By Shirin Yadegar
Staycations in Los Angeles are awesome. Sometimes all you need is a night away from your house and your kids. A night on the town with your partner is magical for a marriage and less expensive than a therapist!
We recently stayed at the newly renovated Viceroy L’Ermitage in Beverly Hills for 24 hours of awesomeness! Complimentary champagne was served upon our arrival, which set the mood for a relaxing afternoon. The rooms are spacious, clean and super comfortable. (more…)
By Nancy Macnamara, M.Ed.
Getting back to the routine and rigor of school after a summer break that’s been filled with relaxation and fun-in-the-sun activities can be quite an adjustment, even for those kids who love school. Change can be difficult, no matter how exciting and happy we are to be going through it. You can help ease some of the anxiety that comes with this change by taking steps to anticipate what will trigger uneasiness in your child as the first day of school approaches. (more…)
By Sam Pemberton
Q: What are some of the best ways for parents to keep their kids safe online at home?
A: Talking to young people often and openly is the best way to help keep them safe online. Engage with them about what they do online and how they use digital resources – are they active on online forums, social media, or gaming sites? Take an interest in what sites and applications they enjoy using, and explore these sites and apps together. It’s important to be positive about this process and try not to overreact about any concerns you have so that you can open up a dialog with them. (more…)
By Shirin Yadegar
Summer travel always lends itself to family bonding, adventures and relaxation. We spend countless hours preparing for the “perfect” family vacation with the right balance of sun, culture and excitement.
Blessed to be able to visit incredible destinations with plush accommodations and immaculate service is a major plus. We work hard all year to splurge and enjoy our summer vacations, but what about those who can’t. Where are the families who are struggling and don’t have the ability to bond and relax together? (more…)
By Tanya Streeter
I can’t protect my children. It’s as simple as that. In fact, it’s worse than that. I have unwittingly poisoned them….BEFORE THEY WERE BORN. That’s the reality of the human health impact of plastic pollution.
This stark fact turned my stomach and made my head spin. I was already a mother of one very lovely redheaded daughter, and wading through yet another round of IVF in my journey to conceive our sweet son when, whilst shooting scenes for “A Plastic Ocean” (available on iTunes), I learned there is one way it’s thought that we are able to reduce toxins already accumulated in our bodies: by reducing our exposure to plastics…really. I suppose that’s a little piece of good news: the possibility that we can reduce our levels of those toxins, right? Well, when I say “we”, I mean us women. You see, men can’t. Want to know why? Because they can’t have babies. (more…)
By Jamie Tworkowski
Right now, thousands of people are talking about the show 13 Reasons Why. We’ve heard stories of people asking for help for the first time, and stories of people who had to stop watching because the show was too triggering for them. We’ve heard from parents asking if we think the show is appropriate for their son or daughter. We’ve heard from people who loved the show, and we’ve heard from people who hated it.
13 Reasons Why is causing a significant number of individuals to think and talk about mental health, and many of them are thinking and talking about it for the first time. That’s a good thing. (more…)
By Nathalie Kunin
Although schools consider various factors when reviewing applications, none seem to cause parents more undue stress than the ISEE. Parents always want to deflect attention away from ISEE scores and ask me: Don’t the child’s grades and extracurricular activities count? What about the interview? How about legacy and sibling status? Schools do look at each applicant as a whole, but ISEE scores are the best indictor if a student will be able to succeed academically at their school and they are often the first measure considered when evaluating candidates. This doesn’t mean that students with lower scores will not be accepted to an academically rigorous school, it just means that they will have more hurdles to overcome. ISEE scores cause parents anxiety because they are hard, cold numbers and the rest of the application is subjective. (more…)