Mama always said that I should wear clean underwear whenever I went out. “You never know what might happen,” she cautioned, warning me that I could get into an accident. It’s that not knowing what might happen that prompted Alexis Martin Neely work with parents on their estate planning and to write Wear Clean Underwear: A Fast, Fun, Friendly - and Essential - Guide to Legal Planning for Busy Parents.

Did you know that roughly 69% of parents have not documented who would raise and care for their children if they weren’t able? It’s not the most cheerful topic to talk about, some might even consider it depressing, but it’s a conversation we should all have with our spouses, our siblings and our parents.  And if you have children, it’s definitely a necessary topic and one that should be considered from all possibilities and well thought out. This book will walk you through the process and leave you with many valuable plans and tools to help both your children and your family should something go wrong.
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Have you considered working from home? Have you wondered how to do it successfully? Well, I can’t even begin to tell you how to work from home, until I paint the picture of my own home office scenario.

My name is Kari Klein and I am the Manager of Global Performance for a technology company in the Boston area. I live in an apartment in Cambridge, with my neighbors Harvard and MIT. My home office is a small room off of our kitchen at the back-end of our apartment. I have a great desk and shelving setup (courtesy of IKEA), of mixed metal and wood. The shelves cover 3 out of the 4 walls, leaving some room for two windows, a closet door and the entryway into my office (no door).

I have an eclectic mix of stuff on my shelving…everything from business books to old magazines and journals that I’m keeping, folders of information that I once thought was important, binders of materials from my recent graduate courses, office supplies, framed photographs and of course, my treasured Red Sox and Celtics keepsakes. Like anyone else who has a home office, I have combined the professional and the personal information into one large blob of stuff that is somewhat organized all over my shelves. Ironically, I usually can locate things in their exact location, so I guess it’s working for me!
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Before committing to a childcare provider or nanny be sure to have a contract in place. Everything should be clearly outlined and signed by both parties before your child starts their first day. Most providers will already have a version of a parent handbook and contract outlining their terms and conditions. However, all too often, both parents and the provider enter into a vague, verbal relationship which can easily end in tears.
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Your brother/sister/cousin/friend/whatever just called and they’re getting married. Great! And they want your son/daughter to be their ring bearer/flower girl. Great! Except that you’re going to have to pay out the wazoo for some fancy outfit they’re going to wear once.

Or perhaps you need the perfect little outfit for Easter. Or Christmas. Again, you don’t want to pay a ton for an outfit that’s not going to get much wear.

Finally, there’s the perfect solution - Gaga’s. Why someone didn’t think of this before, I don’t know. It’s pure genius.
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Years ago, my husband affectionately gave me the nickname Music Snob. I don’t think I’m snobby about it necessarily, but it’s true that I’ve always been opinionated about the music I listen to. I always tried to stay on top of the new bands coming out, and usually had heard of, listened to, or even seen a band before they became popular or got radio airplay. (If they ever *did* get radio airplay.) It wasn’t the exclusivity I liked, necessarily. I always have felt that the way the music industry works, a very limited number of bands and styles get radio play. Who says those are the best out there? Who says that the only good music is American—what about all the other great bands and genres out there? I prefer to make up my mind without the help of a commercial DJ with suspect motivation telling me I need to go out and buy a certain album. And I have to admit, it’s kind of fun to be able to recognize the music in all those trendy Apple/Volvo/Levis/etc commericals or to be the one my friends call to ask for some new music recommendations.

Then I got pregnant. I was too sick and tired and focused on impending mommy-hood to worry about the music scene. Briefly I entertained the thought of seeing one of my favorite bands in concert when I was 7 months pregnant (it had been 5 years since they’d last come around). But mommyhood came first, so instead of risking a roomful of smoke, I stayed home. After the baby was born, forget it! When did I have time to listen to music? When did I have the brain cells or energy to care about anything other than basic day-to-day survival? Now my daughter is a toddler, my brain power and energy are returning, and I need some new music.

It’s difficult to jump back in, though. And that is sad in some way. I mean, I found out Feist had a new album when she appeared on an Apple commercial. My husband had to inform me that Radiohead were putting out a new album. And Belle and Sebastian’s “new” one (to me, anyway) was released into stores a year and a half ago. Johnny Marr joined his genius to Modest Mouse and I have yet to hear any of the results except for on commercial radio.

My “indie music snobbery” has changed over time, I’ve noticed. Do I care about the debate whether Death Cab for Cutie jumped the shark by signing with a major label? Not as long as the music is still good. Am I angry that they used music from Royksopp or the Concretes (or any other trendy Scandinavian band) in commercials for Geico and Target? Not really, I’m glad they’re gaining recognition, because Scandinavian pop is great.

