Blogger: How Do We Keep Our Children Safe?

A local blogger addresses the question "how do we keep our children safe without making them more fearful?"

Please Don't Help My Kids

A Patch blogger's post about not helping her children on the slide is being debated across the country.

A Patch blog from Alameda, CA, called “Please Don’t Help My Kids” has struck a nerve with readers across the country. Posted in September, the blog has taken off over the past couple of weeks as it has found a second life through social media sharing. The blog has 124,000 Facebook recommendations and 833 people have tweeted the blog. The blog is an open letter to other parents at the playground. The blogger Kate Bassford Baker’s basic request is for parents to not help her daughters on the slide. She wrote that she wants her daughters to do things and learn things on their own. Learning to walk up the slide’s ladder is the first step to learning new things and overcoming obstacles, she wrote. “Because, as they grow up, the ladders will …

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Where Do You Stand on Breastfeeding in Public?

A New England mother was asked to cover up while feeding her child at a restaurant this week.

The topic of breastfeeding in public forged into the spotlight in New England this week, after a mother chose to breastfeed her child in a Hillsborough, N.H. restaurant. Protesters gathered outside the Tooky Mills Pub in Hillsborough on Wednesday, after a local mother was asked to cover up while breastfeeding her 10-month-old child, exposing a breast in the restaurant's dining room, according to a report on WCVB.com. The request to cover up, which was followed by customer complaints, resulted in a protest outside the restaurant Wednesday night.  Those protestors spoke out in awareness and support of the mother, as well as in support of breastfeeding in public. Where do you stand on this issue? Do you think mothers should be able to …

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Life in the Mom Lane

Teaching Our Kids to Aim High

A pair of sports quotes serve as a reminder for one local mom.

As parents we try to help our children become successful. We teach them to set goals, work hard and achieve the best. Sounds simple enough, right?  Well, reality is, just like every other aspect of parenting teaching our kids to find success isn’t always an easy task. Let’s face it there’s a fine line between encouraging success and simply pushing kids too hard. How, exactly, do you encourage kids to have goals but, at the same time, remind them that they may not reach each and every one of them? As the mom of a 12-year-old boy I find that many of the lessons I try to teach come in the form of sports references. Ironically, this weekend, I came across two quotes that were simply worth sharing. The first was on Tewksbury Congregational …

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Life in the Mom Lane

Did Hockey Mom's Actions Cross the Line?

What are your thoughts on this Marlborough mom's actions? Let us know in the comments section below.

By now we have all seen the latest viral video to hit YouTube. The scene was hectic as a Marlborough hockey mom, upset that the referees weren’t responding to a fight quickly enough, walked out onto the ice, pocketbook and all, to take matters into her own hands.  It seems that hockey mom, Gina O’Toole, had seen enough and decided that if she didn’t step out onto the ice and set the referees straight, the situation would continue to get out of hand. As a matter of fact she even went so far so far as to “order” the referee off the ice. Needless to say he wasn’t impressed. In an interview with ABC News she explained, “What concerned me was the feeling of the blows to the back of the head and a child going down to the ice with maybe a …

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Life in the Mom Lane

Teaching Kids to Be Charitable

Donating items and time can change the lives of others.

As parents we strive to teach our children all the right lessons. I can’t even begin to count how many times over the course of my son’s toddler years I spoke the words, “Make sure you share your toys, keep your hands to yourself and, of course, be nice to your friends.” Eventually, kids get older and the lessons become bigger and more important.  One of the most difficult lessons is often teaching our children to be charitable and generous as they grow up. I’m a firm believer that kids learn from experience and, for many children, it’s simply hard to understand why others need their help. As we all know moms love to share ideas and, when I asked some friends their strategies for teaching children to be generous, their lessons were amazing…

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Parenting Reflections

Moms Need a Time Out, Too

A local mother shares the exhaustions of being a parent, but explains why moms also need a breather once and a while.

Editor's Note: The following column was submitted to Westwood Patch by Westwood resident and mother Abby Stern. Of course I love my kids more than anything else in the world - I’m a mother. But I’m also a realist, and know that I need a break every now and again. Don’t we all? How many of us have prayed that we wouldn’t end on the large slide during our 10th game of Chutes and Ladders? Yes, Goodnight Moon is a wonderful bedtime story, but, on occasion, I wish the old lady would just eat her mush and hush. And snow days? Sure, it’s a wonderful opportunity to take advantage of quality time with your children: crafts, baking cookies, board game marathons . . . then you look at the clock and realize it’s only 10 a.m. Give yourself a break; it’…

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