Photo: Ramey

by Maria Lianos

We know the amazing perks that come along with being raised in famous family.  What are some of the pitfalls and challenges the children face?

1.  Freedom

Children of celebrity parents may not have the freedom that average children have.  “They may be more sheltered and protected so as not to fall prey to paparazzi or even worse,” says psychologist Sara Dimerman.

Famous kids could grow up wishing for a more normal lifestyle and more privacy, especially when they become adolescents.  “No child wants to read about their mother’s past, her sexual life, her alcohol or addiction problems, and even her nasty divorce,” says psychotherapist Kimberly Moffit.

Children of celeb parents may wish for more quality time with their family away from the public eye.  “They may resent their moms for having to spend so much time away and resent having to be taken care of by others when their moms are away,” says Dimerman.

 3.  Jealousy 

Some older children may be jealous of the attention that their moms are receiving and try to find ways to compete.  Think of Lindsay and Dina Lohan. 

Celeb kids also may have difficulty maintaining true friendships if they aren’t trusting of the friend’s motives.  Friends may be jealous of their status and family fame.

Photo: Getty

 4. Being Spoiled

Celebrity parents have to be careful that they don’t spoil their children so much that they can’t learn the value of money. “The biggest injustice a parent can do for their child is to make them believe they’ll never have to work for anything,” says Moffit.  Great examples of hard-working kids are Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr.

5. Quality Time

Celeb kids may not spend enough time with mom and/or dad.  “The rules are the same for every mom – celebrity or otherwise. However, a celebrity mom’s job may be tougher because she may not be around to parent a lot of the time,” says Dimerman.

When mom is there, its important that she dedicate as much of her time to her children as possible. 

Back to school shopping can be a pain but with Old Navy, you can really get a bang for your buck.

 I also like some of the pieces for women, like this jacket and denim legging.  In all fairness, this jegging is falling off this skinny model – I’d easily fill these in.

Hunting Jacket $44.50, Cable Scoop Sweater $29.50, Rockstar Denim Legging $39

AMotherWorld and Old Navy are teaming up to get you ready for fall.  Enter to win 1 of 2 giftcards to Old Navy!  ($50 and $25.  Canada only.)

cforms contact form by delicious:days

For an additional entry, you may enter via Twitter by following amotherworld and Tweet the following:

I want to win an Old Navy gift card from @amotherworld 

Contest ends Labour Day, Monday September 7th.  Good luck!

My producer friend on the Steven and Chris show needs YOU!  What a fabulous opportunity!

Are you an experienced, savvy, organized modern mom?

The search is on for the ultimate “SuperMom” who makes the tough job of being a mom and managing family life look (at least on the outside) like a breeze!

If you are a whiz in the kitchen, know what remedies work to remove the toughest laundry stains, and are an organizational queen with many tips and tricks to managing a household we want to hear from you!

This opportunity could lead to being a guest on the Steven and Chris show on CBC.

If you think you could help many other moms out there with your bag of tricks we really want to hear from you!

Please submit the following to angela.economopoulos@cbc.ca:

~ A short write up on why you are an organized, savvy and handy mom
~ A photograph of you, and if you wish, your family
~ Your contact information

Please be advised this opportunity is for moms living in the GTA only.

Good luck!

by Maria Lianos

Daniel Goddard plays Cane Ashby on the hit soap The Young and The Restless, the highest-rated daytime drama in Canada and the U.S. 

This Australian soap star is also a husband and father of two boys,  4-year-old  Ford Martin and 1.5 year old,  Sebastian William. 

I recently had the pleasure of chatting with Daniel on fatherhood and on being a sex symbol. 

Daniel Goddard and sons

On family balance: 

It’s tough. My wife has her own business.  She’s a designer. She built it from ground up 8 years ago. There are not enough hours in the day for her. She’s great at time management. We have a nanny during the day otherwise we couldn’t do it because we’re both at work and we don’t have immediate family and extended family nearby, you know the saying it takes a whole village to raise a family.   

On fathers: 

When I talk to guys who are becoming dads, I tell them that from a woman’s point of view, they have a child growing inside them. They form an emotional  connection to the child.  The man can’t experience that… it’s a foreign experience for the man. Men by nature respond to stimulation – we need a stimulus to make us feel. 

The child doesn’t respond to us the way it responds to the mother because it knows the mother’s heartbeat, smell, milk.  It’s  not until the child really turns  1 until you start you get the “dada”, they throw the ball back, smile, and then the man starts to come alive. 

