Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Quality in parenting makes all the difference.
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 nurtures a child as they grow. While children certainly benefit from having a loving father and mother in the home, there are scores of children being …
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
From decorating cookies or dancing to strikes and spares, birthday parties can require a lot of thought.
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 happy but some party environments are better than others depending on your child's age and the number of children you plan to invite. Do you throw a …
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
You have it all planned out, but your kids may go in a different direction.
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 is lucky to have something that they are passionate about. Remember the Keatons from the 80s tv show "Family Ties"? The parents are liberal democrats …
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Keeping realistic goals for every day of the year.
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 fit into size 4 jeans by June!" can be tough if you have given birth to three kids and haven't been a size 4 since seventh or eighth grade. Keeping a …
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Whether looking for a Charlie Brown- or a Rockefeller Center-caliber tree, there are many options.
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 yard at a later date or fresh cut? Do you like to head out into the fields and chop down your own tree or do you prefer to pick it out and have …
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Taking "thanksgiving" literally.
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 liked gifts.) When I was 11, I was grateful that my grandmother moved closer to my family home in California. A couple of years later, my uncle and his …
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
From sports coaches to elected officials, sometimes the people we — and our kids — look up to just don't measure up.
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 position, it is my personal belief that that individual should be held to a high standard. At the very least, finish what you started and follow through. It…
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Prospective for the holiday weekend.
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 the perfect time to reflect and be grateful for those little things that mean so much. The quiet snow which caused the eerie, gunshot-like cracking …
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Some families go into their fourth full day without power Wednesday.
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 the living room with a fire in the chimney? Do you go to a hotel until the power comes back on? If you stay with friends or family, how do you avoid …
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Recent events at the Chatham High School pep rally brings light to an important issue.
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 National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), 37 percent of students have consumed "more than just a few sips" of alcohol by the eighth grade. That number jumps…
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Laura Silvius
3:39 pm on Wednesday, January 25, 2012
My mom once threw a great birthday party for me! It was a slumber party with about 10 girls or so, with a "Make Your Own" theme. She bought cotton T-shirts and cloth-safe paint, and made individual pizza dough and let us make our own pizzas and our own T-shirts. My friends who came still remember it as one of the most original parties they ever attended! And almost 20 years later we still talk … more ›