smart one, shy one, or "what a handful" one.

Born into a label-free environment, my parents leveled the playing field for us, and we turned into our own beings without any of their predetermined thoughts. Wherever I went, they'd tell people that my sisters and I were such good girls. We overheard it. We believed it. And it worked.

Read More: Want to Raise a Confident Child? Then Avoid These Common Labels

The Flip Side: Setting Expectations
There's a whole other side to this story. On the flip side, before we went anywhere, my mom would tell my sisters and I how our teachers, neighbors, and friends all thought we were so well-behaved. She would tell us stories (or probably even make up stories) about how they thought we were polite, hard-working, good listeners, friendly and nice. Then she'd clearly tell us how she expected us

Suspects Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (AP/FBI)
As the hunt for the surviving suspect of the Boston Marathon bombings, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and the motive behind the horrific act intensifies, law enforcement and the media are zeroing on the alleged bombers' family for clues.

"They never could have done this. Never, ever, ever!" The suspect's father Anzort Tsarnaev told People Magazine when they reached him in Russia by phone on Friday morning. Referring to the death of his son, Tamerlan, he said, "I feel terrible! Why they kill my son? Something wrong! My sons never do bombing. They hated gun-how they do bombs?" He added that he had spoken with the young men the day before about the bombings and that they "hate terrorists."

So far, there has been no word from the suspects' mother who is reported to be Zubeidat K. Tsarnaeva, a 45-year-old sharing the same address a the brothers. Natick Patch reports that she was arrested in June 2012 for shoplifting over $1600 worth of clothing from Lord and Taylor department store. Authorities