THE BEST OF THE REST OF THE WEB: MOMS TAKE OVER SOCIAL MEDIA, RISE OF THE SAHD, AND REACHING FOR THE STARS

Reach for the Stars

“Mom coached Jack and me to dream big with her refrain of ‘You can do anything and be anything,’ always followed by, ‘But no matter what you choose to do, we will love you just the same.’ Her high expectations fueled our ambitions, but her unconditional love reassured us that even if we failed, we would never be failures in her eyes. What a gift to a child.”

—Mary Lou Quinlan, in "The God Box" (Greenleaf Boom Group Press); the author (@MaryLouQuinlan) and her husband live in New York City and Bucks County, Pennsylvania;
read Dawn Roode’s review of Quinlan’s book at nymetroparents.com/godbox

—OnlineSchools.com, a digital resource for online education from kindergarten to graduate school, from a survey conducted by BabyCenter, LLC

"The number of stay-at-home dads has more than doubled in the past decade."

—U.S. Census

Study Drugs
“‘It’s throughout all the private schools here,’ said DeAnsin Parker, a New York psychologist who treats many adolescents from affluent  neighborhoods like the Upper East Side. ‘It’s not as if there is one school where this is the culture. This is the culture.’”

—describing abuse of Adderall, an amphetamine prescribed for ADHD, by non-ADHD students seeking “a tunnel focus tailor-made for the marathon of tests long known to make or break college applications,” in “Risky Rise of the Good-Grade Pill” by Alan Schwarz (@alanschwarz), "The New York Times"

Leaving Is Hard to Do
“…leaving your wailing baby in the morning without wanting to slit your wrists; leaving your desk even though you are only a half hour away from completing something that would feel so good to wrap up; leaving the building so no one notices that you are actually leaving.... As long as I was a full time working mother with a clock to punch or a train to catch—as I would be for eight more years—I never figured out how to leave with grace or with so-called conviction."

—Jenny Rosenstrach, Westchester mom of two daughters and founder of the awesome blog dinneralovestory.com, in her wonderful and warm book "Dinner: A Love Story"—we recommend it for its practical advice, relatable voice, and its wide variety of recipes you’ll really cook for your family