Okay. I can stand it no longer.

I may have managed to nudge away the irritating poke in the ribs that is the Urban Outfitters new t-shirt that's getting chatter on some of the groups I read often long enough to not include any rants about it over on the International Adoption Blog today, but the nagging aggravation will not be ignored.

Maybe it's because I'm an older adoptive parent. Perhaps if I was young and cool and hep and groovy ...... more

Is it harder to be a kid in 2007 than it was in 1987? Is it harder to parent a kid now than it was then? An article out of the UK points out what may be a clue to why today's children might be less likely to connect with life on important levels.

A long-term study conducted by the Institute of... more

Is it harder these days to raise kids right than it was in days gone by? I'm not talking about the dinosaur days of the 50s and 60s when we were kids, but going back only a few years to the time when Atari's Pong was all the rage ... the computer equivalent of a chipped-flint ax tied onto a length of tree with a piece of sinew ... when... more

Are older adoptive parents more likely than younger moms and dads to take a sweet and innocent child and turn him or her into a monster?

Can a stomach for bratty behavior develop with a paunch?

Those like me, adopting later in a 'second round' of seeing action as a mother or father, not only have practice, but also through the clarity of hindsight benefit from our mistakes and see which parenting techniques paid... more

When talk arises over what can be seen as advantages of being an older adoptive parent, 'more patient' often is pulled out as an example of the mellowing process that influences parenting at a later age.

Younger parents may be characterized as eager and enthusiastic, but also a tad impetuous and perhaps having a shorter fuse than the been-around-the-block moms and dads who should be more relaxed about going with the flow.

Being as that I have never been a patient person, and might actually be less so now that... more

Nancy Sinatra may be sixty-six-years-old now, but if she so desired, she could, with perfect honesty, put out a new single called, "These Boobs are Made for Milking" ... and mean it. As we learned in the previous post, even women well beyond the age of zits and cramps can, with a the right attitude and some concerted efforts, breastfeed their adopted children.

There are more reasons to do this than you can... more

Those early in the stages of educating themselves on adoption and the myriad of related topics are often surprised to learn that breastfeeding is an option for adoptive mothers ... and fathers, too, but we're not going there today, as my personal bounty of the milk of human kindness, fully understanding the reaction that the very thought can raise in some folks, stays my fingers and keeps me from bringing that up again.

Faith,... more

Over on the International Adoption Blog I've been writing a lot this month on my children's birth country, Cambodia. April is a big month for Cam-related events and topics in my house, from Cj's birthday to... more

I posed this conundrum in my last post:

Aside from a few obvious similarities ... both being about baths, and neither written for children ... what is the connection between the songs "Splish, Splash" and "Mother's Lament"? And to stretch the point just a bit more, what... more

I sing to my kids. I sing all the time, and there are very few occasions that don't inspire me to burst forth into one song or another. Given that I was born in 1951 and spent many a Saturday with Dick Clark, many of the songs in my head can be traced to vestiges of various forms of Rock & Roll.

Bath time, for example, brings out two old favorites that are naturals for the event -- "Splish, Splash" and ... more