Daniel and son, Ford

On kids: 

The weekends are always about the children.  I love spending time with my kids. I go bowling with my 4 year old, Ford.  He runs and throws the ball as hard as he can. We go riding his bike. I bought him an electric Ferrari go-cart, we go to the school and he rides there.  He’s very much into anything into mechanics.  He’s very good when it comes to his hands; he’s very dexterous. He pulls things apart and rebuilds it.  That’s his thing. 

On sleep: 

We used the Ferber method for my 4-year-old Ford because he didn’t fall asleep well.  The fourth day of Ferberizing, he slept well.  He wouldn’t sleep, wake up at night… he was tired during the day and would literally fight to go to sleep. He sleeps 8 to 10 hours now.  Sebastian didn’t need that, he just says “night night” and give him some milk and he’ll go to bed. 

On Facebook: 

I enjoy the social experience to giving back to fans and interacting with them.  At the end of the day, you hopefully build a fan base in order to express your art.  I enjoy interacting with the fans. I find it to be a rewarding experience for myself and the fans, and to have some sort of rapport.  I enjoy what the fans have to say, it’s a solid barometer and brings me joy. 

On women: 

Daniel as Cane and Christel Khalil as Lily, Y&R

A woman, from a marketing point of view, can be a perfect 10 physically, but if she doesn’t have a sense of worth a sense of direction within herself, for me that makes her not as attractive.  I like women who know what they want, they go after what they want and have a great sense of humour.  I like a woman who lets a man open the door for her and pull the chair back for her. I like a woman who respects herself and isn’t afraid to tell people what she wants and how she’d like to be treated. You need to have a strong sense of values and moral core.   

On self-empowerment: 

I think as human beings we can try to improve ourselves, because as years pass by, if you don’t improve yourself you’ll be 38 with a 20-year-old mentality.  Every person has the capacity to resolve things about themselves you don’t like. Everything can be fixed you can take some small steps to get there.   

On parenting: 

It’s important as a mother and a father, you set examples for  your children. You don’t talk about them in front of them in a derogatory or negative way, you don’t reference them and compare them to other children, you don’t compare your siblings, you give them the respect that you would expect. 

I look back retrospectively at my childhood and things that I now understand to be major turning points in my life and major factors that made me who I am, and I try and apply those to my parenting skills. Or eradicate those behavioural patterns that I think I may have had because of certain circumstances, in order to give our children the right skills to be successful individuals. 

Watch Daniel as Cane on The Young and the Restless on CBS in the U.S. and on Global in Canada.

by  Julie Cole 

My kids don’t go to private school, but they were part of a pilot project that introduced school uniforms into the regular school system. I soon realized that uniforms are a hot debate topic for parents, teachers and administrators.

So what do I think? In short, it is one of those little things that has helped me maintain a bit of sanity while raising my half dozen kids. The benefits are many for this mama of six.

These are the reasons it works for me:

1)      All the kids are dressed the same. I like that school does not become a fashion show and that clothes don’t define the child. I’m a big fan of level playing fields for kiddos, and I think this can help in those leveling efforts.

Some parents will argue that kids should be able to express their creativity with their clothes. I feel comfortable with my kids expressing their creativity through other avenues – maybe their academic subjects and artistic interests.

I’ll be dealing with tattooed goth teenagers soon enough – I don’t mind delaying that self-expression for a few more years. Oh, and when all kids are wearing the same colours, it makes for happy times in laundry land.

2)      What a pleasure it is to wake up in the morning and not be required to think or discuss what is going to be worn that day. Mornings are busy enough around my hectic house and having to debate with pre-tween girls about outfits at 7:00am would bring a bad start to most days. I like to avoid morning conflict so I can focus on my task at hand – getting people out the door!

3)      Many parents would argue that uniforms are expensive. While I agree I made a fairly decent original investment, I did some calculations and in the long run I can say with great confidence that I have saved a lot of money. My fifth kid is going off to JK this year in a golf shirt that has been worn by four older siblings. For smaller families who don’t reap the benefits of my spectacular hand-me-down situation, most schools have a ‘gently-worn’ used clothing sale.

Oh and really – could the kids look any cuter?

Julie Cole is one of the Co-Founders of Mabel’s Labels Inc. and the mother of six.

