As my kindergartner fumbled with his shoes, I stood at our door sifting through the mental parenting checklist newly lodged in my brain: backpack. Sweatshirt. Snacks. Sunscreen. Water bottle. KN95 mask. Vaccination card.

Jesse asked for his cloth mask, and I explained again that if he wore that one he’d need to have on a surgical mask, too, ...Read more

'THE KING'S DAUGHTER'

Rated PG for some violence, suggestive material and thematic elements.

What it’s about: In this historical fantasy epic, King Louis XIV commissions an exploratory voyage to the lost city of Atlantis to capture a mermaid for her powers of immortality, while his headstrong daughter seeks to free her new aquatic friend.

...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- When he has small slices of free time, wedged in between schoolwork and studying for academic quiz competitions, Arin Parsa scrolls through Reddit.

The 14-year-old from San Jose searches for posts about vaccines, and comments whenever he thinks he can be helpful, sometimes sharing a public health department's hotline or ...Read more

Q: I recently tried toilet training my 32-month-old, but after a few days of no success, I decided to stop. A friend tells me to hang in there, but my pediatrician says my son isn’t ready. She suggests I try again in a few months. Your thoughts?

A: What does it mean that a 2-and-a-half-year-old child “isn’t ready” to learn to use the ...Read more

In the days before a vaccine for chicken pox became widely available, some parents would host "chicken pox parties" amidst an outbreak to try to ensure that their kids wouldn't be left out of the wave of infections. The thinking was that chicken pox was a mild disease for kids but worse for adults, and catching it early would provide a lifetime ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS -- Jen Bollig is living with the guilt that she almost deprived her five children of a mom because she didn't get vaccinated and reduce her COVID-19 risk.

But at least she is living.

The 47-year-old Cushing, Minnesota, woman is recovering from severe COVID-19 after a one-month hospitalization that included placement in a medically ...Read more

Q: Whenever — and I most definitely mean every single time — I ask my 6-year-old daughter to do something, she becomes very disrespectful. She stomps her foot, yells at me that I make her do “everything,” mutters disrespectful remarks under her breath (which I usually hear), and so on. If I just allow her to vent, she gets over it fairly...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- The glow danced on the faces of children and adults who gathered on a recent December evening at what’s become an annual Christmas tradition: the transformation of Jeff Norton’s La Mirada, California, home into a “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” display.

This year’s design, which includes a faux second story on...Read more

Holiday family gatherings can be challenging under the best of circumstances.

Expectations are often too high. Relatives feud about traditions, food, alcohol, long-ago slights, politics, and just about anything you can imagine. Noisy kids run wild. This year, booster shots and the new omicron variant of COVID-19 are adding a new level of ...Read more

It was one of those books so engrossing that I didn't see the twist coming.

The neuropsychologist who diagnosed my first-born son with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) recommended it so I could better understand how my oldest was wired. The title, "Smart But Scattered," seemed like a brilliant description for my creative, ...Read more

CHICAGO -- Twelve-year-old Junior Gonzalez walked into the living room and tightly hugged Rosa Valladares as she sobbed.

“Te quiero mucho mijo,” she told him.

“I love you too,” the boy responded in Spanish.

Just a few weeks ago, on Oct. 30, his mother, Esna Aracely Vásquez, 38, had died, leaving the boy forlorn and financially ...Read more

When the pandemic disrupted everything, it also thrust fathers into the home like never before. It was a moment that looked like it could bring some relief to working moms. Dads had the flexibility – and the desire – to take on more responsibility. Then, the world got in the way.

Back in 2020, while Lindsey Jackson and her husband Clarence ...Read more

PITTSBURGH — Last Thanksgiving, Bev Gunnarsson and her husband followed public health recommendations and stayed home in Fox Chapel, Pennsylvania, for Thanksgiving rather than traveling to the New York area to visit their daughters.

For just the two of them, the couple cooked a 10-pound turkey — the smallest they could find. "We had so many...Read more