Your pre-teen child's pals listen to seriously raunchy music. Are you a prude to discourage her from listening?

Roshawne Mackey walked into the Jordan Downs community center clutching a pink pamphlet from a funeral over the weekend, her face like stone.

Dang! My body is totally out of whack. It's tired when it should be busy and twitching for action when it should be sleeping. Double dang that Daylight Savings Time!

A branch on our family tree has stretched to New Jersey for the second time. One of the silver linings of grown children moving far away is that you discover places you might not otherwise visit.

Q: I have been dating a man for about a year who is quite good friends with his ex. They shared the children as they grew up and now that the kids are adults, the parents have quite a friendly relationship. My problem is the ex is getting married and has invited my boyfriend, and of course, he has asked me to join him. I'm a little uncomfortable with the invitation. I don't care if my boyfriend goes, I just don't want to get too friendly with his ex. What's good ex-etiquette?

Dear Mr. Dad: My 8-year-old boy loves to play soldiers with his friends using squirt guns. But I got a call from a mom saying that she wouldn't let her son play with mine as long as we have guns in the house. I was speechless. Squirt guns? Really? What's your take?

In the seventh grade I was promoted by my peers from president of the class geek-nerd-brainiac society to, well, if not fully cool, then at least on the way. I had discovered two sports I excelled in - golf and baseball - and the girls had discovered that I was one of the best, if not the best, dancer in the class. My classmates began overlooking the fact that I was a straight-A student, always sported a few pimples, and wore thick glasses.

The classic comic strip "Love Is ..." would carry some surprise endings if Barbara L. Fredrickson were writing it. Her decades of research into positive emotions has led her to some unsentimental conclusions. Among them, that love is ... not lasting ... not unconditional ... not exclusive.

Don't ask me how I managed to forget about spring break. I must have blocked it out, like a bad memory or tragic event. Once again, I was without a plan, without a list of camps on speed-dial and without a clue as to what to do with the kids for a week.

Forget monsters in the closet. Your monsters are in the kitchen, the bathroom, the playroom - all over your house. And they're not just scary; they're dirty, dusty and disorganized. They're your cleaning nightmares.

Healthy eating can be as simple or complex as your family prefers. Each week Family Meals Matter tends to feature simple, family-friendly recipes that can be prepared quickly to suit most family's busy schedules. However, healthy eating also can be creative.

Any parent with a college-bound kid knows that aside from test scores and debate team accomplishments, the biggest factor is money. OK, if your kid is a Gates or a Buffett, maybe not. Otherwise, the task of navigating tuition, scholarships and loans hangs heavy over the entire college process. But experts urge parents to seek out information about their plan of attack as early as their student's sophomore year of high school.

Fox business anchor and mom Nicole Petallides keeps us updated daily reporting live from the New York Stock Exchange. When she isn't keeping up with breaking financial news on the trading floor, she happily goes home to her two active boys.

Have you heard that scientists want to spend $3 billion to map the intricacies of the human brain?

A great way to decipher your child's dominant sense is to have them draw something. Art is a remarkably personal activity; simply by observing your child before, during and after drawing, you will be able to work out the dominant sense. The drawing itself will be illustrative, too - in fact, my research has shown, in a controlled environment, just looking at the finished drawing will tell you whether your child is auditory, visual, tactile or taste and smell.

The fact that time continually passes WITHOUT my permission frustrates the crap out of me.

Are you a parent to two or three children? Every child that comes into your family will be blessed with a completely different environment based simply on the number of older siblings they are going to have. The older siblings from 3 years to 23 years old want to help and share the love of the family that they have experienced with the new family baby. It gives them a sense of pride and security - and will remind them that they're still just as special to you as they ever were. I've compiled a list of the top three successful ways in which older kids can help with babies.

Here are 14 great under-the-radar choices for boys:

Do certain games help keep the brain fit? Scientists are still exploring and debating the answer. But that's not slowing the growth of online companies and brick-and-mortar shops catering to the demand for mind-toys, puzzles and games that stimulate the mind.

When parents work, they have child care in place to look after their kids. But what happens when those usual arrangements go awry? Your regular nanny goes on vacation, calls in sick or quits unexpectedly; schools and day cares are on vacation or there's a snow day; your child is sick and can't go to school; or you have to work late or on a weekend.

Ever since our son was a baby, we have tried to get him to gain weight. For years, he always ranked in the lowest percentile for weight. His father was that way, too, and so were many other boys in our family, so we weren't too concerned.

Two years after her son Shane was crushed by a falling dresser in the family's home just outside Chicago, Lisa Siefert drives to her advocacy work on the dangers of tip-overs with his car seat still in place.

Like any working mom, I'm always on the lookout for speedy ways to help my hair look great in the morning. This can't compete too much with priorities like making sure the kids are fed, all their clothes are on and their lunchboxes are remembered. Enter the InStyler Rotating Hot Iron, which can give body to limp hair, straighten unruly locks or create curls in a manner of minutes. Unfortunately, it just can't make lunch.

MINNEAPOLIS - Five brothers and sisters crowd into a quaint yellow house on a chilly February afternoon for the most unorthodox of family reunions. The festivities seem familiar: A banner decorates the doorway, food is laid out on the dining-room table, and parents struggle to take group pictures.