Making the Little Years Easier

Latest Articles

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  Not Every Day Has to Be a Sunny Day: Teaching Kids to Embrace Life’s Ups and Downs
  One afternoon, your child comes home looking upset. At school, they weren’t picked for the team. Their best friend sat with someone else at lunch. The picture they had spent the whole morning drawing got smudged. These things may seem small to us, but to a child, they can take up the whole sky. “Mom, I didn’t have a good day.” Most of us know what to do next. We…
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  Winter Skin Comfort Habits for Kids With Sensitive Skin
  By Minesh Patel The first cold week of the year has a sound in our house. It’s the sound of a small fingernail scratching through pajama fabric at 2 a.m. I’m a dad of two kids with eczema-prone skin, and for a long time winter felt like a season we just had to survive. Heaters came on, the air got dry, sweaters came out of storage, and within a few…
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  8 Easy Ways to Become a More Playful Mom
  Simple ways to bring more laughter, imagination, and joy into everyday moments with your child. There’s something funny about motherhood. Before I had children, I thought of myself as a fairly playful person. I could laugh at ridiculous things, sing along while cooking, and occasionally have entire conversations with myself in the grocery store. Then I became a mom. Suddenly, I was the woman constantly reminding someone not to run,…
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  13 Things Children Never Forgive Their Parents
  There are things parents forget the moment the bedroom door closes. But the child may go on remembering, years afterward. A broken glass, and a scolding. A family dinner, and the grown-ups laughing because the child cried. A trip that was promised and never came. A story from school the child wanted to tell, and a mother glancing at her phone, saying, “Maybe later.” To you, these are small things….
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  How to Get Your Child to Listen the First Time
  There have been evenings when one small thing was enough to push me over the edge. Toys were scattered across the living room. Dinner was waiting in the kitchen. I had already asked my child to put the toys away, but the playing continued. I asked again. Then a third time. By the fourth, my voice no longer sounded like a reminder. It sounded like an accusation. What bothered me…