Are your kids getting enough exercise during the winter months? With all of the illness passing through households these days, parents can find it hard to get kids off the couch once the fevers are gone. Though we have not had a lot of snow this season, the unpredictable frigid temperatures and precipitation can make it tough, at times, to let the kids run around outside. What is a stir-crazy family to do? The good thing is that our area has plenty of facilities where kids and their parents can get some physical activity. It may seem counter-intuitive to have your kids jump into the pool when…

On Monday the New Jersey Senate voted in favor of legalizing gay marriage. While gay marriage continues to be hotly debated, so does the issue of the rights of gay parents. When a flurry of concern is voiced over children being raised in a family with gay parents, one must ask themselves: How is parenthood defined? Just as with marriage, you could ask: must parents really only be part of a one man and one woman partnership? Or can we look at it from a different perspective? There is no question that a parent needs to be a loving and supportive individual; someone who provides care and …

While scanning news reports online last week, I happened upon a photo of a pink gooey substance resembling soft serve ice cream being squeezed into a cardboard box. To my horror, the MSNBC article reported that this goo was, in fact, a mixture of scrap meat items and ammonium hydroxide that fast food restaurants like McDonald's had been using to make their hamburgers and other meat products. Sounds disgusting and possibly dangerous, right?  McDonald's reports that the pink goo meat product was taken out of their ingredient supply last August, but it got me thinking. While my family rarely …

In October 2011, one month after the Anti-Bullying law went into effect, parents from Madison and Chatham told Patch it was good schools were becoming more proactive. Three months later a state panel has ruled the law unconstitutional because it was an unfunded mandate, and taxpayers carried the burden of financing the law's requirements of training, paperwork, investigations and hearings. The ruling goes into effect in less than two months, but with local representatives vowing to restore the law, school districts have nothing to do but wait and see. The anti-bullying law was sparked by the …

Families make up a large part of our communities here in Madison and Chatham, so it is not surprising that children's birthday parties are big. During the school year it seems there is at least a party or two each week on our schedule.   The good thing about children's parties is they are a lot of fun for kids but also provide parents with an opportunity to mingle with other parents. The challenging thing is that throwing a party involves a decent amount of thought and planning.  Numerous factors are involved with planning a kid's birthday party. We all want to make the birthday girl or boy …

Even before our children are born, the dreams of who they will become begin. Will she be a concert pianist? Will he be a star quarterback? Many of us cannot help but project our own hopes and dreams onto our kids. The reality is that they may have different opinions and needs to fulfill. It really is not a big deal if your daughter wants to play basketball instead of the piano or if your son would rather play chess than get tackled on the field. You may find yourself disappointed when your child does not pursue an activity you had in mind for them but you will come to realize that your child …

Everyone talks about making resolutions with each New Year. Parents make all kinds of resolutions from losing weight to getting credit card bills paid down or even just to spending more quality time with their familes. The problem is, life has a funny way of distracting us all from these well-meaning hopes and intentions. I must admit that by June each year, I generally have trouble remembering what my resolution was back in January.  With that thought in mind, my own resolution this year is to work on changing some of my thinking rather than setting specific goals. A resolution like "I must …

Did you know that Chatham and Madison Patch have had reason to celebrate? Back in November, Madison Patch hit its two year milestone and on Dec. 28 Chatham Patch will be celebrating its second anniversary as well. Earlier this year, Patch started a new initiative to reach out and discuss issues that moms, dads and families face in daily life. With this initiative in mind, Laura Silvius, Stuart Chirls and I have been happy to provide you with the Parents Talk Q&A column every Wednesday. So, how have we been doing with our Q&A? Are we asking the right questions? What do inquiring minds of …

Starting around Dec. 5, my telephone started ringing several times a day, and the postman started bringing noticeably thick envelopes. Every nonprofit or fundraising organization I've given to in the last year contacted me to ask for one more donation before Jan. 1. And that's not all. The local basketball tournament needs volunteers. The soup kitchen has a special feast, and they need servers. Last year, the Chatham High School basketball teams held the Cougar Classic to benefit the Senior Center of the Chathams. Each year the Chatham Jaycees benefit donate money from their Christmas tree …

As parents, we spend countless hours supervising the health of our children. Whether heading to the pediatrician's office for scheduled vaccinations or trying to convince kids to eat their vegetables, parents make their children's health a priority. With so much focus on our kid’s health and well-being, it seems all too common for parents to ignore or push off their own health management because there is always something else that needs to be done; especially during holiday season. The fact of the matter is, though, that time spent paying attention to your own health, is time very well spent…

