PulseonParenting | Let's Get to the Heart of Parenting

Let’s Get Organized: a Stepwise Process for Parents and Kids

May 10 2016

One of the least “organized” decisions we can make as adults is to become parents. Is there anything less neat, orderly and predictable as having children in the house? And if you can show me a mom who, without missing a beat, can juggle the school field trip schedule, remember who likes what cold lunch fixings and recall if she brushed her teeth that morning…I’ll show you a mythical Greek Goddess. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining about the messy business of parenting. I adore my kids. In fact, I relish the unpredictability of their fights, their ever-changing school…

May 03 2016

This week’s post was supposed to be about how to help our kids learn to be more organized but that’s just not going to happen. Sometimes life takes us on a detour from from our best-laid plans. As I switched gears on what to write this week, I realized it’s still about organization but in a different vein. The good news? It doesn’t require a visit to The Container Store. The bad news? It’s about bad news. Sadly, it’s inevitable. But that’s the very reason we don’t want to think about a family member getting sick. As in: it’s going…

Apr 27 2016

When I typed “only children as parents” into Google, I found very little that discussed only children and their children. Here’s what I found instead (among other things): “9 Reasons Why Dating An Only Child is Difficult.” (Ha, only 9? My husband would love to add to that list!) “What Being an Only Child Says About You.” (with a title like that it can’t be good…) Various sites regarding support groups for the parents of only children. and finally (I almost peed a little when I saw it.): “Only Child Adult Blog: Are You an Only-Child and a Parent?” which…

Apr 19 2016

Wet sand flung at our stucco. Mud tracked through our play room. A soccer ball (intentionallly) pulverizing my son’s lego creations. And an unmistakable defiance for the adult in charge. So how do you tell parents their kid is a brat?

Apr 12 2016

My twin boys are rapidly approaching adolescence. Moods are swinging, zits are erupting here-and-there, and oh, yes, BO is making its presence known. Of course, my younger, sweatier son would be the first to need the Speed Stick. Because in direct opposition to his brother’s love of the shower, he can turn on the water, physically get in the shower, and emerge with a perfectly dry head. In other words, hygiene is even less on his radar than his brother’s. Brushing his teeth is a small victory; getting him to use his “deodorant” is nearly impossible. Fortunately, he is…

Apr 05 2016

A couple years ago I was walking through town with one of my boys when a complete stranger exclaimed, “Oh, my, you’re sunburned!” The concerned individual was referring to my son, whose face looked rather like a strawberry, red with his brown freckles like berry seeds punctuating his nose and cheeks. My guilt resurfaced, a day after my son’s sun-soaked adventure. Even though I had done my best to slather my son with sunscreen, he, like every time before, wiped his face immediately to remove the offensive gooey cream he hates so much, and keeping a hat on him is…

Mar 30 2016

Creativity: putting things together in novel ways, or seeing the world, or a given problem, with fresh eyes. (ahaparenting.com) “Oh, my, he’s such a mess!!” Grandma could barely get the words out through her laughter. Her loving observation of my older son at age three was spot on. There he was, sitting at our kitchen table working on crafts: stuff was piled everywhere, stuck together randomly with glue from a dripping bottle. His clothes were streaked with food (oddly, even now, breakfast is on his person before he’s even had any), his face mustachioed with lunch. The perfect picture of a…

Don't overdo it. Consider how AP courseload fits in with an already busy schedule.

Mar 22 2016

March Madness!!!! I never realized how zany a month March is. I mean, take a look: ~Will March arrive like a lamb or a lion? Wait. No one really cares that much about that anymore, do they? ~NCAA basketball, the ultimate in cager mania. Go Skyhawks!!! (Fort Lewis College, NCAA II tourney, in case you b-ball enthusiasts were curious.) Wait. They lost. Darn. Well, there’s always next year… ~The beginning of daylight savings time! More sunlight after dinner! Wait. Actually, who likes “spring ahead?” I was so tired I accidentally made decaf the morning after. Not. Good. Anyway, what seems…

Mar 15 2016

Legos (and Grandma’s sugar cookies) are like crack for kids…at least they are in our house. Once any of us, dad and mom included, starts snapping together those technicolor pieces, time and reality disappear. But for my older son, Legos are a way of life. He eats, sleeps and breathes Lego creations, and he is truly Pavlovian when he watches a Lego master build ships and shopping malls on YouTube. He is well on his way with logging his own 10,000 hours to attain Lego mastery. His goal is to be an architect but his dream? To work for Lego….

Mar 08 2016

Imagine a single bookshelf. Filling the entire length are books, books of varying thickness, topic and cover design. They are different from one another but all are still books. At each end of the shelf is a thin, metal bookend. Present, but easily overlooked. They are, of course, not books, but despite taking up very little room on the bookshelf, they still occupy the same space. Now think of a classroom of, say, 25 kids. Most of those kids function pretty well in that setting. Each child has his own strengths and weaknesses, interests and personality, but these students can…

My name is Heidi Black and I have it all... Maybe not in the traditional sense of the phrase but I do feel I have it all: three beautiful, healthy children, a devoted husband and father and the privilege of being a Domestic Engineer. (I used to call myself a SAHM but that just doesn’t fit when my day is filled with coordinating 5 schedules and preplanning their execution, all up to a week in advance.) And now, indulging in a not-so-secret desire to write, and following the advice “write what you know” I am ready to share what I have learned from this ironic life journey and along with you, discover answers to those many questions related to parenting.

Getting to the Heart of Parenting...

Let’s Get Organized: a Stepwise Process for Parents and Kids

When a Loved One is Seriously Ill

Only Children as Parents

Someone Else’s Bratty Kid

Can Kids Use Antiperspirants?

Don’t Get Burned by Your Sunscreen: Tips for Sun Protection

Nurturing Creativity in Our Children: More Mess, More Time

Standardized Testing: a Primer

The Creative Thinker: Is Your Child One of Them?

Bookends: the Kids Who Struggle in a Classroom Environment