Offbeat Mama | It worked for me

This is Offbeat Mama’s archive of It worked for me posts.

Parenting issues: We've all got 'em, now we can all help solve 'em. Chime in with what works for you and your family.

Most Recent Posts About It worked for me

Photo by Kait.

One of my greatest joys as a mother to a toddler has been translating the world to my son, one little story at a time. At his age, 2, concerns over sleep patterns and eating habits have taken a backseat to his emotional and cognitive development. His reasoning is budding but still rudimentary, which leaves me, his guide, a liberty I haven't known since my own childhood — to interpret the environment.

My son is too young to integrate conditionals and exceptions, so the stories I tell him about the world are remarkably simple, internally consistent and full of wonder. This process of reinventing the banal allows me to punctuate my explanations with a “wow!” — a wow my son echoes with a sincerity I have outgrown. I consider myself a student of Joseph Campbell and so I do my best to guide my son through the questions the world offers him with some dimension of myth.

Like most mothers, my behavior passes through the filter of “what's best for my child” before it actualizes. “What's best” takes a universal form to some degree, but it is also imbued with a personal view of what I think is crucial for children: keeping their wings from being clipped.

What did you get while you were pregnant? More importantly — what didn't you get. How can parents STOP with the rampant consumerism already?

Emily, her fiancée, and their toddler son all live in the same 1,000 square foot space and make it work in a way that's comfortable for everyone.

Suggestions for both parents who are planning to adopt, and friends who are surprised by their "We're adopting!" exclamation.

Elka and her husband recently made it through their first backpacking trip with baby Uli, and she's compiled a list of tips and tricks for fellow backpacking and parenting enthusiasts.

Perhaps one too many? Photo by Ashley. I was at a party. I was pregnant. Someone handed me a half glass of wine, and there it was — the crack of the whip glare. At first I...

One morning I woke up with a huge, hard lump on my right breast. I didn’t know where it came from and totally freaked out – Did I have a tumor!? I wrote my mama friends, did some reading and figured out it was had to be a clogged duct.

The age-old struggle: defining gender. Every family has a different way of approaching the topic, and Denise is in the process of figuring out what exactly "female" means for her three month old, Nikte.