My grandson is 2 1/2 and his sister is 7 mos old. He will head butt her, pinch smack or whatever he can do to her. My daughter is going crazy. The worst is if we are out and he sees a baby in a stroller or in someones arms he will run to them like obsessed with them. He will gaze at them or pull them almost out of their moms hands. He will swing or headbutt all the above. Why is it that he is so mean to babies ?? My daughter won't take him to the park or anywhere lately she is frightened. Is something wrong with him ? Please we are searching for help.
Thank you

My son is 6 years old...He does not play with boys and some times he acts like a girl! We don't know what to do.... other kids at the after school [are] calling him a GAY!
So please let me know something about it!
Thank you so much!

After 21 years of looking, I finally found the mother of my child. I knew she had a baby 21 years ago, thought it could be mine and just found out that I am the father. Obviously there was no child support paid because I could not find her. She is reluctant to let me see my child. I do not want to cause any problems in their family but I really want to meet my child. How should I proceed in convincing the mother I am not a threat to her relationship with her daughter. I just want to meet her and hopefully develop a relationship with her. Please advise.

No question today, just a rare vent.

I was the speaker last night at Barefoot Books in Concord, (a fabulous book store, more on that another time) at an event for mommy bloggers, co-sponsored by Boston Parent Bloggers and Raising a Reader Massachusetts. Billing me as "Boston's Original Mommy Blogger," they wanted me to talk about how I managed to separate my own parenting experience from my 19 years of writing the Globe's parenting column, which I began when my son was 6-months old.

The truth is, it was never hard. I don't ever remember writing in the first person and rarely referred to my son. That was for safety reasons, sure, but mostly it had to do -- at least in the beginning -- with the baggage I brought to the job: I was a news reporter, schooled to keep myself out of the story. By the time my son was 4, though, I also came to the realization that keeping him out of my copy was in his -- and our -- best interests. By our, I mean, our relationship.

Last night, I gave these moms the advice I lived by: "Keep your kids out of your blogs, -- don't use their names and certainly don't use their pictures." No matter how cute they are, how charming the stories, no matter that your children may be too young to know you're writing about them, it can come back to bite you. Most children do not want the public's attention on them, even in a good way, and what they don't seem to mind at age 3 or 4 or 7 or 8 could turn someday into resentment: "Mom! How could you?!"

In that context, it made sense that one of the moms asked my opinion about this week's Time magazine cover. I hadn't seen it, so someone pulled it up on their phone.

I'm not talking about the content, which is on attachment parenting; the content is beside the point.

Even if this mom was willing (and I assume she was) to pose as provocatively as she did and to include her own son in the photo, wasn't there someone who could have said to her, "You know, you might want to rethink this picture...."

And even if she said, "It's OK, honest," surely some of Time's journalists are also parents, not to mention former kids themselves who might remember being embarrassed by something their mom did, something big that might have put a dent in their relationship, something that might have been, well, as hard to live down as this photo will be? Surely someone could have said, "We may just be ruining this kid's life by putting this picture on our cover. Do we really want to do that?"

Shame on you, Time.

Oh. And just for the record, moms nursing older children isn't exactly a new trend. Here's my column on the subject.

I am a single mom to my daughter, age 10. It's just me and her and we are very close. On weekends, I let her sleep in my bed and we hang out and chat and sleep in late. We really enjoy this but I want to make sure it is not harmful for her development. By the way, I don't plan on having a male relationship until she is grown up because she is my top priority, and haven't dated anyone since I broke up with her dad four years ago. Thanks for your insights!

My kids are 2 and 5 and get along well. When there is a squabble, I try to not intervene. However, I find myself erring towards the younger one, even though I want to be neutral and teach them to resolve on their own. Probably, it just keeps the peace to let her have her turn first (or whatever is the problem) or the 5 year old's behavior seems babyish (wanting a random toy she hasn't seen in years). Advise, please! Thanks!

I have two baby girls, first one is 3 and a half yrs old, second one is 1 and a half years old. I'm staying without my husband for [the] last one year and I'm worried for elder one's anger & frustration. She screams and shouts in anger and cries a lot for every second thing she does in a day.

Hi Barbara
My daughter came home from school today telling me that some little girl was making fun of her teeth. The thing is that that's not even the problem, she went and told the bus driver what was going on and she called her a tattle teller and when my daughter got of the bus, she yelled it out the window again. It made me very angry and I called the bus transportation. Should I say something to her face to face? The thing is I'm very angry.

My 6 year old daughter has been calling me "mean" mommy lately when I say something she doesn't like (such as "no" to more television or sweets) or if I talk to her in a firm tone. I tell her that parents need to set rules (and limits) and she may not always like what I have to say but that's my job. I try not to make an issue out of every small thing but she still tests me, sometimes even saying I don't love her. How should I handle this?

Hi Barbara,