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It was the most powerful moment of the evening. The reality. The pain. The raw, honest emotion only a mother can feel when her son has been traumatized. My husband and I were attending a Durango Diaries event, and the floor was open to the audience after a panel of three told their personal experiences with bullying. The microphone passed to the mother of the young man who told his story of repeated public persecution at the hands of his once-friends, and how he turned the trauma into community outreach. She said she knew something was going on with her…

I recently read an article posted on CNN.com “Her son died. And then anti-vaxers attacked her.” The antivaxers found her Facebook page and began posting a verbal assault on this grieving mother: You killed your child. You deserved what happened to your son. This is all fake – your child doesn’t exist. This is beyond cruel. Let me go out on a limb here and say those who lash out in such a cowardly yet public manner are those who have barely a budding twig to stand on. They are people who take a weak position and have no real…

This was my reaction several months ago as I was reading the ingredients on the label of my favorite sunscreen. The one that doesn’t feel heavy and gooey on my skin and doesn’t run into my eyes faster than I can run to the corner and back. The one I slather on almost daily. The one that has parabens in it. Oh, #$&*. It wasn’t until recently I learned the reason behind the “no parabens” claim on a variety of skin care products. Parabens are used in personal care items (certain cosmetics, sunscreen, and toothpaste, to name a few) as…

Last week’s post Does It Matter What We Put On Our Skin? took to task the lax U.S. standards for personal care products and recommended, for the benefit of our health and our children’s, investing in cleaner body care that adheres to the stricter European standards. Transitioning to this safer body care can be pricey, especially when throwing out partially-used sunscreen, conditioner and cosmetics. But there are several ways to get that money back with smart and some oh-so-slightly-neurotic ways of extending those cleaner, healthier products: Use the right amount. Many of us are guilty (count me in!) of overusing…

A few years ago I was enjoying savasana during another yoga session in Kohler, Wisconsin. Our instructor was giving departing words of wisdom. As I sunk into my mat, eyes closed so I wouldn’t become distracted by the beautiful lake on full display through the wall of windows, my meditation was still thrown by Yogi J’s words: Women apply a (big number) of chemicals to their skin every day. I don’t recall the full context of her words, and I don’t remember the exact figure J quoted,* but it was enough to make my mind swirl and keep a fully…

We decided they were ready, old enough. So as part of our New Year’s Eve movie marathon, Dad and I added The Hunger Games to our cinematic lineup. Two of our kids gave the movie a thumbs up. But not twenty minutes in, our oldest was appalled. His not-so-inner-dialogue for the next two hours went something like this: This movie is horrible. This is not entertainment. We’re supposed to enjoy this? I knew we were taking a chance on a dystopian movie, especially with our sensitive, vividly-imaginative son. But I also knew he would respond to my agreeing with him….

My husband drank a gallon of it a day during his teenage growth spurts. I drank it three meals a day (and never missed Chocolate Milk Wednesdays at school). My son can drink a big carton of Fairlife chocolate milk in no time flat. But do our kids really need to drink milk? Milk does have the calcium that children and adolescents need for developing strong bones, and is fortified with the vitamin D to get that calcium where it needs to go. On the other hand, parents worry about the hormones milk may contain and read labels carefully for…

“So our teacher asked us, ‘What is something others may not know about you?’” my older son told me. He, at nearly fourteen, doesn’t burst forth about his day at shared school, but drips information over the rest of the week. We had just finished our homeschool day, and he was ready to share. My son is not the “sharing” type, so I was more than curious how he handled this request. “What did you tell your class?” “I told them I was made in a lab.” Talk about a big reveal. I’m sure he had his beginnings on the…