As a parent who loves to hand out hugs, smile, and giggle with the kids, I was very disappointed to read about the Maryland school ban on hugging. The ban disallows hugging of students in the St. Mary's County Public Elementary Schools and also bans birthday party invitations and homemade food. They claim that birthday invitations shouldn’t be handed out because … [Read more...]
Six Little McGhees – Parenting Multiples
I was glued to the TV with great anticipation waiting for the first episode of the Six Little McGhees. As a mom of triplets I wanted to see how another African American couple of multiples kept from pulling their hair out and crying along with the kids. I remember the first time I heard of the McGhee’s. I’d come across a Facebook photo of the family and thought “Oh my … [Read more...]
Marriage Money: Comin' Up Celebrity Style
When I heard that Kim Kardashian had filed for divorce from her husband Kris Humphries, a professional basketball player in the NBA, after just 72 days of marriage, the first thing that came to mind was a money-making publicity stunt! As I searched various news outlets to check out the story, it became more and more clear that this wasn't a marriage built on love but the … [Read more...]
What A Man Wants – From His Point Of View
One of my facebook buddies was having a moment. She'd read an article entitled "11 Signs He's Not Headed Toward a Relationship With You" and stated at the end of her post description that she wanted a relationship. After reading the article, it did feel very discouraging. So I decided to do some research for my friend and get a man's perspective of what he wants and … [Read more...]
Watch Your Mouth
Nowadays I feel like I have a tape/video recorder following me around monitoring everything I do and say. As the triplets continue on their journey of learning the English language, I'm starting to see why my mother sent me out of the room every time she began a conversation. My husband and I were sitting down watching TV and he said that someone was acting stupid. No … [Read more...]
The Balancing Act
Being black and married with kids is not easy. I would go as far to say being any color and married with kids isn't easy. It is definitely a balancing act. I can remember the days when it was just my husband and I. We could get up and go when we pleased. We could buy what we wanted. No tripping over toys or changing diapers. No running to the doctor every other week. It was … [Read more...]
Would You Let Your Child Get A Facebook Page?
By Ayanna Black After watching this week's episode of "The Game" I started thinking about kids and the Internet. In this week's episode, Kelly loses her reality show because her ex-husband has a court order to stop the use of his name. Since she can no longer use his name or likeness on her show she attempts to film other football stars to no avail. Finally out of … [Read more...]
Music That Tells Our Love Story
By Ayanna Black My husband and I have gotten into a routine the last couple of weeks of listening to music on YouTube while putting the kids down to bed at night. So this week's theme has been love songs that tell our love story. We each had to pick a song to tell each other how we felt. Here are two of the many songs we played this week: Tony Terry - With … [Read more...]
He Still Got It!
by Ayanna Black I'd written an article a couple month's back about how our husbands should help boost our confidence after having babies but I think it's also important to do the same for him. We need to let him know he still has a place in our lives as well. After having the triplets I had to pour a lot of time and energy into them and pull my appearance back together. … [Read more...]
New School Or Old School In The Kitchen?
By Ayanna Black As I prepared dinner for my family last week I chuckled to myself as I thought about the first dinner I prepared for my husband. We'd just gotten home from our honeymoon and I was all ready to cook this fabulously healthy meal: baked chicken, strings beans, baked potatoes, corn and rolls. So I washed the dishes and began cooking our dinner. The … [Read more...]
Where She Went Wrong
by Ayanna Black I tend to watch a lot of reality TV and one of the shows is Basketball Wives. I too, like BMWK writer Tara Jefferson, thought that the show would be tendered around the life of a basketball wife. Perhaps how she deals with the kids when he's on the road or how she keeps the marriage tight even though he's gone most times. But of course the premise of the show … [Read more...]
Is it Okay To Befriend The Opposite Sex?
By Ayanna Black I once had a male friend that I was close to. We worked in the same department and begin to hang out outside of work. I'd invited him to a couple functions and considered him to be like a brother. Along the way my husband (boyfriend at the time) became uncomfortable with the friendship. He felt that my friend wanted more from the friendship than … [Read more...]
What Happened To The Village?
by Ayanna Black Back in the day the old adage "it takes a village to raise a child" was in effect. There was a time when every child respected every adult. If a child was acting up in the streets it would be taken care of (so I've heard) and that child would be brought to their parent to then be reprimanded again. If a family didn't have a meal and your neighbor did, … [Read more...]
Is Our Educational System Setup To Fail Our Children?
by Ayanna Black I recently felt like I was back in school preparing to take my final exam to get into kindergarten. The triplets are now at the age where it's time to start thinking about preschool and I'm totally stressed about it. It's not the anxiety of letting them go but the pressure I was getting for them to perform. Because the triplets were very premature, they go … [Read more...]
Should Obey Be In Your Marriage Vows?
by Ayanna Black You would think that I'd lost my hearing as long as it took me to respond to the pastor after he said "will you obey"..." Honestly, I didn't mean to pause that long but for that split second I had to think about what I was agreeing too. At that moment I was thinking, do I have to do what he says? Is he going to make the right decision for me to … [Read more...]