Long Island Parent Talk

Looking for local parenting classes or support groups? Parents "R" Talking offers a variety of workshops each month at 77 Jericho Tpke. in Mineola, 917-862-7644. Advance registration is required.

“We try to prepare parents for parenthood. A lot of parents don’t have close relatives around anymore. They’re looking for this information, how to get their children on a schedule, how...

What better gift is there for mom than a good, heartfelt laugh? Here are 10 recently published or about-to-be-published parenting books that should tickle the funny bone on Mother’s Day and beyond: The famed, funny and fake toddler who tweets with the Twitter handle “The Honest Toddler” has written a book, supervised by his mother, Bunmi Laditan. “The Honest Toddler: A Child’s Guide to Parenting”...

Pregnancy symptoms are not pretty — along with fluctuating hormones, unusual food cravings and a bulging belly, many women experience swollen legs and feet. And if you're like Kim Kardashian, you show off your not-so-glamorous pregnant body while many women try hide it.

Along with tight dresses and super high-heel shoes Kardashian, pregnant with her first child with boyfriend Kanye West, isn't...

Parenting isn't easy, especially when it comes to making decisions for your children. Just the other day I was at a store with my 2-year-old daughter and someone commented on the fact that she was still in a stroller. Really? Why does she care what I do with my child — it's the easiest way for me to shop with her!

Moms today face tremendous pressure to make “perfect” parenting decisions, only...

Comedienne Sherry Davey says she couldn’t understand her two daughters’ obsession with vampires until she became a single mom and started dating again.

Then the attraction became crystal-clear: “That’s how pathetic men have gotten,” she says. “Women are now looking to the dead.”

Davey and her current beau -- fellow comic and single dad Buddy Fitzpatrick -- bring their comedic forces...

My 10th-grader took the PSAT exam last fall. For anyone who doesn’t know, that’s a sort of practice test for the SAT – that all-important score that helps colleges rank applicants.

A few weeks after her PSAT, we received an email from a prestigious college. No, not Harvard University, but a decent, private, liberal arts school. I was thrilled. I thought, “She must have done very well on her...

Two Long Island moms with children on the autism spectrum are storytellers in the new book "Chicken Soup for the Soul: Raising Kids on the Spectrum" (Chicken Soup Publishing, $14.95).

Amy Giles of Huntington Station wrote "The Seven- Year Twitch," about the initial heartache of her daughter Julia's diagnosis and the joy of Julia's ultimate triumphs; Terri Manzione of Glen...

Two of my children took the controversial new state exams Monday. This year’s tests, thought to be more rigorous than those used in the past, for the first time, reflect new national Common Core curriculum standards. State authorities have already warned that passing rates statewide could fall 30 percentage points or more when tests are scored but I am not having any anxiety attacks yet.

My...

Need a chuckle? Some of the anecdotes in “When Parents Worry: The Real Calls Doctors Receive … from Moles That Seem to Move to Funny Smelling Poo” (AdamsMedia, $12.95) can be downright humorous.

Unless, of course, they hit too close to home and you find yourself recognizing your own neurotic parenting worries among some of the questions parents have asked of Dr. Henry Anderson, a former...

While he's not passing the ball to his favorite wide receiver, NFL great Kurt Warner is passing along life lessons to his seven children.

Arguably one of the best quarterbacks of this generation, Warner led the St. Louis Rams to a victory in Super Bowl XXXIV in 1999 when he was also named Super Bowl Most Valuable Player, and again in 2001. In 2008, he led the Arizona Cardinals to their first...