Parents

/

Home & Leisure

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

After childbirth came heart failure – and later, a new heart

Parents / Mom's Advice /

Ebony Smith-Thomas was juggling the demands of a hungry 2-month-old boy while keeping her 11-year-old son and two teenage nieces entertained when her air conditioning went out.

The humidity of a St. Louis evening in May was too much to bear, so she packed up the kids and drove from the south side of town to her mom's house on the north.

All ...Read more

Michael DeMocker/Getty Images North America/TNS

Debra-Lynn B. Hook: Snow day, New Orleans style

Parents / Mom's Advice /

The giddy texts and videos came rolling in from my bundled-up sister in New Orleans on a historic day in the Big Easy.

“It’s snowing, it’s snowing, it’s snowing,” she whispered, her eyes wide in disbelief, as she stood on her front porch in a rarely worn winter hat and scarf.

In fact, it snowed on Tuesday in record amounts across ...Read more

trekandshoot/Dreamstime/TNS

Lori Borgman: When collectors and cleaners collide

Parents / Mom's Advice /

I say that I am married to a collector because pack rat sounds unkind. My husband comes from a long line of collectors.

When they closed out the farmhouse his father lived in all his life, the lead auctioneer kicked off the three-ring, two-day auction under the main tent bellowing, "Ladies and gentlemen! The same family has lived in this house ...Read more

Monkey Business Images/Dreamstime/TNS

After a stroke at age 30, she had to learn how to walk again

Parents / Mom's Advice /

Every morning at 8 a.m., Honey German calls her husband, Nuni.

He goes to work much earlier than her, so they've made a routine of touching base once Honey wakes up.

It's such a habit that when Nuni didn't get a call from Honey one July morning, he knew it was a red flag.

Nuni tried ringing her once. Twice. Three times. Four. Each call went ...Read more

Christopher Michael/Christopher Michael/TNS

Descend into depths of knowledge and madness in Lovecraftian tale

Parents / Mom's Advice /

Christopher Michael‘s "Tomb of the Black Pharaoh" is a gripping tale that blends cosmic horror, historical intrigue, and psychological suspense, centering on a protagonist whose curiosity propels him into the dangerous realm of forbidden knowledge.

Beginning with the discovery of ancient relics in a dusty attic, his journey quickly spirals ...Read more

Handout/The Chrysalis BREW Project/TNS

Thrilling legal showdown delivers justice, drama, razor-sharp wit

Parents / Mom's Advice /

If in another life author Richard A. Danzig decided to become a standup comic, well, he could probably do a lot worse, given his spot-on talent for writing funny monologues for his comedian character Verne Slater in the recently released legal thriller, "Punch Line."

Despite what the book’s title might infer, "Punch Line" is anything but a ...Read more

DREAMSTIME/TNS

Lori Borgman: Headstands are so last century

Parents / Mom's Advice /

Saturday morning began with a video text of one of the grands doing a wild gymnastics routine on an exercise mat in the middle of their family room. She was lunging, flipping and cartwheeling (barely clearing the sofa, the TV and a younger sister’s head), all to the soothing strains of “Who Let the Dogs Out?”

The antics culminated in a ...Read more

Handout/Black Rose Writing/TNS

Heritage, historical fiction combine in tale of resilience against 'The Damn English'

Parents / Mom's Advice /

The sweeping tale of the French Acadians in America and one family’s trials over hundreds of years of persecution is revealed in "The Acadians" by Samuel Andre Aucoin.

Aucoin mixes history and light fiction to tell the often heartbreaking story of the Acadian experience in America. Beginning with a trip to the Vietnam War Memorial in ...Read more

Handout/Simon & Schuster/TNS

A shocking truth behind the legacy of a president

Parents / Mom's Advice /

History is most clearly observed through the rearview mirror. Leaders can more accurately be judged by the impact of their speeches, actions or inaction, beliefs and accomplishments not by eulogies but after an adequate amount of time has passed for a more objective assessment. Yesterday’s lauded heroes may have legitimately earned the ...Read more

Heresy Press/TNS

Literary mystery depicts regret and redemption in a world of uncertainty

Parents / Mom's Advice /

Can we ever make peace with our regrets? That is the question I asked myself while reading Tom Casey’s "Unsettled States" (Heresy Press), which begins with a raw portrait of familial fracture. Bradley’s visit to his mother, Eleanor, opens the door to a past steeped in warmth now shadowed by regret.

Eleanor, a once-spirited woman, is now ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

If her heart artery had torn an inch higher, 'it would have been fatal'

Parents / Mom's Advice /

A week after giving birth to her second daughter, Amelia Laytham's focus was on baby Jocelyn's and big sister Vera's sleep schedules; on breastfeeding her newborn; on the balancing act that parents navigate.

The morning she was scheduled to bring Jocelyn to the pediatrician for her first checkup, Amelia woke up feeling like someone was sitting ...Read more

James Falvey/Dreamstime/TNS

Lori Borgman: It's snow problem; new weather terms are chill

Parents / Mom's Advice /

"Stay tuned for a weather impact update," says the man on the television.

I have problems with the word impact and not just because it's one of those words that can be both a noun and a verb. Impact always reminds me of when my brother was a toddler and shoved a Red Hot up his nose. The Red Hot was impacted and our mother had to carefully ...Read more

Handout/Page & Vine/TNS

They have one year to pretend … or risk losing everything

Parents / Mom's Advice /

The best romance novels often work off the dichotomy between the story’s meant-to-be and can’t-possibly-work elements. Kay Cove’s latest novel, "Snapshot," delivers beautifully on both, with plot twists and outside characters that seriously threaten a happily-ever-after ending. For added depth, Cove intertwines two love stories, one from a...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

She solved her heart problem. Then she learned her unborn baby had one

Parents / Mom's Advice /

Ashley Boyea had asthma, so she wasn't surprised when she got breathless at work. But when she began gasping for air just walking around, the then-25-year-old sales associate went to her pulmonologist for a checkup.

The doctor had her wear a heart monitor for a few days. It showed her heart was beating too fast. More testing revealed that, in ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Just minutes of exercise can help women’s hearts, study finds

Parents / Mom's Advice /

With only four minutes of exercise a day, middle-age women might reduce their risk of cardiovascular problems by nearly half. It’s the latest discovery from University of Sydney researchers, whose study was published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

“We found that a minimum of 1.5 minutes to an average of 4 minutes of daily ...Read more

 

Related Channels

Focus on the Family

Focus on the Family

By Jim Daly
Georgia Garvey

Georgia Garvey

By Georgia Garvey
Lenore Skenazy

Lenore Skenazy

By Lenore Skenazy

Comics

Lee Judge Monte Wolverton Joey Weatherford Peter Kuper For Better or For Worse Loose Parts