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Strollerderby
Remember that college friend who you swore you’d stay close to forever?
The guy you knew you could always call on at 2 a.m. if you were stranded somewhere and he’d take care of you? And then one day you found yourself stranded at the Tampa airport at 2 a.m. with your baby. You did call him and not only did he pick you up but he offered you a joint and wanted to stay up till dawn catching up on old time. You were like “Dude, those days are over. I have to get my toddler settled and then pass out so I can be human when she wakes up at 6.”
OK, maybe that exact thing only happened to me. But we’ve all had awkward moments with friends as we grow and change and some of our friends just … don’t. Or they grow in different directions. Your friend who was taking the bar exam while you were doing childbirth classes might not have as much in common with you now as she did when you were both English majors at Swarthmore.
It’s not just the stoners and high-powered lawyers you’re growing apart from. Turns out, there are a few key points in life when many of us ditch our friends. Becoming a parent is one of them. Continue reading »
Friendships are key for men to live longer and better.
“Stop acting like a little girl.” “Big boys don’t cry.” These are the kinds of things parents say that reinforce the our culture’s idea of masculinity that says men need to be unemotional, in control, and self-reliant. People have been trying to break this social construct down for the last thirty years in a quest to bring equality to women and men, but gender stereotypes continue to plague boys and recent studies have shown that their effects can impact their physical health, not just their emotional well-being.
Young boys, as any parent of sons can attest, have best friends and value friendships just as much as girls. Studies back up that boys’ friendships are just as strong as girls’ through mid-adolescence, but that those friendships start to to break down as they reach their late teens and manhood. This breakdown of friendships can be attributed, in part, to the young men associating being emotionally expressive about their feelings as being like a girl or gay. As friendships break down, it leaves young men for prone to isolation and depression and, alarmingly, national data shows that boys are five times more likely to commit suicide than girl. Continue reading »
Friendship
One of the many lessons that us as parents impart onto our children? The importance of friendship.
As our kids go to school, they will start to make friends that will – hopefully – last a lifetime. These bonds will see them through thick and thin, good times and bad, and will laugh, cry and play with them for years to come.
To celebrate the meaning of friendship, here are 14 quotes to share with your children. Continue reading »
Being the biggest kid in the class is never easy, but it’s harder still when you’re the biggest kid AND a girl.
Such is the life of Amelia, a VERY big bunny in Marisabina Russo’s new children’s book named, naturally, A Very Big Bunny. Continue reading »
Friends show their support through a crisis in all kinds of ways. Some bring casseroles, some send nice notes to cheer you up, and if you’re Jason Sucharski, some grow beards.
Jason Sucharski’s son, Chase, was born months early, weighing only one pound and 7 ounces when he arrived in July. While he was being treated in the NICU at Sisters Hospital in Buffalo, Continue reading »
Overweight kids eat more when they’re with familiar friends who are also overweight, says a new study out of the University of Buffalo.
Researchers recruited 65 kids between the ages of 9 and 15, then randomly paired them up. Kids spent 45 minutes together in a room with various activities, as well as bowls of food — healthy snacks and not-so-healthy too. What researchers discovered is that friend pairs ate more than children who didn’t know each other. And overweight kids ate more than thin kids no matter who their partner was. But overweight friends ate the most of all.
The August issue of Parenting: The Early Years rounds up the six friends every mom needs in her life. Sure, writer Patricia Curtis makes some good points. It’s nice to have friends you can relate to or who push you. But not ones that push your buttons, which I’m afraid the glam-mom recommendation does.
Also, she left a few people off the list whom I would be very unhappy to live without. So I added three more friends at the end. Share yours in comments.
The list: Continue reading »
Joslyn Gray 
Amber Doty 
Julianna Miner 
Monica Bielanko 
Sierra Black 
Meredith Carroll 
Carolyn Castiglia 
Sunny Chanel 
Madeline Holler 
Wendy Michaels 
Rebecca Odes 
Danielle Smith 
Danielle Sullivan 
Katherine Stone 
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