Articles

  • How Stay-at-Home Moms Can "Opt Back In" to Work
    Stay-at-home moms-- Don't fall for the chatter that "opting out" of the workforce to raise kids sounds the death knell for your career. It is possible to get back in. The U.S. unemployment rate fell to a seven-year low in August-- 5.1%. The jobs are...
  • Why Our Daughters Should Play More Video Games
    I've recently noticed my two daughters taking an interest in Minecraft, an imaginative video game in which players can build -- and take apart -- constructions out of three-dimensional cubes. It's kind of like Legos on steroids. At first, I was resistant to the idea...
  • Tired All the Time? It May Be What You’re Eating
    "You're just a busy mom," the doctor told me after reading aloud my test results that showed no signs of any medical condition that would account for my chronic fatigue: no anemia, no hyperthyroidism, no urinary tract infection or heart issues--all possible causes of extreme...
  • Raising Our Daughters To Be Brave
    September 12, 2018 Crista Samaras made headlines as a nationally ranked lacrosse player at Princeton from 1994-1999 and a gold medalist in the 2001 IFWLA World Cupas a member of the Women's National Team. She went on to coach women’s lacrosse at Yale and start three...
  • How This Teen Is Using Artificial Intelligence To Stop Gun Violence
    May 13, 2018 Just days after a gunman shot and killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland Florida in February, Shreya Nallapati, a 17-year old high school senior from Highlands Ranch, Colorado, declared “a technological revolution against mass shootings, specifically in schools.” Fed...
  • 5 Exercises to Strengthen Your Confidence Muscle
    September 6, 2016 Do you ever feel like everyone around you is smarter and more accomplished? Don’t worry, you’re in good company. Even rock star women like Sheryl Sandberg suffer from self-doubt and what has been dubbed the “impostor syndrome” — the nagging fear that...
  • Meet the Women Changing the Face of Tech
    From the “Elephant in the Valley” report revealing that 60% of women in Silicon Valley have been sexually harassed, to the meteoric spike of the #ILookLikeAnEngineer meme, to the immediate backlash over Sir Michael Moritz’s comments about not “lowering standards” to find qualified women to...
  • Mean Girls In Kindergarten? Are You Kidding Me?
    I have four kids – my boys are 15 and 13, my girls are 9 and 5. While my boys nearly drove me into the ground as toddlers with their endless physical energy and constant running around, the girls are currently winning the race to...
  • Why Our Daughters Need To Play More Video Games
    Girls today are steering away from math, science and computers in record numbers. According to the U.S. Department of Education, the percentage of women graduates in computer science is at a 39-year low. In 2012, women in the U.S. earned only 19% of all math...
  • 8 Easy Ways to Be Happy
    lap along if you feel like happiness is the truth. – Pharrell Williams A lot has been made in our culture about how to be happy. Pop stars sing about it. Ivy League professors lecture about it. Best-selling authors write about it. “Positive psychology” has...
  • 10 Ways To Help Your Child Become A Better Writer
    If your kids are like mine, they don’t take well to their parents giving them advice on much of anything — academics, athletics, you name it. In many ways, I am thankful for this. My kids are independent and have learned to do their homework...
  • Why We Should Let Our Kids Fail
    As parents, our natural instinct is to protect our children from harm, disappointment and failure. But doing so is not always in our kids’ best interests. When my son was in fourth grade, his Little League team– a team we affectionately called the Bad News...
  • The Mid-Life Marriage Crisis: Are More Women Cheating?
    Over the past few years, I’ve noticed that a growing number of married couples in my circle of 40-something friends are calling it quits. Unsurprisingly, infidelity is a factor in many of these break-ups. However, what is surprising to me is that in most of...
  • Back in the Game
    With the little ones growing up, many Marin mothers are taking advantage of their newfound freedom and starting a second career. The College Counselor Heidi de Chatellus, Insights to College WHILE HELPING THE ELDEST of her three children through the college application process, Heidi de...
  • Are We Having Fun Yet?
    Kids today are starting sports younger and training harder. But is the "more is better" attitude helping or hurting them? IT’S SPRING, AND all over the county kids are waking up early and eating a good breakfast, and parents are filling up the gas tanks...
  • Achieve a Healthier Work-Life Balance
    "Today's feminism it isn't about women doing it all. It's about women NOT having to do it all." —Gloria Steinem (2008) I began buying into the myth of "doing it all" at an early age. In my 20s, I had my checklist life in mind:...
  • What Can Parents Do About Mean Girl Behavior
    In Part 2 of 2 of her series on bullying, Samantha Parent Walravens provides pathways to discuss Mean Girl behavior with your teen girl, and steps to take if bullying is happening. AS A PARENT, WHAT SHOULD YOU DO IF YOU SUSPECT THAT YOUR DAUGHTER...
  • What Motivates Mean Girl Behavior
    Samantha Parent Walravens gets to the heart of the “Mean Girl” culture, so that we can effectively address it. Instead of merely demonizing the behavior, understanding the motivations can be a first step to stopping it. OUR CULTURE IS FASCINATED WITH THE IMAGE OF THE...
  • Why We Should Let Our Kids Fail
    Samantha understands but warns against the tendency parents have to shelter their children from failure. As parents, our natural instinct is to protect our children from harm, disappointment and failure. But doing so is not always in our kids’ best interests. When my daughter was...

Copyright © Samantha Parent Walravens