Reality TV’s Kate Gosselin recently learned that her show, “Kate Plus 8,” has been cancelled. This is unfortunate news for those who earn their living working on this show. However, this is a mixed blessing for the Gosselin children. The loss of income is the obvious negative.  The positive is that the kids will get some privacy back in their lives. The show, originally called “Jon and Kate Plus 8,” centered around a Pennsylvania couple raising eight young children -- a set of twins and a set of sextuplets. It was more chaos than most of us could ever imagine and, therefore, very entertaining…

There is a flurry of conversation going around in my world about teachers. My kids’ school sends out the teacher assignments in early August. Parents are e-mailing, kids are calling, everyone is talking about who has which teacher.  Until a few years ago, I had no idea that parents were able to send a letter to the school principal requesting a particular teacher for their kids. I figured that we all were at the mercy of the school.  The teacher request concept is interesting to me. If your first born had a difficult year with “Mrs. Jones,” then a well-written letter could help you avoid her …

“Are you excited for school to start?” asked a nice woman at the bank.  My kids froze in their tracks. They had been admiring a display of loaded backpacks that are prizes for a lucky draw contest. Despite the school supplies at their fingertips, summer’s end wasn’t on their radar screen yet. It’s been on mine. I must admit that I am energized by the thought of school starting again. It’s not that I don’t enjoy summer, because I do. I love our summertime family adventures. I love our countless treks to the pool. I love eating snow cones and chatting on the patio. However, I miss the structure…

Birds of a feather flock together.  It’s human nature for kids to gravitate toward people who share similar interests. Cliques start to form as soon as kids enter preschool.  While it is often parent-generated at first, kids eventually start forming their own group of friends. The unfortunate reality of cliques is that they are often exclusive. At some point, most boys and girls struggle with the politics of the playground. For some kids, it’s simply a life lesson in true friendship and integrity. For other kids, cliques are the seeds that evolve into bullying and psychological pain. Is your …

Creativity is an excellent antidote to the malady known as “summer brain drain.”  Today’s creativity challenge is to submit a haiku to the comments section of Mom’s Talk.  To refresh your memory, the haiku originated in Japan and is interpreted in American terms as a poem with three lines in a 5-7-5 format. It should have five syllables in the first and third lines and seven syllables in the second line. The theme of our haiku challenge is “Summer.” Need  examples to get started? I wrote the following haiku in honor of an annoying garden pest whose home country also is Japan. Lovely roses …

Parents, we’ve got June behind us and most of July and August to go. Most of us have had our share of ups and downs this summer. I’m interested in your ups. Summer is about keeping sane while creating fun and (possibly) educational moments for our kids. We can all use a little inspiration at this point. It’s a good time to swap some ideas with each other.  Are you in?? What has gone right this summer? How are you keeping your kids away from the temptations of mindless TV and video games? Have you taken a great day trip? Have you taken advantage of local resources?  Put your ideas in the …

Last week's big, awful storm or (depending on your location) EF1 tornado, wreaked havoc throughout Downers Grove. Many of us experienced power outages, downed trees, damage to our homes and cars. As parents, we had to navigate through additional issues that emerge from our beloved offspring. Our family faced a massive tree branch cleanup, broken fence posts and a 49-hour loss of power. Although the National Weather Service claims the tornado ended at Maple Avenue, I cannot imagine what besides a small tornado could have caused the damage on Prairie Avenue. We had downed electrical poles, …

There are few parents among us who haven't signed our kids up for at least one of the many, many sports teams available to them almost from the time they can walk. Over the years, my kids have participated in T-ball, soccer, swimming and tennis teams. My son opted out of tennis after a single high school season and his younger sister is finishing up her freshman year of soccer after rediscovering it as a seventh-grader.  Did my son miss out on some essential skill set? Will he fail to compete successfully in the arena of life because he was never a "jock?" Or did he gain essentially team …

My first Mother's Day also happened to fall on my birthday. I was the proud new mom of a delightful two-month-old son and to celebrate the day, the three of us spent a sunny afternoon on the patio of a neighborhood bistro. There have been many Mother's Days since then, and because they are always within close proximity to my birthday, I milk them for all they're worth. Because May is a beautiful month, we tend to spend each Mother's Day as we did the first one—outdoors. In recent years, that usually has meant spending some time in the garden, which is usually the inspiration for the flowers, …

It's almost May, which means moms are sorting through the various enrichment activities, day camps, sports teams, summer school offerings and assorted other organized undertakings available to kids in the western suburbs during the summer months. This was never my strong suit. I seemed to either under-schedule my kids—requiring me to be a computer cop for the entire summer—or over-schedule them, which meant I had to spend hours each week shuttling them back and forth to activities. What I always really wanted for them is what I had—long summer days spent outdoors with friends and punctuated …

