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    Barbara Hanks

    Barbara Hanks

  • Moms in Metal -- Why I Chose to Get Braces at Age 37

    I have awful teeth. I really do. When I was four years old, I took a medication which permanently stained some of my adult teeth that were just beginning to form. No one realized the particular drug I needed to take would have that effect - or, if they did, it wasn't something they mentioned to my parents. As I grew up, I was embarrassed to discover that the brand new "grown-up" teeth popping through my gums were not the shiny white pearls my classmates had. Rather they were a light brown in the front. Gross. As I grew up, my teeth weren't terribly crooked. ...

  • Battling the "Late Birthday" - My Kid Will Have to Go to Kindergarten Twice

    My one and only kiddo was born on September 21. In many states, including my own, the cut-off to begin elementary school is to be 5 on or before September 1. Currently, she's in a wonderful childcare situation that offers a private kindergarten. My husband and I were talking with one of the administ

  • User post: Choosing Not to Have a Second Baby

    When my husband and I announced that we were expecting, it was greeted with shouts of joy from our family. (We were both in our 30s and not getting any younger.) After five years of marriage, I'm sure they'd begun to write us off. ("Are you guys ever going to have kids?!") Yet, here we were pregnant

  • Tearful Drop-Offs - How do You Make Daycare Goodbyes a Little Easier?

    It's Thursday. The fourth day of the week. And the fourth day my daughter has cried as I leave her in the two-year-old classroom at her preschool. Last week, she was fine...giggling and running into the arms of her teacher. The week before that, she cried. Every. Single. Day. There's really no rhyme

  • Modest Swimsuits -- Would You Wear This?

    I want to start by saying that I'm not a prude. (Not a complete prude, anyway.) But, I'm in my 30s now and I've had a kiddo. Let's just say that things have shifted slightly, and I seem to have misplaced my 18-year-old body. With the weather starting to warm up, I've begun thinking about pool season

  • User post: Does Watching "18 Kids and Counting" Make You Want to be a Better Parent?

    I'm not ashamed to admit that I love watching the Duggar family. (I'm sure I'm not alone on this one!) If you haven't tuned into TLC over the last few years, the Duggars are a large family living in rural Tontitown, Arkansas. They follow a very conservative set of Christian beliefs and have allowed