In early February of this year an 8-year-old girl named Brenna Quirin was having terrible stomach pains and her parents were struggling to find the source. After a plethora of tests and doctors, the second grader was diagnosed with a fast growing cancer called Burkitt’s Lymphoma. Thankfully, her tumor was diagnosed early which gave Brenna a fighting chance against this aggressive disease. Her mother, Kerry Quirin, looked back on the diagnosis and her mother’s intuition. “If you think something is wrong with your child and the 'typical' answers aren't sitting well with you, fight, fight, …
I woke up on Tuesday, July 3 and realized that it was the day before July 4th. Panic set in. There is an unwritten rule in my head that July 4th is the halfway point of summer. June is gone and we’ve only got July. Come early August, life starts ramping up for Fall. Fall sports start back up in August and it’s time to get shoes and supplies for the new school year. Once the calendar switches to the eighth month, we are shifting our gears for the coming school year. I don’t feel like much has been done on my summer bucket list. Kids haven’t been working on their math, like I pledged they would…
Leah, who is ten years-old, is exhausted after a day of YMCA camp. When Dad picks her up, she wants to go home and watch a movie. Dad has several important errands to run before day’s end. Can Dad bring her home, get her settled with a movie and leave her alone while he runs errands? Brian is nine and his sister, Megan, is seven. They wake up around 8:30 a.m. on summer mornings. They are capable of fixing themselves breakfast. If Mom plans to be back by their usual wake up time, can she go out for a run while Brian and Megan are still sleeping? As soon as kids get a little more independent, …
My dad was a master at the “Let’s Embarrass My Kid Today” game when I was growing up. One of his best stunts was the time he found a small beige rock that was similar to the shape of a hearing aid. He was having a good time slipping it in his ear and wearing it around the house until someone noticed and demanded that he take it out. A few days after his rock discovery, we were scheduled to go to an open house for my 5th grade classroom. As he, my mom and I were driving over to the school, I noticed that he had the rock in his ear again. I asked him to take it out. He pretended he couldn’t …
There are dads out there who have no problem showing their love to their children with words. Saying “I love you” is a regular affirmation. However, there are dads out there who aren’t as free with their emotions. Maybe it’s a generational thing. Maybe it’s a gender, cultural or heredity thing. For some reason, it is tough for some men to tell their kids that they love them. It doesn’t mean that they don’t love them; it’s just that expressing love using those words is not in their repertoire. One of my favorite things to witness is a father’s demonstration of love for his child. I’ve watched …
In recent days, you may have seen a headline or a tweet that the Downers Grove South Lady Mustangs soccer team earned third place in the IHSA 3A state tournament. This is quite an accomplishment for a team that wasn’t on many radar screens. They never made Chicago Tribune columnist Joe Trost’s Top Ten list this season. They weren’t even mentioned on any of his “on the verge” lists. Yet the Lady Mustangs used heart and skill to make their way to the state semi-finals. The road wasn’t easy. There were some nail-biter games along the way. They squeaked by Hinsdale Central in penalty kicks for …
When the family schedule gets hectic – whether it’s work or other activities – the family dinner is one of the first priorities to go is out the window. It takes a great deal of time and effort to pull together a meal for the family. Quite honestly, I’d much prefer to eat a bowl of cereal and read “Fifty Shades of Gray” by myself after an exhausting day. Every once in a while, however, I am reminded of the importance of having the family sit down together and eat. The compelling facts that surround the significance of the family meal are enough to make me keep it a priority. The frequency of …
I have toyed with the idea of a gluten-free experiment with my family for a few years now. Because of a family history of celiac disease, I started eating gluten- free back in 2007. Celiac is an autoimmune disease caused by intolerance to gluten. Gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye. It is found in obvious foods like pizza and beer and in less obvious foods like salad dressing and licorice. Gluten gradually damages the intestines of people with celiac disease, preventing the absorption of vitamins and minerals and setting off a myriad of related health problems. Once I …
New parents are often told to sleep when their baby sleeps – no matter the time of day. It’s sound advice for people who will not get a solid night’s sleep for months or even years to come. But what about when the kids get older and aren’t taking naps any longer? Can a parent still nap? Like most things, it depends on the person. “Give me 15 minutes and I can take a nap just about anywhere,” said Maria, mom of two. Fellow mom, Jana, told me, “I was upset when my boys stopped napping because I couldn’t nap either. I needed that nap. Now, my life is just too busy.” Mother of three, Laura, still…
About thirteen years ago, I started my journey as a mother-to-be convinced that I had to do certain things to be deemed a "good mom.” I had to eat well, take a prenatal vitamin and avoid alcohol and caffeine during my pregnancy. I had to have a natural childbirth and breastfeed for the suggested minimum of six months. I came to realize that motherhood is a much longer haul than six months. However, I continued with my quest to be that good mom for many years. I also added two more babies to the mix. These years are a blur, but I managed to follow advice from parenting books and articles to …