Easter season always makes me wistful for that brief span of years when I could dictate my daughter's wardrobe: sweet dresses, colorful mix-and-match knits, Chesterfield coats with velvet collars. It's gone in a blink and before you know it, you've got an 8-year-old with bra envy and a 12-year-old who thinks camisole tops and short shorts are reasonable school attire. South High School made news last fall when it injected some steel into its dress code and outlawed revealing clothing for both sexes. Short skirts and shorts, low-hanging pants and skimpy tops were suddenly on the "Don't List," …

They're commonplace at Downers Grove high schools, but a fairly new addition to District 58 elementary schools: truncated attendance days. They are known as "late arrival" days in District 99—15 days when school begins at 10 a.m. in order to allow teachers to meet in "professional learning communities," where they share plans, work to improve their effectiveness, and set and work to achieve goals. In the past few years, District 58 also has added half days to the school calendar. School is dismissed at 11:25 during the half days in order to allow for staff development. The practice allows the…

Whether it's a pick up game of soccer during recess or a student council election, most of us learn early on that "you win some, you lose some." But with political pundits ripping into their opponents nightly on cable TV, sports fans calling for blood from the sidelines, and even local public discourse sometimes deteriorating into name-calling or worse, maybe that message isn't getting through to our kids. How do we model appropriate behavior when differences of opinion become personal and "winning" is more about crushing the competition than simply coming out on top?  How do we teach our …

The New York Times yesterday reported on the corporal punishment case of Texas teen Tyler Anastopoulos. Illinois banned the practice in 1994, but 20 states continue to allow it. Perhaps you've heard playground parents threaten or use spanking as punishment for bad behavior. Most parents, I think, engage conversation with others who remember being spanked—and advocate against it—or continue to champion it as an effective tool.  What are your memories of spanking, in schools or at the hands of caregivers? Is it effective, or abusive? And how do you react when you witness kids getting spanked, …

Our dog suffered an ear infection. So, I made a few calls and drove to the veterinarian. We waited in a small office when suddenly, my preschooler's cell phone rang. She answered it as the vet swung open the door. She looked up and whispered to him, "Just a minute, I'm on the phone with another doctor." He looked at me. I looked at her. She then said goodbye to her pretend friend and tucked her pretend cell phone into her pretend pocket. And so it begins. I know it's a matter of years before my conversations with her about cell phones become real. Already, she's enthralled with my smartphone…

It was a defining moment. Grandma died. I remember walking through the funeral home, chatting with family, when an older woman stopped me. She was angry I brought my child and said she understood why others were upset, too. I didn't know how to respond, yet agreed others might feel uncomfortable with my decision. To this day, I'm not sure who was upset or why she felt compelled to pull me aside. At the funeral home, my daughter simply said goodnight to Grandma--as she almost always did--and that was it. Nothing more. It was my decision, one I don't regret.  This week's crisis in Japan …

When I was a kid, homework was optional. Either I did it, and earned a grade. Or I didn't do it, and failed. My parents offered little applause for getting it done and no excuse for failing. (They also knew the nuns, and that was incentive enough. Another conversation, perhaps.)  I recently heard a mom complain her kids get too much homework, and not in the way of smart. She confessed she helps them with projects like word searches and crafts so they can concentrate on more important projects demanding more important thought.  Homework assigned during breaks—and summer reading lists, in …

I don't need Angry Birds; I confess other technology addictions. As I write, my daughter is watching "Dinosaur Train" for the second time. Do I feel guilty? Sure. Will she again ask when I'm getting off the computer? She's walking toward me now ...  We are constantly connected. Maybe your business or job doesn't allow for office hours. That's why you answer the phone during dinner, or check email while coloring with the kids. Maybe you need to know what's happening in the world, and engage perspective other than your own. Perhaps it's as simple as finding time to yourself, restoring much-…

Downers Grove Patch invites you and your circle of friends to build a community of support for local moms and their families. Each week, Moms Talk  will feature a question and answers from our Moms Council of experts and others in the community. Think of it as a place to drop in for a talk about the latest local parenting hot topic. So grab a cup of coffee and settle in for a discussion of today's question: Measles a few years ago made friends with kids in my neighborhood. Parents whispered. Later, reports of flu epidemics hit airwaves and made headlines. Conversations among parents about …

Downers Grove Patch invites you and your circle of friends to build a community of support for local moms and their families. Each week, Moms Talk  will feature a question and answers from our Moms Council of experts and others in the community. Think of it as a place to drop in for a talk about the latest local parenting hot topic.  So grab a cup of coffee and settle in for a discussion of today's question. We're half-way between Lincoln's and Washington's birthdays, so it's a good time to ask: Do parents still hold these American icons up to their children as role models? Or are they so far…