Crazy For You...

"It's all brand new." -- Madonna, The Immaculate Collection, 1990, Sire Records

By Tricia Goyer, author of Generation NeXt Marriage 

Growing up, all of us develop expectations of what marriage is like. And when we finally meet that special someone our expectations reach an all-time high.

This is going to be GREAT, we think as we confess our love to each other.

This is the person I've looked for all my life!

Marriage & Expectations

 

What did you expect when you tied the knot? *Read the article and win a copy of this book!*

When Parents Disagree

What Has Changed? Today's Child-Centric Parenting and Parental Conflicts over Parenting, Discipline and Setting Limits

Parenting disagreements? Threatening the well being of our marriages and our kids?

Yep, welcome to the brave new world of today's parenting: with shifting social roles for Mom and Dad, pressure to raise fabulous kids while supposedly being their best friends, and strong parenting preferences by both Mom and Dad.

3 is the new 2!

Larger Families Across America

By Stacy DeBroff

Gone by the wayside is the nuclear family of 4 that was considered the American ideal. Instead a strong new trend has emerged among middle and upper class families to have 3 or more kids. Almost 1/3 of all American babies are now born to Moms who already have at least 2 kids. All you have to do is go to the pool or beach tomorrow and see parents arriving with 3 or 4 kids in tow, tumbling en masse out of large SUVs or minivans, often with double strollers, to see this trend in action.

Celebrate Yourself!

Celebrating ourselves as mothers is a great twist on the “downplay it all and stay demure” theory of womanhood that many of us grew up with. So often everyone is so completely immersed in their own lives (even our best of friends, our children, our spouses, our extended families) that you have to celebrate and share those achievements that matter most to you.

Mom Central's Delegation Secrets

By Stacy DeBroff 

So much about delegation falls back onto gender issues that we continue to wrestle with, many of us having grown up with full-time Moms at home modeling themselves on June Cleaver and with Dads who took little responsibility for housekeeping and child-rearing.

As women, we struggle to find a harmonious blend of our preconceived notions of what it means to be "The Mom" with having a career or a life outside of kids. Those of us who work full-time often feel exasperated and overwhelmed by the extra burdens that await us at the end of each day. Those of us working part-time feel as if we straddle two worlds and do neither as well as we should.