#MomLife

Everyone knows bananas, apples, prunes and pears are great starter purees for baby’s first food, as are iron-fortified cereals. But what about the foods that cause a parent unease ahead of time? What about those allergy-producing foods like eggs, milk, and peanuts? 

Every morning I make my bed. It’s a habit, and a good one at that. I recently grew tired of seeing my children’s beds – covers twisted, pillows on the floor, and dirty socks stuffed between the bed and the wall – so I passed the bed-making habit onto my son. Aside from just cleanliness, there are some additional benefits to this often-overlooked daily habit.

I hang around; I hover; I watch. I’m a textbook helicopter parent. And that’s the same for each of my 4 children. But I recently learned the hard way that you can’t be a helicopter parent forever. At some point, it comes to an end, and your kids have to go it alone.

As a parent of young children, basic behavior management can be daunting. There is so much pressure to do everything the “right” way, yet raising children sometimes seems like you are constantly in an unwinnable war. There are so many facets to take into consideration, how can you parent without losing it? Here are some things to consider when approaching the decision about picking your battles with little ones.  

Nightmares in children can happen at any age, but experts say they typically start happening between ages 3 and 6. Telling a child that there’s “nothing to be scared of” just doesn’t help, and I speak from experience; that phrase doesn’t make scared feelings magically disappear. So, if you can’t make them magically disappear, what can you do?

Every child in a family is different, despite having been raised exactly the same way. Behaviors, likes and dislikes, manners, and personalities are solely unique. And while you may not worry so much about certain things with subsequent babies as you did with your first, there are some things that just never change, regardless of how many children you have.

Road trips can be a great way to see so much of the country. We use it as an adventure and sometimes let the children choose our next stop. We drive from breakfast to dinner and grab hotel rooms along the way. But for a family of 7, how do we survive being on the road for three or four days before getting to our final destination?

At 15 months old, my son was diagnosed with a peanut allergy. It wasn’t long before I realized there was a lot more to this allergy than simply avoiding peanut butter sandwiches. And because he’s too young to understand the importance of this diagnosis, I realized I needed to come up with an action plan to educate myself, my family and friends.

For new moms, adjusting to the new roll (aka motherhood) isn’t always easy. Sometimes it doesn’t happen innately. But it does happen in an instant, and your world changes forever. We spoke with some moms who shared their best pieces of advice for new moms.