parenting

School starts next week in Tyler and all across East Texas, and kids will be cramming iPods, notebooks, Kindles, phones, a change of shoes, snacks, and maybe even a book into those backpacks. How heavy is too heavy?  If the backpack weighs more than a certain amount, it can knock kids off balance and lead to back problems later on.  Here's the magic number.

Summers were so much fun as a kid, with camps, swimming, and sprinklers, and lots and lots of ice cream. As an adult, there's no break from work and there can be more to do juggling the kids' schedule, and we lose the magic.  But here's a way to get it back.

It's always a dilemma for parents. Kids create art from the heart all year long in school, and although you've trashed some of it here and there, the end-of-the-year stack takes some consideration because there is guilt involved.  Keep it or junk it?

Happy Mother's Day!  Got a quirky mom?  This weekend we're celebrating the quirks, the playfulness, the discipline, the organization, and thoughtfulness, and the love. And the most important things our moms have ever done for us.  Here's mine.

Science may be starting to agree that a full moon does make us all a little more unruly than usual. Here's when you can expect the next full moon in East Texas so you can prepare yourself.

It's the time of year in Texas when a bluebonnet patch can draw dozens of freshly bathed kids in their cutest clothes, along with those amazing parents-of-the-year armed with high tech zoom lenses ready to upload the photos to online scrapbooks right away to share with Grandma and Grandpa in Poughkeepsie.  And then there are the rest of us.  This was kind of a disaster.

Raising a child is hard work, but it looks like this mother is doing it right.

When something begins with "drunk mom" you know you're in for a treat.

One Australia mother has made a name for herself after she posted a letter written to her son on Facebook.

Crying babies in a restaurant can be tough. You either have sympathy for the parents or you think mom and dad have to whisk the child away in order not to ruin everyone else's meal.

This video is a couple of years old, but it's picking up a lot of traction on the interwebs ... and for good reason.

Jim Mickunas says his daughter has always found her own path. So, when it came time for the two to dance together at her wedding, he decided to do something she'd really remember.