…about working and raising a large family, over at lotsofkids.com. Check it out.

Taken at Prof. Porter’s Old Time Portaits in downtown Wisconsin Dells.

(Post-puke, pre-bowling-ball-to-the-head.)

This is a photo of a pic, so excuse the poor quality!

The family and I are in a Great Wolf Lodge in Wisconsin Dells on a press trip. And so far, one of my kids has thrown up all over me (in a restaurant at dinner–delayed reaction to car sickness after our traffic-laden drive) and another has been hit in the head with a bowling ball (just a goose-egg, fortunately). I’ll share more in a few days…assuming I’ve recovered by then!

my latest column….

When Mother’s Day approaches, it’s easy to think of presents in terms of flowers, candy and bubble bath. But as it turns out, a lot of moms would much rather have the gift of quality health care, a strong dollar and a cleaner planet. In honor of the upcoming election I spoke to a group of moms to find out which issues they’re most concerned about, and these three concerns came up again and again:

Health care

In many parts of the country, health insurance for a typical family of four can cost more than a house payment. And while there are free and reduced-cost health care options for low-income families, spending a grand or more on insurance can easily over-extend even a middle-class budget. And a medical emergency can quickly add up to tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt for a family already just getting by.

Sure, we’ve all heard the old argument that “no one is entitled to anything.” But it just makes good economic sense to have a healthy population. You can’t exactly rule the free world with a bunch of sickly citizens at the helm … and boy oh boy, is that what we’ve got now. In fact, according to a 2005 report in the New England Journal of Medicine, today’s generation of kids is likely to have a SHORTER life expectancy than their parents - the first time that’s happened in more than 200 years.

Of course, you can blame some of that on sedentary lifestyles and junky diets. We need a strong, affordable and accessible health care system to deal with illnesses and emergencies as they come up, but we could also help matters by not treating our bodies - and our kids’ bodies - like trash cans. Just sayin’.

The economy

Get out the violins, ya’ll: according to analysts, we’re headed for - or are possibly already in - a recession. No big surprise there - after a decade or so of Americans racking up debt as though we believed the credit card/mortgage fairies would one day come and haul it away in a poof of glitter, reality was bound to catch up with us.

It’s natural for parents to want the American dream for their kids, but I’m thinking about things a little differently these days. Could it be that our generation of parents has the “American Dream” all wrong, and if so, do we really want our children to have even more of THIS?

It could be that obtaining as much square footage as humanly possible, driving cars that are as expensive as small houses, and owning every knickknack and toy known to man is perhaps not the key to happiness and a “good life” after all.

While I don’t relish the idea of a recession, I think some hard economic times could teach our kids - and us - a valuable lesson that we might otherwise never have to learn. These include how to save for a rainy day, how to be resourceful, how to get by on less, and why, in the end, the size of your house, the value of your car and whether you own the newest gadget don’t matter much at all.

The environment

We might disagree on the best way to get there, but every parent I know is concerned about the state of the planet. Whether it’s dependence on air-clogging fossil fuels, over-consumption, over-full landfills or water quality, no matter what your political leanings there’s an environmental issue that’s probably got you concerned.

We need government that’s ready to tackle these issues at all levels. For example, some cities and villages don’t even have effective recycling programs in place yet. Come on, people, it’s 2008!

On the other hand, we as parents also have to be willing to make some changes in the way we live. Maybe we drive less and walk or bike more; maybe we make a conscious decision to look locally for services and shopping so we use less gas (hint: Shopping locally is also good for your community and local economy). Maybe we do a better job modeling recycling in our own homes. Maybe we just cut down on buying so much crap. Our kids are watching and learning by example.

Of course, we need a strong government to help us make sweeping, nation-wide changes. But they can’t do a good job without our willing participation. As it turns out, the best Mother’s Day gift of all - a clean, healthy and prosperous world for our kids - might be something we parents have to give ourselves.

This Reuters photo is the cutest thing I have seen in a very long time. And sometimes, I feel a lot like that mama duck when I’m trying to lead my brood across a street. Only hers look a little more obedient, somehow.

