Parents

After her son's death, she found a new purpose. 'He's whispering, 'Mom, this is your path'

Parents / Parenting News / Jul 21, 2026

LOS ANGELES -- It was after the death of her son, Laith, that Esme Saleh decided to become a folk artist.

She had always been creative, experimenting with watercolors and learning to sew and embroider at a young age.

"I had a creative inkling," she said, "but I never pursued it."

Everything changed on Aug. 17, 2013.

When Saleh was nine ...Read more

'Dog Days': Emily LaBarge on trauma writing and trauma reading

Parents / Mom's Advice / Jul 20, 2026

It’s often assumed that to write a good memoir, a writer must have something happen to them. Something big, juicy, and traumatic. Something unbelievable that really happened to you. Emily LaBarge is here to critique this idea.

In her memoir, "Dog Days," LaBarge challenges the idea that writing a ‘trauma narrative’ is an act of healing, ...Read more

Regency meets road rage in 'Fast and Fastidious'

Parents / Mom's Advice / Jul 20, 2026

"Fast and Fastidious" is an absolutely smashing and highly entertaining genre-defying first novel by R.M. Caldwell, a pseudonym for New Zealand theater director and escape room puzzle designer.

The author has described it as a “mash-up of 'Pride and Prejudice' and 'Fast and the Furious.'” Set in 1810 Regency England amid the Napoleonic ...Read more

The New Normal: Abnormal

Parents / Georgia Garvey / Jul 18, 2026

There's poison in the air outside my house, a bitter smoke of ashes and hot freeway, and it is keeping us all inside.

Yesterday morning, the kids' summer camp announced that the planned trip to the pool had been cancelled. They would do activities indoors all day.

"How high can it get?" one of the boys asked, and I admitted I didn't know.

We ...Read more

Let Mute Kids Speak

Parents / Lenore Skenazy / Jul 16, 2026

It is easy to think of people who can't communicate as people who can't think. That's how deaf people were long regarded. But once sign language was invented, it became clear that the deaf were no different, intellectually, from the rest of us.

The same thing is true of many people with autism who cannot speak.

Case in point: Judy Chinitz's ...Read more