On a whim, I grabbed a little book called “Parenting an Athlete” while browsing at the Downers Grove Public Library recently. I figured I could use some advice. From my limited experience of parenting my own athletes, I have realized it is much more complicated than driving a carpool and cheering from the sidelines. The author, Annette Reiter, played basketball in high school and college; she also coached basketball for twenty years and has two daughters who played basketball at the college level. She used her player, coach and parent perspectives and blended them with experiences shared by…
Does your kid have a Facebook page yet? Maybe an Instagram or Twitter account? As our young children grow into tweens and teens, social networking and technology have become part of their lives. With guidance, these platforms can be a fun and healthy way for kids to connect and communicate. The territory, however, is downright dangerous. Consider the story of a Wisconsin teenage boy that posed as a girl on Facebook and duped 31 of his male peers to send him of themselves in the nude. He then used the photos as blackmail, forcing some of the students to perform sexual acts. His victims …
The family tree project in grade school sounds benign enough. However, it makes many parents cringe. If you are lucky, you have a family tree without any embarrassing decayed branches or unfortunate diseases. This project is no problem for you and your child. If you aren’t so lucky, you’ve got dysfunction in your immediate family tree. Your tree is classified in the misfit group that sprouts from the ground with a rotten branch or disease. This assignment is yet another opportunity to broach the uncomfortable conversations that you’ve either avoided up until this point or loathe to discuss…
Recently, a story came out about Jose Gonzalez, a 12-year-old boy from Denver, who was caught stealing $100 from a cousin’s wallet. As punishment, his father, Joseph Gonzalez, sentenced him to ten hours of public humiliation. At a busy intersection, he had to hold a sign reading “I am a thief. I took money from a family member. Don’t give me money.” How did the thief feel? "I think it's, like, fair," Jose said in a DenverPost.com video interview. "I was kind of mad but sad at the same time because I thought I was gonna be embarrassed a lot." Is Joseph Gonzalez concerned about any possible …
Two documentaries have caught my attention recently. Miss Representation is a film that explores how the media’s misrepresentations of women have led to the underrepresentation of women in positions of power and influence. Bully is a moving and disturbing documentary about the misery some children inflict upon their peers. The problems of today’s kids are completely different than the problems of their parents, which is why I think these documentaries are significant. They help parents understand the climate that their kids face each day. Downers Grove’s own Helping Girls Navigate Adolescence…
I had a bit of a George Banks moment while taking my kids to Chicago this week. Who is George Banks? He is the father character, played by Steve Martin, in the 1991 movie Father of the Bride. George was doing his best to take the ridiculousness of the expense and excessiveness from a day of wedding planning for his daughter in stride. At the end of this difficult day, George’s wife asks him to run to the store to pick up some dinner. George loses his marbles in the bread aisle. He had a package of eight hot dogs and was upset because the hot dog buns were sold in packages of twelve. He ripped…
A few days ago, I was waiting in a line and overheard the following conversation between two 12 year-old kids. 12 Year-Old #1: “When you go to Starbucks, do you order coffee?” 12 Year-Old #2: “Oh, yeah. I do.” The two individuals had devilish smiles and a spark in their eyes during the exchange. It’s important to note this, because based on the facial cues, I’d have thought the question was, “When you drink orange juice, do you add vodka?” When I’m in town or at the mall, I’ll often see tweens and teens walking around with coffee drinks. The typical kid is drinking a cold coffee drink …
For parents in Downers Grove, there is much to be grateful. Our community has some top-notch resources including our library, schools and park district. One resource that deserves to be noticed is the Downers Grove Police Department. In the past four months, there have been at least two child abduction attempts thwarted in Downers Grove. The kids involved were smart enough to stay away from the cars and to tell an adult what happened. The parents of these kids deserve credit for raising their kids to have enough street smarts to stay away from a fishy situation. In addition to the parents, we…
If you flip on a tween TV show, you are likely to find an older brother or father character that has been portrayed to be goofy and idiotic. Characters like Spencer from iCarly, the father on ANT Farm, P.J. and his father on Good Luck Charlie are examples. These male fools may be funny, but at what cost? Having a smart and confident lead female character, like Carly on iCarly or Teddy from Good Luck Charlie, is a great way to portray strong female values to our girls. However, isn’t it counterproductive to contrast female intelligence with male incompetence? For the past decade, the phrase “…
As parents, we all have our own ways of opening up the window to the outside world of human behavior for our kids. Without a doubt, the world is full of people who do beautiful and amazing things. The horrible flip side is that there are a small percentage of people who act in terrible ways that ruin innocent lives. One of the tricky parts of parenting is figuring out how to share the ugliness of human behavior with our kids. We don’t want them to be naïve, yet we don’t want them to live their lives fear of “the bad stuff.” After learning of the story of the 17-year-old boy that went on a …
