Moms: Your Child’s Behavior Problems May Be Caused By Your Partner Changes

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have completed a study which found that when a child is exposed to multiple transitions in his or her mother’s live-in partners, aggressive behaviors are the result. Primarily in white children, the study determined that when a child fourteen or younger had endured more than two changes in mom’s romantic relationships the troubling behaviors increased. The correlation was not found when mothers kept their dating partners outside the home, living separately. Yet if there were at least three different live-in relationships, which would include marriages or cohabitating lovers, it seemed to trigger significant behavioral difficulties … Continue reading

A Necessary Dose of Mommy or Daddy: Visitation and the Special Needs Child

It’s a very difficult thing to do: packing your child up for a weekend, two weeks, or even a whole summer to spend time with his other parent. This is especially true if your ex-spouse is not willing to work agreeably with you as a parenting partner. A child with special needs is particularly hard to send away for any extended period of time. He or she may have certain challenges you’ve been working on, and you’ve just started to make some progress when it’s time for his departure. How do you see that your ex-spouse continues with the parental … Continue reading

Children’s Bill Of Rights

Most often the unintended victims of divorce are the children that are left confused, angry, scared and feeling alone when their whole world crumbles beneath their feet. In many cases, parents that have recently been divorced are barely hanging on to life by a thread, and are unable to meet their needs and all of the needs of their hurting children. Sometimes it takes outside help like from a support group, counselor or other family and friends to help everyone in the family through the especially painful days that occur during the first year after a breakup. As discussed in … Continue reading

Sparkler Safety

The 4th of July, what fond memories we have of fireworks, sparklers, lots of good food and running around outside long after dark. It was always so much fun and I don’t remember any injuries. Things have changed and with all the fireworks that you can buy in any store now, the incidence of injuries rises. I learned today that sparklers burn at 2,000 degrees and are the number one reason for firework related emergency room visits. As a child, I didn’t know that, as an adult, I’ve experienced it first hand. When Hailey was little a group of us … Continue reading

My Daughter’s Day Without Her Dad

Planning a wedding is so much fun and so much stress. Other than your own wedding there is no wedding you look forward to more than your daughter’s. You want everything to be perfect. Too bad things don’t always work that way. When I got divorced my ex husband and I struggled to figure out what our relationship should be. After a while we came to the conclusion that we wanted to be the best parents we could be to Hailey. Recently my ex husband has decided that Hailey no longer needs him and he doesn’t need to be a … Continue reading

Autism Affects Relationships of Celebrity Parents, Too

It has been said that parents of children who have autism, or other special needs, have a higher risk of divorcing. The extra focus that this type of parenting requires, and the added stress, tends to cause relationship problems for the parents. Celebrities are not immune from this experience. Jenny McCarthy has expressed dissatisfaction regarding her ex and her son. Jenny McCarthy has a ten year old son named Evan. After Evan was diagnosed with autism, she became involved with an organization called Generation Rescue. According to the “About” page, the organization is dedicated to the recovery of children with … Continue reading

Finding Things To Do

Ivy is spending the weekend with me. It’s been a while since Hailey was three but I still remember some of the fun stuff to do for little ones. We went downtown to the Children’s Museum and to play in the fountains at the mall. They were having a children’s street fair so there was a ton to do. It made me remember trying to find things for Hailey to do that were free, or very inexpensive. When I was first divorced money was really tight but I didn’t want Hailey to miss out on all the fun so I … Continue reading

Married…..again?

It seems like before the ink is dry on your divorce decree everyone starts asking you if you think you will get married again. What? I’m not really thinking much beyond what I’m going to fix for dinner and how to get time off work to have the car fixed. Now you want me to think about getting married again? It’s almost painful to say that, married again. Each of us thought that first time was forever, there wouldn’t be any “again,” yet here we are, wondering what to do next. We all want to be loved, we need to … Continue reading

Opportunities To Serve

I recently wrote about children needing to learn to respect their elders. We need to take advantage of all teachable moments. As a single mother there may already be so much on your to do list that one more thing will push you over the edge but we are their first teacher and need to be aware of it. Our children will learn by what they see us do. If we are rude to salespeople, waitresses or telemarketers we are telling our children it’s ok to be rude to other people. It’s hard after working all day, coming home to … Continue reading

A Good Pediatrician Can Make All The Difference

Have you ever noticed how much advice there is for parents, and how much that advice increases when you are a single parent? It’s almost as if because you couldn’t make your marriage work you really can’t raise this child without all this helpful advice. I don’t mind advice, really I don’t, I just wish people would remember that my child is not their child and what works for one doesn’t always work for another. For the most part I’ve always felt like a good mother. When Hailey was an infant I had a pediatrician who was very old school, … Continue reading