When should kids start doing chores around the house? Should allowance be tied to chores? Do sticker charts help?

Check out my interview (no byline, unfortunately, but it’s mine!), on makinglifebetter.com, with parenting expert Amy McCready. A mother of two and the founder of Positive Parenting Solutions, an online parenting education resource, McCready explains why chores are an essential part of growing up. (She even has suggestions for ways toddlers and preschoolers can help around the house.)

I’ve also been checking out her online course, which teaches parents how to calmly and confidently put an end to back talk, lack of listening, tantrums, whining, sibling rivalry, bedtime battles and any other misbehavior that comes along. Gotta love that! Want to see McCready in action? Here she is on the Today Show.

Check out Positive Parenting Solutions. There’s a lot of great material there for parents of kids of all ages.

Randy (AKA “The Hubs”) is flying home from a week-long business trip and is due in any minute. The laundry is done for the first time all summer. The dog endured his trip to the vet + bordetella shot today and is happily snoozing at my feet. There’s homemade chocolate cake in the house. I have lots of paying writing and editing work to do tomorrow. And Matt, my son, is downstairs playing Emerson, Lake and Palmer’s “Lucky Man” on the piano.

Life’s little pleasures. They mean a lot in the day-to-day scheme of things. (Although Randy returning after being gone for a week is a BIG pleasure.) A phone call from a friend. A great cup of coffee. An unexpected card in the mail. A walk on a gorgeous July morning.

What are the little pleasures in your life right now? Isn’t it amazing how something so small as (temporarily) having the laundry done can make your day?

I have to share with you a fantastic 10-minute video that I think will be well worth your time. Professor Phillip Zimbardo shows, in a very entertaining way, how our perspective of time affects how we view life. I think this is important for parents to see because it also shows how our kids’ perspectives may be quite different than our own.

Check it out and let me know what you think. Very cool stuff! (And thanks to my dad, Paul Penick, for sharing this with me in the first place.)

I need your opinion, friends. Is it OK to post a Facebook photo of your kid, or of you and your kid, if other kids are in the background of the photo? I’m thinking ahead to 8th grade promotion and I’m not sure where to draw the line.

The same question would apply to posting team sports photos, etc. I see people doing it a lot, but I wouldn’t want to upset other parents. If it’s a case where I know the parents, I can just ask, of course. But what about a graduation photo with kids in the background whom you don’t even know?

I’m sure a lot of us have the same concern, so it seems like a good topic to talk about here. What do you think?

Thanks for your comments!

P.S. Here’s Matt at his preschool “graduation” with his wonderful teacher, Miss Amanda.

Sometimes I think the media has sold us a bill of goods when it comes to portraying parenthood — and motherhood in particular. Mothers are expected to be continually patient, giving, self-sacrificing, yadda, yadda, yadda, right?

But what about the days when you’ve had it up to HERE with your kid? When your teenager has been kind and pleasant to everyone in his world except the person who brought him into this world? Are moms allowed to say “Enough!” when a child says, in the words of  Tony Wolf and Suzanne Franks in their book, “Get Out of My Life (But First Take Me and Alex Into Town)“?

I’m a mom. I realize teenagers do what they do. I was one myself, and I was a royal pain in the ass at times. I get it.

But I do think a mom has a right — perhaps an obligation — to sometimes say “Since you’ve used that tone (or those words, or those actions) with me, and been disrespectful and hurtful, I won’t be taking you to the mall. In fact, you won’t be going to the mall today at all.”

Teenagers need to be given a pass on a certain amount of “tude.” We know it’s developmentally normal. But there’s a line that can be crossed, and parents should not allow their child to be disrespectful and hurtful to others.

You have tools here: Cell phones, video games, computer time, TV time, goof-off time with friends… All of it is a privilege, not a right.

It’s not your job, Mom, to be treated poorly and then to drive your kid to the theater to see Avatar.

My son’s middle school sent this info to parents, and I thought it was worth sharing.

The drug situation in our schools is different than it was when we were teenagers. Prescriptions drugs play a larger role in kid’s lives today, and we need to be vigilant about keeping an eye on our kids (do you stay up and greet your child when he comes home from a night out?) and on our medicine cabinets.

With thanks to our school, which I won’t name, here’s the info parents of teens need to know:

(more…)

What’s the one thing you wish someone would have told you when you were a sleep-deprived, nervous new mom? What advice do you have to share with that mom who just brought her baby home from the hospital and is wondering… Now what?

Let’s share the mom love with those who are new to this world, a bit overwhelmed and in need of a bit of reassurance. We’ve all been there!

Please share your advice in comments. Thanks.

P.S. Here’s some advice received on the (public) Parent Talk Today FB fan page. Thanks, everyone!

The things you go through, trying to not have termite pellets (READ: termite poop) falling from the ceiling into your kid’s bedroom…

Called Terminix multiple times, got transferred to wrong office multiple times, left six messages for local office, got scheduled, waited for guy to come when they never told guy he was supposed to come, scheduled another guy. FINALLY got spot treatment done…

And now they’re telling us it’s time to tent the whole house. Oh, yeah, it’s just a party around here!

P.S. In fairness, Terminix is usually pretty good, and we have an annual service contract with them. But this past week it has felt like my day job is waiting online for a Terminix operator. Trouble is, I don’t get paid to do that.

I just got back on Sunday from a terrific long weekend in Charlotte, North Carolina, where I helped give a presentation on social media at the Parenting Publications of America’s annual convention.

I’ve been a parenting writer for 14+ years and have worked with some of the editors in the PPA for about that long — but hadn’t met many of them in person until this weekend. Talk about fun!

Most of these editors are parents like you and me. They know about potty training and temper tantrums, driver’s ed and PTA meetings. And they care. About their kids, their communities, their readers.

Pick up your local parenting magazine (or go to that magazine’s website) and you’ll find a lot more than just the calendar of events (although that’s valuable, too). You’ll find articles full of great info on everything from sexting to saving for college to choosing a summer camp, advertisers who want to meet your needs on everything from moon-bounce rentals to pregnancy portraits, letters to the editor that show what parents like you are thinking…

In short, you’ll find the heartbeat of your local parenting community. Pick up a parenting magazine today!

P.S. That’s Lucy Banta from New Jersey Family, Staci Perkins from Columbus Parent, me (the one who apparently didn’t get the memo about wearing black) and Myra Wright from Piedmont Parent. A fun group!