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I’m all for date night.  And I’m also for taking the babies and kids out to (some) restaurants with parents, but what happens when family night out interrupts other people’s couple time?  I wrote about a child who interrupted my date night in Are Children “Little People”?

CNN recently posted an article on toddlers in high-end restaurants.  Not surprisingly, it received thousands of comments from angry diners and compassionate parents.  In Tots at upper-echelon restaurants, Sarah LeTrent wrote that certain fine dining establishments are creating kids’ menus to specifically make them feel welcome.  The menu at Landmarc includes “kids” items such as petite filet mignon and orecchiette.  Though, I must say, I’ve been to Landmarc, and it’s a loud, dark place that I think is suited to children, at least at the 6pm hour.  It’s the quiet fine dining restaurants like Cafe Boulud in which the under-3 crowd creates a raucous.

Reading about the trend toward rolling out the red carpet for kids at high-end restaurants made me wonder, are restaurateurs helping parents spoil their toddlers?  One upset commenter to the CNN article wrote “Hire a babysitter!”  Another asked, “If you were in church would you allow your child to run around the chapel screaming?”  (more…)

It’s something all parents try to avoid.  ”Take that out of your mouth!” we demand of our toddler.  Or, if we’re dealing with an infant, we lunge to grab the item away.  It’s not a good habit to eat tablecloths and shoes, but the reason why we really care is that we just don’t want our kids to ingest germs and get sick.

My son had a 24-hour bug last week.  It wasn’t nearly as bad as prior stomach bugs he’s had, so we were actually quite happy.  If you’re a parent, you know what I mean: “He only threw up twice?  You’re lucky!”  My husband and I took turns cleaning puke and when our son slept through the night despite the illness, we were practically gleeful.

I wonder, is there anything more we can do to prevent illness?  My friend has an unusual method to keep her little girl healthy – no playdates, (more…)

In The Huffington Post this week, Dr. Ellen Libby, author of The Favorite Child, asked, are you the “favorite” parent in your household? She explained that it’s normal for parents to want to be favored by their children and offered examples of parents who consciously or unconsciously try to be the “good guy” to win their children’s favoritism.

Well, that’s one way to look at the favoritism issue.  Personally, I want nothing more than for our son to like us equally.  There was a period of time, about age 9 months to 12 months, that Blake favored me, to an extreme.  And the truth is that I didn’t like it.  He wanted mommy to hug him, mommy to play with him, mommy to change him, etc.  Not only was the mommy phase incredibly exhausting, it was also a major disappointment for my husband who loves our son as much as I do. (more…)

Last night, we hit a turning point in our family.  My husband was sitting on a comfortable reading chair in our bedroom.  Blake wanted to sit on the chair.  Here’s a snippet of the conversation, if you could call it that.

Toddler: “Off!” said Blake, as he pulled on Daddy’s leg.

Daddy: “No, Blake.  Daddy is sitting on the chair.”

Toddler: “Daddy, off, off off!”

Daddy: “Daddy is sitting on the chair right now Blake.  But, Blake can share the chair with Daddy.  Do you want to sit next to me?”

Toddler: “Daaaaady, off!” he yelled as he plopped himself on the ground in desperation.

Daddy: “Blake, that’s mean.  Don’t yell at Daddy.  Do you want to share the chair Blake?  See there is room here.”

Toddler: “Mommy, get Daddy off!!!!” (So now he thinks I’ll help him, clever boy).

Mommy: “Daddy is allowed to sit on the chair.  I can’t get him off.  You can sit on it later, when Daddy is done.”

And the repetitive conversation continued.  (more…)

I take my son to a gym class once a week.  He’s 21 months old and curious about everything, especially things he can climb.

Last week, he just wouldn’t sit still during the 10-minute circle time in which all the kids sit in a circle, say their names, do exercises and sing songs with the teacher.   In fact, he usually gets bored and tries to run away during the “say your name” part of the experience, but “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” often brings him back.  Not this time.

I tried to persuade him to return to the circle and when that didn’t work I gave a half hearted attempt to carry him back to the dark red line defining the circle.  To no avail.  He was un-pick-up-able.  So I let him be.

The assistant teacher did not like this.  (more…)