Facing the Unthinkable: National Missing Children’s Day
Adam Walsh. That was the name of the boy who woke me up to the reality of children being abducted and killed. Adam Walsh was abducted from a Sears store in Hollywood, Florida on July 27, 1981. He was just six years old. Two years before Adam Walsh disappeared, Etan Patz went missing. These two [...]
Your Teenager is Pregnant—What Now?
According to statistics, almost one million teenage girls become mothers every year. And DoSomething.org reports that in 2008, “the teen pregnancy rate among African-American and Hispanic teen girls, age 15 to 19, was over two and a half times higher than the teen pregnancy rate among white teen girls of the same age group.” If [...]
10 Tips to Help Kids Cope with Disaster
We can’t shield our children from every disaster that gets reported on the news. Tragedies like 9/11, the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting, and the recent deadly tornado in Oklahoma are all too frequent, and our children will hear about them—and possibly see graphic images—whether we want them to or not. “Disasters such as the Oklahoma [...]
Too Young to Be a Grandma: How Moms of Pregnant Teens Deal
You don’t look like an abuela, and you don’t feel like one either. You’ve nary a gray hair in sight and you could swear that your own kid just got out of diapers. But if you’re the mother of a pregnant teen, you don’t have a choice: you’re going to be a grandma, like it [...]
Are We Teaching Our Daughters to Be Nice Instead of Leaders?
“We call our little girls bossy. Go to a playground: Little girls get called ‘bossy’ all the time, a word that’s almost never used for boys. And that leads directly to the problems women face in the workforce. When a man does a good job, everyone says, ‘That’s great.’ When a woman does [...]
How a Video Monitor Helped Me Love My Baby
I am home all day with my lovely little girls who are both under two years old. Raising two under two has its perks—we’re getting all the diapering and sleepless nights out of the way all at once, but it has significant challenges that are amplified due to the strong-willed temperament and opinionated nature of [...]
Sea Monkeys: Great Starter Pets for Kids!
Who didn’t have Sea Monkeys as a child? That’s exactly what I knew them as, even as a child in Argentina, where the Spanish translation would have been monos marinos. They are tiny tadpole-like creatures. Slightly hairy with a long thin spine, and two round black eyes that seem to be popping out of their [...]
When Your Adopted Child Wants to Meet His Birth Mother
Aren’t you scared that he will want to meet his birth mother one day? I am sometimes asked this by well-meaning acquaintances or people who have reached out to me because they are interested in adoption. When I hear that question, what I hear more than just the words is the fear associated with it. [...]
Disciplining Our Children: Latino & American Style
In my native Puerto Rico, the methods of discipline were very straightforward: You did what you were told or you were punished. Not obeying guaranteed un chancletazo (a spanking with a flip flop). Offering to hit with other implements such as belts, twigs and tree branches was not out of the question and oftentimes, parents [...]
A Mom’s Personal Journey With Autism
After my post on Maddy’s battle with Kawasaki Disease, my good friend Eileen and I got into an important conversation on being an advocate for your children. I asked her to share with Los Tween’s readers her very personal story in the hopes that it will help parents know that they are not alone. [...]
