Q: How do I know if my children are truly safe when they move between two homes -- and I rarely talk to their mom? What should I do if something feels "off"? What's good ex-etiquette?

A: This is one of the most common questions I hear from newly separated parents, and it makes perfect sense. When families reorganize, children begin living in ...Read more

Dear Kid Whisperer,

I’m a sixth-grade teacher. My teaching partner has a student who has always been hard, these last couple weeks especially. He’s had to practice a lot lately. Instead of writing his name on his assignment, he wrote an offensive word. He already had a talking-to about using this specific word last year. How would you ...Read more

There were no witnesses, but all I said was, “Get Fred off the table and away from the food.” I thought it was a reasonable request, but from the look on her face I was out of line. Who knew a first-grader with beautiful hazel eyes nestled above cherub cheeks could shoot such a menacing look?

I was momentarily intimidated, but I also knew I...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The serval did not want to go into her crate.

The spotted cat's name was Naomi, she had just been weighed, and now it was time to do as she was told.

"C'mon — in your crate," urged Thomas Barber, a student at Moorpark College.

Naomi, held on a leash by student Trinity Astilla, was the picture of lithe, feline elegance as she...Read more

I don’t want to toot my own horn — that’s because I can’t play the tuba and tooting is rude, especially at the dinner table — but I have come up with a brilliant way to get rid of all those irritating scammers who call me every day, at all hours, especially when I am at the dinner table.

I bought an air horn and successfully used it ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS -- Teenagers are generally obsessed with their smartphones. So much so that Kristin Hatling’s family recently encountered a gaggle of them who had brought their screens into a resort’s hot tub.

“My daughter, who’s 11, was like, ‘Mom, all they’re doing is looking at their phones and, like, making kissy faces into them. ...Read more

Dear Anna,

I'm a 31-year-old man in a relationship with my girlfriend (29) for three years. Last week right after we’d had sex, she told me she'd been really turned on earlier that day because a guy at her gym had been flirting with her pretty heavily. She said it like it was just a fun, sexy confession, like she thought I'd find it hot or ...Read more

It’s a Wednesday morning in Chicago and we’re waiting to find out if hungry people will have help getting fed this month.

The government shut down on Oct. 1, placing the federally funded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — which supports about 42 million Americans — in peril. Of the households that rely on SNAP, around 80% ...Read more

Over the last few years, as the world went topsy-turvy, I was able to pivot quickly.

I already had the expertise, the contacts and the platform. Within weeks, I was fielding requests for proposals that wouldn't have existed months earlier.

Resilience starts With the Art of the Pivot

Traditional employees often can't pivot this quickly. They'...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Tucked away in a small neighborhood below the Hollywood sign is Jackie Smook's puppet workshop, a small sequestered room with a single work table surrounded by the characters she handcrafts from the depths of her imagination. Smook, the creator of the web series "Dilly's World," is a whimsical and eccentric personality, falling ...Read more

As I write this, the first week of November, the fall leaf colors have barely made a ripple in my area. The sweetgums show a hint as do the gingkos. My Japanese maple looks like it did in July, and the list goes on. But I have been enjoying the oranges and yellows of autumn via the prettiest flowers ever.

It began with an early September ...Read more

Sometimes it takes a village to raise a child. Or for one 10-year-old in Northern California, a colony of bees.

When the city of Santa Rosa received an anonymous complaint this year about some problem insects in the area, city officials looked into the matter and zeroed in on the Bard family home and, in particular, its colony of thousands of ...Read more

We look at paintings of that first Thanksgiving more than 400 years ago, with tables sagging under the weight of wild game, venison, waterfowl, lobster and mussels, corn, beans and pumpkins We often sigh and say, “Life was so simple back then.”

It was simple. Life was so simple that heat in homes came from logs crackling in a fireplace. ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Rabbi Ethan Witkovsky and Reverend Adam Hearlson seem like they've been friends forever.

Witkovsky, 41, is the senior rabbi at Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El (TBH-BE), a Conservative movement synagogue in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. Hearlson, 44, is the pastor at Overbrook Presbyterian Church (OPC), in Philadelphia.

Sitting in the ...Read more

Q. Even though my divorce has been final for a year, I sometimes like to spend the day with my ex and the kids. Not taking the chance of her saying no, I put the children first and ask the kids how they would feel if I came along. They say it’s fine, so then I tell their mother that I’d like to come along, and the kids want me to. I can tell...Read more

Dear Kid Whisperer,

I teach third-grade. I have had Behavioral Leadership training and I use Strategic Noticing, ESPN Greetings, etc. I have a student in my class who just wants to read (not the worst thing) but she wants to read and not do work. I made her stay in from recess to practice. She became angry, plugged her ears and started throwing...Read more

I am a human Bigfoot. I am taking the bold step of admitting this for two unsettling reasons:

1. My feet seem to be getting bigger.

2. The most fashionable shoes I own are a brand-new pair of slippers.

The alarming increase in the length, width and overall size of my already tremendous tootsies was evident when I purchased the aforementioned ...Read more

Before even getting out of your car, you start to question reality at Grounds for Sculpture. Driving in, there’s a group of people along the road holding a banner that reads “Hurrah Welcome,” and signs that say “We thought you’d never get here” and “I drink to your arrival.”

“Is this for me?” you may think. “How did they ...Read more

With their surgical nibbles, these large, semi-aquatic, buck-toothed rodents have emerged as crucial helpers for ecologists restoring degraded wetlands across the Great Lakes.

They are not the well-known, dam-building beavers but can often be found in the same marshy ecosystems. Muskrats — which are more closely related to voles and hamsters ...Read more