Dog Mom Edition
Dog moms vs human moms; gentle parenting for puppies; and how to talk kids out of getting a pet.
What’s New This Week 🐕
Dog Mom vs. Human Mom - Turns Out We’re All Just Tired and Covered in Drool: Even though there are a lot of differences between babies and puppies, both types of moms quickly learn that there are plenty of similarities. Let's commiserate together!
Gentle Parenting Your Puppy - Can Dog Moms Use the Same Tactics as Human Moms?: If you’re a fan of gentle parenting—think positive reinforcement, redirection over punishment, and respectful boundaries—you might be wondering: can these same principles apply to raising a puppy? The answer: yes, absolutely (with a few tail-wagging twists).
How to Say No - Teaching Kids About Pet Responsibility: Kids reach an age where it seems like asking for a pet is almost incessant — but we’ve got some tools to help tackle effectively putting a kibosh on the pet question (at least for now).
What We’re Reading This Week 📖
Inside the Parent-Led Movement For Phone-Free Schools: 37 states have banned cell phones during class. Half of those states and D.C. are phone-free from “bell-to-bell,” which keeps kids from accessing their phones during lunch and between classes.
What Kids Told Us About How to Get Them Off Their Phones (Gift Article via NextDraft): Kids will always have more spare hours than adults can supervise—a gap that devices now fill. “Go outside” has been quietly replaced with “Go online.” But kids want to meet up with their friends, but parents restrict real-world time on their own.
Source: The Harris Poll Cram Schools for Kindergartners in South Korean College Prep: Since I was just in Seoul, I thought I’d share some news on South Korean education: cram schools to get into elite cram schools. By the end of one program, 5 and 6 year olds will write two-page essays with an introduction, three body paragraphs and a conclusion — the skill level of an American third-grader. But the skyrocketing cost of giving a child the best shot in life is one of the reasons South Korea has the world’s lowest fertility rate. (And here I thought I was being a tiger mom with our Russian Math.)
How We’re Feeling This Week: 😎
Feeling pretty good with our new (albeit temporary) routine. After lots of kimchi and banchan, daily maneuvering to sightsee while staying cool, and many delicious but indulgent meals, it’s nice to unpack our suitcases for our extended stay in Taipei.
The local summer camp we found is pretty awesome. Some tears were shed that first drop-off, but now my daughter loves it. I saw a pronounced change in her Mandarin abilities when we picked her up that first day — she described to us in Mandarin the egg soaking in vinegar in her take-home bag, how popcorn is made, the two new friends she made, and that 插队 means to "cut the line”.
Also important to note, no empty fillers here, like the coloring pages I would find from some camps in NYC.
Have a great weekend, all!
Signing off,
Your Team at MomBrains