On Wednesday evening, the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree will be lit in New York City, ringing in the beginning of holiday season celebrations across the country. So where will your family be getting your tree? Every year Chatham and Madison families set out on a journey to find the "right" Christmas tree. Are you a family that likes a tall, perfectly symetrical tree or do you prefer a more rustic tree with its own special character? Which variety should you choose? A Norway Spruce like the traditional Rockefeller Tree or a popular Fraser Fir? With the bulb at the bottom to replant in your…

If the headline of this week's Parents Talk Q&A column looks familiar, that's understandable. We posed the same question two weeks ago as Chatham and Madison families spent their time recovering from power outages in the area. But since Thursday is Thanksgiving, we thought it might be worth posing the question again. Every year in my family we used to go around the table and say something we were grateful for. When I was very young, I was usually still pretty grateful that the shine had barely had time to come off of my birthday presents when Christmas time came around (hey, I was a kid. I …

Lately, our local and national news has focused on individuals who potentially serve as role models for children but their actions do not measure up to the hopeful expectations of parents. After losing last Tuesday's mayoral election to Councilman Bruce Harris, Chatham Borough's incumbent mayor Nelson Vaughan resigned his office before finishing the term the people of Chatham Borough had previously elected him to serve. What message does this send to the children of Chatham? When you lose, you just give up and go home? If someone holds a position of power and reaps the benefits of that …

There were plenty of things to complain about in the last week or so due to the freak snowstorm that incapacitated our area. Between the seemingly endless days of power outages, school closings, money spent on clean-up, generators, hotels, eating out and Halloween being postponed, Chatham and Madison parents experienced an extremely stressful time. While misery loves company, I could not help but notice many parents talking about appreciating things that they normally take for granted in daily life. Thanksgiving is two weeks away and before the hustle and bustle of the holidays, I think this …

Madison and Chatham families coped with the second major natural disaster in as many months when an October snowstorm took down power lines, telephone wires and internet cables throughout the region. Power was restored to most of Madison on Monday, but many Chatham residents face their fourth full day without power Wednesday. Madison students are back in school, while Chatham students have the rest of the week off due to continued outages, downed wires and tree limbs blocking sidewalks and roadways. What does your family do in a power outage to stay sane? Do you have a makeshift sleepover in …

There are so many reasons to love Halloween, from the candy apples to carving pumpkins. But let's face it, it is all about the costumes. If you are not in costume, you are just a stranger looking for candy at the door. For kids, Halloween is the perfect opportunity to role play while running from house to house filling their bags with loot. Our whole family really gets into the excitement of seeing what kind of characters, ghouls, heroes, princesses or monsters may be lurking on our doorstep. Last year, my favorite was a glowing jellyfish costume. Need some easy and fun ideas?  Disney Family …

We all have mom guilt moments but one that still makes me cringe occurred when my son was just 12 months old. He picked up a hard, plastic toy bottle, stuck it in his mouth then promptly fell forward onto the toy. After much crying and consoling, my son seemed okay, that is, until he looked up and smiled at me. His front tooth was chipped. I felt terrible about the entire situation since I should have taken the toy out of his mouth right away but also because he had just gone through some major teething. It felt like so much work had gone into that tooth coming through his gums that it was a …

Fall is my favorite season and Halloween is definitely a big hit in our house. Costumes are purchased well in advance with much debate and concern. Decorating the house is a big event too with shouts about adding a new witch or skeleton to entice young trick-or-treaters to our kid-friendly, spooky doorway. There are multiple trips to those "scary stores" with the stomach turning smell of latex masks and the creepy music from the movie "Halloween". Though the Halloween stores are fun, I will freely admit that I am not a fan of needing to cover my baby's eyes (and sometimes my own) as we pass …

"Jumping off the gw bridge sorry" was Tyler Clementi's last Facebook status update on Sept. 22, 2010, just before he leapt to his death off the George Washington Bridge. The suicide of the Rutgers University student, which was allegedly motivated by a secretly taped intimate encounter between Clementi and another male being posted on the internet, caused New Jersey lawmakers to vote into affect a new anti-bullying law back in January. Since then, we have seen both the Chatham and Madison school districts and administrators jump into action in an effort to enforce the new policies with their …

On Friday, four drunk teenagers were taken to area hospitals during a pep rally at Chatham High School. Additionally, school staff had trouble controlling the behavior of some groups of students at the event thus forcing the pep rally to end early. This incident serves as an important reminder to our schools, parents and the entire community that underage drinking and  is a reality that requires constant attention. Students who claim that underage drinking happens everywhere are backed up by statistics. The Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) website said that according to the …