So I’m bursting out of the mommy bubble! Well, no, that’s not quite right. There is no bursting. Maybe I should say I’m slowly emerging from the mommy cave, limping, blinking, squinting. I’m dusting off my iPod with its dead battery and I’m on a mission to load it up with something new. Even if “new” means something different to me than to everyone else in the non-mommy world.

-Scooter

My husband and I lost our first born, a son, at two days old in May of 2005.  Having planned my wedding on a message board, I turned to those same ladies for support.  It’s amazing that you can often find more online support than you can in real life.  Online, people are exposed to other people’s lives and realize that there are just certain things that you don’t say or do to a parent who is grieving the loss of a child.  For those friends that supported me through a very dark time, I’m eternally grateful.

If you’re wondering what you should say or do when someone you know suffers a loss like this, read on.

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As long as I can remember, I’ve always wanted a daughter. I always knew I wanted kids, and I always knew at least one needed to be a girl. This need got stronger when I went and married a guy with only brothers.

With our first pregnancy, we didn’t try for a specific gender. We just tried for a baby. I hoped it would be a girl, just to get that out of the way, but knew there were more kids coming along, so didn’t stress too much when our ultrasound revealed our first baby was a boy.

With number 2, we got more serious. We both wanted a girl (though I wanted it more than DH). We bought, read and followed the methods in How to Choose the Sex of your Baby by Landrum Shettles - intercourse timing, supplements, etc. And low and behold, on our first month trying, we succeeded in getting pregnant. (This was quite a shock, since it took 8 long months with our first.)

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As I embark on my second journey of infertility and try to stay optimistic, I find it a good time to reflect on what positive aspects the experience has brought to me life. So here they are, in no particular order:

10. Astounds me with the miracle and fragility of life. With so many babies born, especially the ones you hear about who are abandoned, born to drug addicts or teenagers at proms, it’s easy for many people to forget how incredible it is that babies are even conceived. So many things need to happen for a pregnancy to being, and countless others occur for a healthy baby to be born, that it is a miracle any babies are even born. Life is truly an amazing thing.

9. Pulled my family together. Every family can get into petty squabbles and stressful situations, but somehow after our we told our parents and siblings about our struggles and pain, those things took a back burner. We were very fortunate in having family members who chose to be supportive of what we were experiencing.

8. Helped me know my friends on a deeper level. The only way I was able to cope with the intense grief at the time was to withdraw from most people in my life. I tried to keep in contact, but I didn’t have the emotional reserves necessary to function socially. After the first year, I began opening up to friends, and found that in most cases it strengthened our relationships. You cannot show that level of pain to someone without it making or breaking your friendship.
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Last year, I boldly set out and traveled by air with my then 12 week baby girl. I pulled together my thoughts on traveling alone in a blog here.

The next time my daughter traveled by plane, we were with a large group and I had many adult hands to help. At six months old, she was becoming a champion traveling companion. We took another trip, just the two of us, when she was about nine months old. The same advice that I posted earlier still continued to hold true.

Fast forward to toddlerhood. Boy, oh boy, was this traveling experience different than any in her infant days. Most of the advice I gave about security and luggage is still spot on. But no longer was she content to be held for hours while we flew. Oh no, she was miserable, wanting nothing more than to get down and walk.

For sure, she wasn’t the most well behaved child, in fact someone probably later told a story about a screaming child on their flight. I tried my best - we read a lot of books and played with some small toys. Still, all of that got old quickly for her - after all, the world is so much more interesting to her right now than sitting on moms lap for four hours.

If there was one thing that I learned this time around, it’s this. If you’re going to nurse and are on Southwest (or any of the choose your own seat carriers) nurse from the start. That really does send people right on by (you might end up with an extra seat) and those that it doesn’t deter are going to be fine with you nursing. I didn’t do this on one leg of the trip and ended up sitting next to a young man. Boy, oh boy, his face sure did turn red when he realized what I was doing, even though I was using a Hooter Hider!

So, no, it wasn’t easy traveling alone with a toddler. It’s not something that I will look forward to in the future, but I know that it will be done again. Having family who live many states away makes it inevitable. Thankfully, most passengers around me were fairly sympathetic and I didn’t get too many dirty looks.

JennyLou

I chose to formula feed because I wanted to. I know, how could I make such a decision, right? I’ve seen the debates, heard the judgments being passed, and know that me and moms like me are looked down upon. But I shrug it all off and, up until now, I just do not bother getting into the discussion. I do not feel I should have justify my choice…my family and I are perfectly fine with it.  But since I had been asked to do this blog, after some coaxing I thought it might be nice to show people I’m not an ogre.

Before the lectures on the benefits of breastfeeding begin, know that I did my research. It was the result of many months of reading, talking to breastfeeding moms, family experiences, and deep thinking. It is a very personal decision and I do not believe either way is right or wrong. They are just different. Each side has its benefits and each side has it downfalls. In our case, I felt that formula feeding has more benefits and is a perfect fit for us.

read more from "Why I Chose Formula For My Son"