Every day my inbox fills with emails from public relations firms, angling for a plug for an author's book or a new study on children. I delete most of them as quickly as they appear, but I nearly always read the ones on youth and mental health.

Suffice it to say the findings are not good. I often ponder over them, as we have a whole string of ...Read more

I am an over-the-moon, first-time grandmother-to-be who can’t seem to do what many have done before me. That is, make the baby a quilt.

The baby’s 89-year-old great-grandmother made one. By hand. She apparently sat in front of the TV for weeks and stitched together dozens of one-inch squares, which she presented at the couple’s baby ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — Before she introduces them to the laughing otter, the busy dung beetle and the stunning hummingbirds, poet and photographer Debbie Hall lets her readers hear from a wise human.

One of the quotes featured in the epigraph of Hall's new book, "In the Jaguar's House," is from award-winning writer Jaqueline Woodson, and it tells you ...Read more

TAMPA, Fla. -- At age 3, Grace couldn’t sit still or hold a conversation with her mom. Angela Falleur said her daughter was kicked out of pre-school for misbehaving.

The family had to wait nine months for Grace to get diagnosed by a developmental pediatrician.

Until then, Falleur had never heard of autism spectrum disorder.

“I felt like ...Read more

Someone once told me we have just one truly passionate love in our lives. Sometimes it’s our lifelong partner, but not always. In her memoir, "Love’s Journey Home" (Atmosphere Press), Gabi Coatsworth puts that theory to the test and ultimately validates it.

In many ways, I don’t think Coatsworth’s story is unique. A working mother of ...Read more

DALLAS -- It’s been a difficult time for children’s choirs in Dallas.

In April, Kimberley Ahrens, the newly named director of the Children’s Chorus of Greater Dallas (CCGD), withdrew her acceptance when the board wanted to reduce the hours of the chorus manager. She and almost all of the music staff then left and formed a new chorus, ...Read more

It's not every day a kid walks into the kitchen and says, "Did you know Grandpa is outside rollerblading?"

I did not know he was outside rollerblading. I did not know he knew how to rollerblade.

To understand why a man three score and 10, a man who has never been on rollerblades in his life was outside rollerblading, you have to understand how...Read more

TAMPA, Fla. — Katie Krimitsos’ life is loud.

Her two parakeets bang their cage, even when the door is open.

Her 3- and 6-year-old daughters are, well, they’re 3 and 6.

As for her husband, “He’s a loud personality, like a bull in a China shop,” Krimitsos laughed.

Krimitsos turns to meditation for peace.

“Meditation has always ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA -- Veronika Pavliutina told her children to choose one special belonging. And to pick fast. They needed to go.

Explosions shook their Odesa hometown as Russia started its invasion of Ukraine.

Yegor, 8, grabbed two small toy cars.

Nina, 11, took her riding helmet. She loves horses.

And Polina, 14, an artist, packed her painting ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Farrah Wood’s two children had very different kindergarten experiences in Folsom Cordova Unified School District based simply on how much time they spent in class. Her older daughter had a full-day program, while her younger daughter is in a half-day program.

Wood says the difference is noticeable.

“We can definitely ...Read more

CHICAGO -- You’d think more than 20 years into a chosen career, not many things can surprise.

That’s not the case with Kim Peavler, an anesthesiology nurse at Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital. It was while she was regularly visiting her mother at Marianjoy Rehabilitation Hospital in Wheaton, Illinois, that Peavler noticed the ...Read more

This Mother’s Day is my first as a new mom. Now, I join the choir of women who have long voiced the challenges of balancing motherhood and a career. This challenge grew considerably during the pandemic, when women took steps back from their careers because there were fewer child care options. It lingers in a post-pandemic world where the ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- From the outside, the moms gathered in a Santa Monica, California, living room could have been conferring about carpools, school boards or fundraisers, any of the myriad mundane meet-ups that come with parenting.

A quick survey of the scene might miss the spindly potted pot plant a few feet away on the deck. It most likely would ...Read more

Early on in the Pixar animated fantasy “Turning Red,” 13-year-old Mei Lee is subjected to a ghastly public humiliation when her mother, Ming (superbly voiced by Sandra Oh), goes leafing through her notebook and finds lusty drawings of Devon, the cute older boy Mei’s been crushing on. Convinced that this “degenerate” must have taken ...Read more

It was C day in kindergarten recently. C being for career, kids came dressed as the career they wanted to have when they grew up.

A 6-year-old granddaughter who sports a mop of curly auburn hair, eats like food is a full-body contact sport, yet is built like a string bean, went wearing jeans, a long sleeve shirt, her hair pulled back with a ...Read more

It was clear as the kids and I visited their dad the other night that conversation was no longer possible.

Bit by bit, the dementia had robbed Steve of the ability to speak.

And so we found other ways to engage, singing to him family favorites in the hallway of the nursing home: “The City of New Orleans,” “American Pie,” Jimmy Buffett�...Read more

Haleigh Hutchinson gave birth to her son late last year in the midst of a COVID-19 outbreak and immediately had to watch him undergo heart surgery. Charlie is now a happy, 9-month-old but his heart problems mean that contracting the virus could be dangerous for him.

So Hutchinson, 29, of North Aurora, Illinois, has been anxiously waiting for a...Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- More than four in 10 parents say their kids fell behind academically during the COVID-19 pandemic, when California trailed the country in reopening classrooms to in-person learning, according to a poll released Wednesday.

Now that their kids are back in the classroom, three out four parents support the state’s decision to ...Read more

“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” — e.e. cummings

We spend our entire lives, over 50, 60, 70 or more years, waiting to see how things will turn out. You don’t have to wait that long to see what happens with Cate Henderson, the main character in "The Holding" (OC Publishing) by Lynda Faye Schmidt (prequel to "...Read more

DENVER — More Colorado teens died from overdoses last year than in any year since 2000 as the synthetic opioid fentanyl sparked another public health crisis during the coronavirus pandemic.

Two of Colorado’s largest school districts — Denver Public Schools and Douglas County School District — are among those seeking the antidote, which ...Read more