I grew up in one house before moving through two dorms, one sorority house, seven apartments and two houses. I know someday my parents will move or move on, and I'll be forced to help with the downsizing efforts. I'm not looking forward to it, mostly because you can accumulate quite a bit of junk in 35 years, but also because I remember the bittersweet memories that flooded me the last time I walked through my grandparents' house after they died. I can't decide if it would be harder to help my parents move while they were living or after they'd died. They might protest less if it happened later.

I had an addiction. I freely admit that now. It was an addiction that lasted throughout the entirety of my first pregnancy and for most of the first year of my daughter's life. It was an addiction that I could not shake, even though I had moments of clarity when I knew that the object of my addiction was not good for me. Because even though I knew that it wasn't good for me, knew that it undermined me, knew that it kept me in a state of panic, I really believed that I couldn't go on without it.

My daughter Alex, at 5 years old, has not yet received an allowance -- but I'm strongly thinking that in the coming months, when she officially starts kindergarten, I'm going to start giving her one.This decision has necessarily caused me a bit of consternation:  how much allowance, for example, is appropriate for a 5-year-old?  And how often?

I've heard a lot of arguments against paying kids an allowance in exchange for chores.  Some say the children have to do chores just because they're part of the family. (Yes.) Others say it teaches children to help out just for a reward and not for the joy of helping. (Yes.) I think those things are all true. And I'll still be paying my kid an allowance to do her chores (as long as my husband agrees -- it may be interesting to see his reaction this post).

Choreplay, sleep training, weaning hysteria and media portrayals of surreal working mothers...

I vaccinate my children.  I believe in the benefits of vaccines, so it was just a matter of course.  Our pediatrician laid out the immunization schedule and we agreed to it.  I knew other parents who didn't vaccinate their children, and felt to each his own.  Sure, you can have the right to choose, my kids would be protected.  But this story changed my opinion.

You may know Kristy Sammis from She Just Walks Around With It as BlogHer's own former Events Manager. For those of you who only know Kristy as our Events manager, and not as a life blogger, you have been missing out! And we are thrilled to introduce you to her comic stylings via this week's BlogHer of the Week post, Making It Work for Me and My Pelvix.

I’d like to know who invented the concept of allowance and why someone didn’t bother to tell my mother about it when I was growing up. I remember in History class, when I was a kid, we learned about indentured slaves, and immediately I felt as if I was one. We didn’t receive any money for doing what we were supposed to do; our parents said we were earning our ‘keep’.

I'm not the only one who thinks that David Letterman owes us all an apology. But it seems like there are only a few of us.

As the April Rose hoax unfolded last week and anger and grief unfurled itself from the readers of her defunct blog, this energy has been festering in blog posts and exchanged emails with the question about what to do with the tidal wave of emotions. And my advice is to redirect it.

My five-year-old just got her last round of vaccinations until she's an adolescent. It was not pretty. This was the first year she remembered before we hit the doctor's office that there were shots involved. She also remembered how much shots hurt, how much she loathes them. I found myself explaining, for the first time, why she actually has to have them.At least to her.

Flexibility at work “isn’t like a favor you hand out at a children’s birthday party.” It’s good for business and good for people. “For the past 30 years [women] were happy to sit quietly at the boardroom table and that’s changed: the boardroom table has to change. We think that can finally happen now.”