Meredith O'Brien

My mother says that I used to be funnier, a whole lot funnier, when it comes to what I reveal about my family online. But it’s hard to be funny when you’ve been muzzled. When I first started writing online, my children couldn’t read. The youngest was still in diapers. I felt free to blog and write columns chock-full of the frustrating-yet-colorful details about my … [Read more...] about How Much is Too Much to Share About Your Family Online?

How many times in the past few months have you asked yourself, what is going on with the world today?  We are living in strange times and as our children get older, they encounter the news whether we want them to or not. This means we are faced with the difficult task of explaining the headlines in a way they can understand. So where does that leave us parents? Should we … [Read more...] about Kids and the News: Parental Guidance Strongly Suggested

They don’t want to go to the dance. Why? I’m not entirely sure but I must say I’m not displeased by this development. “So, you guys want to go to the dance on Friday night?” I asked them the other day. “How do you know about that?” my 13-year-old daughter asked, raising her eyebrows suspiciously as she threw a glance over at her twin brother, wondering if I had indeed planted a … [Read more...] about Dancing Tweens

In the recent documentary Miss Representation -- which criticized American culture and the media for its negative impact on women and girls -- child advocate Marian Wright Edelman lamented the scarcity of American women politicians saying that, "You can't be what you can't see." Given the latest uptick in the number of fictional female pols appearing on television, the … [Read more...] about TV Characters are Getting Into Politics