PulseonParenting | Let's Get to the Heart of Parenting

Change is in the Air: Breathe it Deeply

Apr 03 2020

This morning I woke up, wondering what to write about today. Should I ignore the elephant lurking in every corner of every room? That gray, wrinkled stalker that even follows us outside and causes us to jump to the other side of the road? Do we need to escape this pachydermal pest, even for a few minutes? But then again, it’s an elephant. In. da. house. It’s pretty darn hard to ignore. Especially when it casts its long shadow over every aspect of our lives, even over the mundane task of food procurement. And the elephant’s gotta eat, too. So…

Mar 20 2020

When I was a kid, there was a certain intersection at the edge of town that everyone agreed was dangerous. No traffic light, not even a stop sign. It was only a matter of time, people thought, until tragedy would strike. And they were right. A mother driving her children was killed by another motorist, a teenager who attended the same school as hers. Then, only then, were the stop signs placed. Hardly a new occurrence then, and definitely not a new modus operandi now. It is human nature to be reactive instead of proactive, reassuring ourselves, keeping positive, that…

Mar 12 2020

I know. Yet another terrible joke linking terrible beer with a terrible pandemic. But, like so many families on the brink of spring break, you are probably trying to decide exactly where to drink your ale, on a beach or on your couch. In my last post I mentioned the irony of human nature: how humans ignore what we know and then go off the deep end and wipe the shelves clean of toilet paper (but not canned food?) in fear of what we don’t. Not that we shouldn’t be worried about the coronavirus (COVID-19). We should. But we need…

Mar 05 2020

It’s a stretch. But there is an upside to the growing outbreak of the new strain of coronavirus, Covid-19, that has us on edge, changing spring break plans (or tenatively going ahead with them), making jokes about beer, and the limiting by grocery stores of the purchase of cold-and-flu products. We fear what we do not know, it’s human nature. And we should be concerned about this novel strain of the coronavirus. As of this writing,* COVID-19 has a two to 3.4 percent fatality rate (2 to 3.4 in 100 people afflicted). The virus can incubate for up to 2…

Let That Sh–t Go: Finding Time and Happiness

Feb 27 2020

“…But that’s when we’re happiest, and that’s when we’re at our best. When we have time to do those…things that we like to do.” ~Megan Mullally, in her book with husband Nick Offerman, The Greatest Love Story Ever Told. Before I get into it, I’m gonna give a shout-out to my husband. He did a TED talk on rethinking happiness: instead of basing happiness on attaining success, my husband lays out the path to happiness by living our values. In short, do what you love and the rest will follow…whether what you love is a new job or if doing…

Feb 20 2020

I recently failed at something. And I failed BIG. As in, I lost not only valuable time and plenty of money but when I threw in the towel I lost some new friends as well. Talk about a learning experience. So you could say I have some regrets. But one thing I don’t regret is trying something new. And I don’t regret attempting an endeavor that was totally out of my character. Over time I have used products sold by MLM-structured businesses and been very happy. But never, EVER, did I think I’d want to start up my own biz…

Feb 13 2020

I remember the first time I tried yoga. It wasn’t completely of free will. Up until that morning, I thought yoga and its buddy, pilates, where some kind of granola-y form of useless exercise. Like Lamaze breathing during labor: it sounds good but doesn’t do a damn thing. (At least that was my experience…) But then my parenting group invited an exercise instructor to give us an intro to yoga. Given it was a small group of friends, and I wasn’t going to miss my favorite social hour just because I was skeptical of yoga, I took my place on…

Feb 06 2020

You may have liked all of it. Or part of it. You may have been appalled. No matter our individual reactions, last Sunday’s Super bowl halftime show proved, yet again: Any publicity is good publicity. We can’t stop talking about the mid-game performance during Super Bowl LIV. The dialogue, both positive and critical, is everywhere. All I had to do was type “super” into Google and the first suggestion to come up was “Super Bowl Halftime.” Our family didn’t watch the show, as we were immersed in Hunger Games: Catching Fire. I viewed Shakira and J.Lo’s performance a couple days…

Jan 23 2020

A limp, flushed little body lying on a couch. A swollen face framed by a hospital pillow, an IV in a pale arm. A child being taken by stretcher into a medical facility, captioned with the horrific speculation as to the child’s injuries. This is not the nightly news. This is Facebook. Instagram. What is showing up on social media feeds everywhere. These are all examples of posts made by parents, of their own children. Feverish and lethargic, hospitalized, traumatically injured. This isn’t Munchausen’s by Proxy. Nor is it just oversharing. It has its own name: Sharenting. Until I saw…

Forgo “Quality Time” in Favor of the Little Moments

Jan 02 2020

Big things come in small packages. It’s the little things that matter most. We’ve all heard these words of wisdom, in one form or another. We’ve even believed and embraced the ideas behind them. I know I have. Yet admittedly, I still dream of a Pioneer Woman Thanksgiving, the perfect Rockwellian Christmas, and the family vacation worthy of an Instagram story. Perhaps you do, too. And that the best time, “Quality Time” occurs while engaging in the perfectly orchestrated family event, that we bond best in swirls of watercolor, shades of supersaturation and while tucking in to a perfectly-glazed 20-pound…

Getting to the Heart of Parenting...

Change is in the Air: Breathe it Deeply

Combating Coronavirus with Kindness

Spring Break on Corona(virus): Party or Stay Home?

Coronavirus (Covid-19): the Silver Lining

Let That Sh–t Go: Finding Time and Happiness

Failure as a Blessing

Yogaaaah: Its Benefits for You and Your Kids

Too Many Thoughts and Too Few Words: the Super Bowl Halftime Show

Sharenting: Munchausen’s By Social Media

Forgo “Quality Time” in Favor of the Little Moments