A few years ago, we were in the throes (or rather, woes) of potty training our stubborn 3-year-old daughter. Our pediatrician recommended we attend a FREE toilet training seminar at The Children’s Hospital and I have been an advocate of this program ever since. Let’s face it: there is a lot to parenting and tapping […]

Dear Mama Drama: My two year old is potty training and has moved into wearing “big girl panties.” I am freaked out about taking her out of the house because I’m afraid she’ll have an accident and will become too discouraged. How can I take her out and help her to be successful? ~ Stuck […]

Parents have very strong opinions about what they refer to as bribing their children. I prefer to look at it as an early lesson in action and consequence. If you do something, there will either be a reward or a punishment. If that is bribery, sign me up. Potty training my daughter was a nightmare […]

My three year old was doing great with potty training until we visited the museum and an automatic toilet flushed unexpectedly. He now screams and cries when we take him into any public bathroom. How can we help him get over his fear and handle these flushing monsters? ~Flushed away (photo credit) Dear Flushed Away: […]

Dear Mama Drama: My question is about potty-training. We would like to start our daughter, who will be 3 next month, in a 3-yr-old preschool program that requires she be potty-trained. She was doing really well, then regressed to going in her diaper when the newness of the potty wore off. So, we’ve started only […]

Two years ago, my husband and I were in the throes woes of potty training our potty-training-challenged daughter. We had tried everything and were at the end of our ropes. That is when we heard about the Children’s Hospital’s free parenting seminars that include everything from toddler to the teen-age years. Please note the 2009 […]

Growing up, we always had pets. There was Peppery the Tomcat who enjoyed knocking up the neighborhood felines and who, despite his amorous inclinations, was a fighter not a lover (I had the battle wounds to prove it). Then there was my beloved Lacey who I trained for the Bichon Frise Summer Olympics against her […]

[photopress:santa_pic.jpg,thumb,pp_image]I have discovered what is perhaps the most innovative, brilliant and gloriously manipulative Santa tool EVER. Let’s face it – those mall Santas are clueless with their fake beard and padded stomach. They don’t know who your child is or care what they want for Christmas. Enter MakeBeliever.com. It is a highly personalized Flash video […]

Kyra, my two-year-old, recently attended a day care where you were considered an over-the-hill parent at 25, where everyone (disabled or not) parked in the disabled parking spaces, left their Hummers humming, and allowed rappers named after pocket change to cascade freely through their open windows. Sure, it wasn’t ideal, but we probably could have […]

I have four children between the ages of ten and two. Three of them are fully potty-trained. What that means is that I was able to teach bright, albeit somewhat incoherent human beings, how to control their bodily waste removal function. Three times. Me. The girl who’s too lazy to wear shoes with laces. It’s […]