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Guest Post: What To Do (Or Don’t) For Your Child’s Birthday Party

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I’m a mom of two lovely and rambunctious boys, who are now 7 and 9. Over the years, I’ve thrown more than a few birthday parties, and I’ve made a lot of mistakes along the way. Any time you get a large group of kids together, and they’re all under your supervision, things are bound to be less than perfect. Personalities clash, punch spills, and one of the party guests always seems to end up with a scraped elbow or knee. As a parent, you can’t control everything at your child’s party, but you can control some things that help you prevent disaster and chaos. Here are a few of the things you should avoid doing as you plan and throw your child’s next party:

DO: Invite early.

I once planned a family get together and only remembered to invite everyone at the last second. I was so consumed with getting the other details right that I almost forgot to make sure people would actually be there to enjoy it! Invitations should be first on your priority list and should go out about two weeks before the event. If you know your child’s friends’ parents well then you can even send a little reminder through email or social networks as the day gets close.

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Gay Marriage isn’t a Wedge Issue: It’s THE WHOLE PIE.

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Diddy's first flower-girl gig (Image via www.couragecampaign.org)

I try to stay clear of politics on this site. I really do. (Well, unless you call me being pro-science, pro-vax, pro-Darwin “political.” I just call that educated.)

But I can’t not post about President Obama finally standing up for marriage equality, so here goes — and guess what?

I’ve decided I don’t care if I offend my readers tonight.

Because here’s the thing: I don’t think people have a right to get offended about gay marriage. You simply DO NOT GET TO BE OFFENDED about your fellow Americans claiming their full constitutional rights to “created equal.” You just don’t.

Marriage equality isn’t politics. Marriage equality is PEOPLE. Living their lives. Loving their spouses. Caring for their kids. Period. That’s it. That’s the whole issue. And it’s just friggin’ nuts to feel otherwise.

Also, bigoted. It’s that, too.

Seriously: What’s it to you, if your kid’s friend’s Dads want to be married? What’s it to you, if your cousin wants to wed her girlfriend?

OK, I take that back. You know what it should be? EVERYTHING. It should be EVERYTHING to you. It should be everything that we as Americans ensure that ALL AMERICANS share the same civil liberties across the board. Period.

I am thrilled that the President finally stood up and spoke truth. I wish it hadn’t taken him so long. But we’re here now — despite yesterday’s HORROR in North Carolina — and I am feeling okay about the universe this evening.

Which may have something to do with the fact that I just found out that an incredibly wonderful married couple I know will be DADS in October!

YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!

But the President finally growing a pair is pretty damn good too.

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1 Super Serious Reason to Insist You Get More Sleep

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Photo credit: Scott Beale / Laughing Squid

I am not one to often eat my words. And I rarely, if ever, apologize. (Mr. Big(Ideas) can attest to what an attractive quality THAT is in a spouse.)

In my defense, I can only say that I believe this refusal-to-say-sorry is a genetic character flaw, because it is shared by my sister, who, like me, probably got it from my mother — the ABSOLUTE MASTER non-apologist in my life. This is a woman who once settled a NUCLEAR argument with me, in which she was ABSOLUTELY NO DOUBT AND COMPLETELY in the wrong, by presenting me with a Navajo Indian bracelet and a pair of vintage Chanel sunglasses the following morning.

No “I’m sorry.” Just swag. (And yes, I do love those sunglasses.)

However. I heard something on the radio last week, while tooling around town, that has made me want to take back that thing I said about how you can mask your sleep deprivation and keep going going going without consequence.

According to Alon Y. Avidan, MD, associate professor of Neurology and director of the Sleep Disorders Center at UCLA’s Neurology Clinic, I was wrong.

Here’s what he said that’s got me so turned-around-and-upside-down:

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Please Come Out For Mother’s Week @ UCLA Family Commons! (Especially the Mom Blog Summit on Tues May 8)

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I am THRILLED to get to be a part of Mother’s Week at the UCLA Commons. Especially because Tuesday night I get to finally MEET a group of truly inspiring, warm, and incredibly FUNNY local Moms-Who-Blog … You should come meet them, too!

Click the graphic for more info.

Hope to see you there!

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Twins Tips: 4 Simple Strategies to Save Your Sanity (Great for Managing Singleton Siblings, Too!)

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Double Your Pleasure, Double Your Fun (via lineofdeparture.com)

Here’s the thing about caring for infant twins:

It’s really not that much harder than taking care of singletons.

It’s just not. All babies have shitty sleep patterns, and need to be fed and changed and carried around enough to make you want to shoot someone (generally the person who doesn’t do as much feeding, changing, and carrying as you do).

All babies, at some point, make their parents think, “Man, it is a seriously wonderful feat of evolution that infants are so fucking adorable, because if you weren’t the cutest thing I’d ever seen, I’d probably have EATEN YOU JUST TO MAKE YOU SHUT UP by now.”

Twins just make you think that TWICE as much, because you’re doing all that stuff you have to do all day long TWICE AS MANY TIMES.

Unless you find a few ways to … umm … NOT.

So here’s what I do, to save time — and my sanity — while managing the day-to-day care of my twins (and their sisters).

Continue reading “Twins Tips: 4 Simple Strategies to Save Your Sanity (Great for Managing Singleton Siblings, Too!)” »

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Wake Up Call: 7 Ways To Give Your Kids the One-on-One Time They Want

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Someday I hope to juggle all my kids with Al Pacino's aplomb.

Not too long ago, I experienced a serious wake-up call.

No, I’m not talking about the mistaken 5 am wake-up Mr. Big(Ideas) and I were graced by last fall, the one weekend we managed to get away without our kids, you know, in hopes of maybe just once in the entire calendar year sleeping a few minutes past 8 am. (Dear Reception Lady: I apologize if we were a little gruff.)

I’m talking about a slightly more metaphorical wake-up — though now that I think of it, it’s kind of literal, too, as I was still in bed when this happened, snuggling Diddy before school, and these WERE basically the words that … umm … woke me up.

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