Happily Stranded on Pip’s Island

Happily Stranded on Pip’s Island

Entertaining your kids isn’t easy. Ask any parent getting barraged with “I’m bored!” two days after Christmas.

Even here in New York City, where there are a hundred activities, events, outings, and experiences at every turn, kids can be hard to please. My 9-year-old likes going to movies and the occasional play, but he doesn’t really like to participate or join things. My almost 4-year-old wants to interact and engage with everyone and anything, which makes movies and plays impossible. That gap – in age, interests, and attention spans – can be hard to navigate, and finding fun things to do that everyone can enjoy is a challenge.

That’s why I can’t recommend Pip’s Island enough.

Read more about Happily Stranded on Pip’s Island

Cruise Control

Cruise Control

There’s a running joke among parents that any vacation you take with your kids is not actually a vacation, it’s a trip. God knows I’ve leaned on this joke myself from time to time. Because it’s true.

If you ask most parents to name their best vacation ever, odds are they’ll cite one they went on before they had children. Or on which the kids were left behind. I would have said the same thing; both of my favorite vacations – my big fat Greek honeymoon, or our trip to Tuscany – took place pre-kids.

That changed last month, when I went on my new best vacation ever. And surprise surprise, I even brought my kids along! It was the best of both worlds.

Read more about Cruise Control

How Do You Teach Gratitude?

How Do You Teach Gratitude?

Like many parents, I always kind of hoped that my kids would absorb decent human values through osmosis.

That just by being around average, decent people who enact and embody basic human decency on a daily basis – like me and Mom and Buried! – they’d eventually become imbued with those intangible qualities we expect good people t have.

But if my 7-year-old’s lack of gratitude is any indication, it hasn’t been working.

Read more about How Do You Teach Gratitude?

e9afe31c5a7577fdf2fc8f15bd5008856c363ba4adcd73a03f