I’ve been reading a lot about going car-free–partly in response to the painful gas prices, and partly for environmental reasons–and am wondering how people with multiple children, particularly those who don’t live right on a train line, pull it off. I stumbled across this post, for example, talking about how hard it can be to get a taxi to pick you up when you have a baby–and the blogger only has ONE child.

Anyway, I’m not turning our car in tomorrow or anything, but I’ve been thinking about ways to cut wayy back on our driving and keep running up against theoretical obstacles. I posted about them over at the Chicago Moms Blog. What do you think? Are you planning on cutting back on how much you drive, or finding alternative methods of transportation? Are you a car-free family already? If you have kids–particularly more than one–how do you manage it (or plan on managing it?)

Here’s my most recent column. (If you’re bored and looking for a laugh, check out some of the kooky comments it got over on Greenville Online!)

As most parents with half a brain understand, children need to be spoken to in order to learn how to speak. And the more words a child hears in his early years, the better he is likely to read and perform in school.

Research has even pinpointed an ideal number of words children should hear before the age of 4: 25 million, or 17,000 per day.

Of course, numbers like this have been largely useless to parents, most of whom don’t exactly have a lot of spare time for tracking how much language they’ve exposed their children to on any given day.

It would take a pretty fast hand and a large sheet of paper to tally up all the words you utter. Especially if your household is like mine, punctuated with a steady stream of Mom-ese: “William, please keep your fingers out of there. Hey, who put peanut butter in my pen cap? Owen, markers are for drawing on paper, not your tongue.”

So how’s a busy mom supposed to find the time to add up those words to make sure she’s providing an optimal environment for verbal and social development?

Enter the Lena system. Short for Language ENvironment Analysis, LENA is a device you plant in your child’s chest pocket — the system comes with specially designed overalls — which then monitors conversation between parent and child.

At the end of the day, parents analyze the data using LENA software to find out just how they measure up.

According to the LENA Web site (LENAbaby.com), “Research shows that parents overestimate how much they talk to their children. By using the LENA system, you know exactly how much language experience your child is receiving. LENA provides peace of mind that your child is developing at an optimal level.”

I’m all for talking to my kids (as evidenced by the fact that they all seem unable to shut up). But do we really need a $700 device (sale price is $400 if you act now!) to give us a basic idea of how we’re doing?

Isn’t this just one more example in the long line of “enrichment” products that we suckers — er, parents — are being pressured into purchasing using tactics like fear, guilt and anxiety over providing our children with that elusive “optimal development environment?”

Pamela Paul, mother of two and author of the new book Parenting, Inc., took a hard look at the “parenting industry” and found that not only are the companies creating and marketing these products actively play on parental fears, but we parents have readily bought into the hype.

“In the last 15 years, but particularly in the past five years, parenting has become professionalized and industrialized,” Paul says. “It’s led to the commercialization of child-rearing.”

Fear over economic instability and the desire to give our own children every possible edge has led to a high-pressure, high-stakes parenting culture, Paul says. “We are supposed to optimize and maximize every moment we have with our kids.” Paul stresses that she’s not critical of all products and services. For example, “Hiring a sleep consultant makes a lot more sense than buying a $1,000 designer crib that your baby screams in all night.”

Paying somebody else to teach your child to ride a bike? Not such a great investment, she points out. And overall, the number of products and services we seek out has ballooned out of control.

The result? Stressed-out parents who buy and do too much for their kids in order to give them as much opportunity as possible; and the nurturing of an ever-more materialistic consumer culture as kids get showered with expensive gear and playthings (the average American child, she reports, gets 70 new toys each year) as Mom and Dad seek out spendy services that will make them better, “more optimal” parents.

And though we all like to think we have more common sense than that, Paul points out that parents have bought into the idea that we can purchase our child’s health, happiness and well-being more than we’d like to admit.

She may be right. Even as I scoffed at the LENA system, somewhere in the back of my mind, I wondered if I should take advantage of its 30-day money-back guarantee.just to see if our household’s “language environment” is as “optimal” as I’d like to believe.

Since I don’t have an extra $400 lying around, though, I think I’ll just throw out a few extra three-syllable words and call it a day.

Perhaps we’re not optimal, but I figure we’re at least above-average. And most days, that’s good enough for me.