Motherload is a fictional show about a fictional Mom based on a very real life. In the show, Erin is a former song and dance gal turned Mom who shares the humor and experiences – big and little – that all mothers deal with. In real life, Erin, is also former song and dance gal. But more importantly, she is a storyteller with a rare talent to share the humor, love and sensitivity that are part of the daily adventures of being a Mom.

Erin Keaney is appearing at Yorkdale Mall in Toronto next week!  Why? She explains in a  perky message:

“Hey Moms, come join me at Indigo Books at Yorkdale mall on Wednesday, August 25th at 11:00-12:00 for a mom open mic!   We’ll share our funny stories about motherhood. The theme is “going back to school”.

There will also be swag bag give aways and you’ll learn that your kid isn’t really as bad as the woman’s sitting next you. See you there and bring your funny!!!  ~ Erin”

Watch one of Erin’s funny episodes… on sleep, or lack of:

A new Parenting Confidently program will run this fall in Keswick, Ontario.  To register, go to Life With A Baby!

by Danielle Christopher

In the hour I have been up I think I have sat down once, and that was to use the bathroom. Otherwise, I have been bouncing all over the house to get husband out the door, kids’ breakfast, pack backpacks for the day and getting dressed.

It is not a usual routine weekday morning. I will be dropping off my oldest daughter, who is almost four years old, for a morning at gymnastic camp. My slight guilt flashes through me on my anticipation to doing errands with just my youngest daughter who is only one year old.

It has been weeks since pre-school been out for the summer. I need this time off.

I sit my darling three-year-old down for breakfast and announce the surprise to her. Ariel, The Little Mermaid, will be stopping by the day camp. She immediately jumps up and runs to get her Ariel doll to take with her.

In a blink I am stepping into the gym, fully expecting to have to wait until she is ready to leave. Within minutes she waves me off and I am in the car with my one-year-old, sailing through the morning shopping and post office stops.

Done my errands in no time, I go back to the gym to see how she is doing. I opened the door to hear Ariel singing ‘Part of That World.’ My older daughter is sitting in awe looking at the real life princess. My one year old squeals in delight seeing her sister. The two sisters sit together to the sing along.

I sit on the sidelines watching my toddler and pre-schooler and allow myself to feel like a youngster again. The singing is contagious. Yes, I know the words.

All that matters is that moment I am a part of the fairytale reality. I see my daughters bonding as sisters. My princess wish is that they will always be this close as I still am with my sister.

Danielle Christopher is a stay-at-home mom of two daughters, ages one and three.  She blogs for The Momoir Project and writes book reviews for Women’s Post.  Her teen story is in the collection” Parent/Teen Stories: Without Judgement”. She lives with her husband of seventeen years and her girls in Langley, B.C.  Follow her on Twitter.

“Table for Poo?” by Kathy Buckworth

Recently there’s been a lot of discussion about whether restaurants have the right to turn away non-adults, or children/babies simply on the basis of their age.  The whole argument strikes me as rather ludicrous.  All we have to do is institute certain rules that won’t smack of age-ism or be construed as being baby-ist and we can have a natural selection process take place where the sword might come down on children…or those who simply act like them. 

These rules could include:

• If you chew with your mouth open, lick your knife or the top of the dessert of the person sitting beside you, you’re out.
• If you interrupt any Mom talking about her busy day with any remark resembling “Not just people with kids are busy, you know.” you’re out.
• If you cry, whine, yell, scream, in a setting where Moms are trying to relax, you’re out.
• If you spit your food out, you’re out.
• If, for any reason, the people traveling with you are required to carry Wet Wipes for your use, you’re out.
• If you wear a bib – or worse, a tucked in napkin or plastic square with a lobster printed on it – you’re out.
• If you didn’t pick out your own outfit this morning, you’re out. (Yes this gets rid of husbands who can’t pick their own shirts either – but really, what type of conversationalist is this guy going to be anyway?)
• If there is the slightest chance you might expel bodily fluids from any orifice while still seated at the table, you’re out.
• If you can’t stop looking at women’s breasts with an overly appreciative and hungry eye…and when you stand up you’re higher than them, you’re out.

Of course, no exclusionary policy would be complete without also instituting VIP membership criteria for good or exceptional behaviour, as well. 

From my opinion this might be:

• Gurgling, giggling and spontaneously smiling at anything I say.
• Gazing at me with pure adoration and love.
• Holding on to my finger with your entire hand.

Pretty straightforward, I think. It’s not the babies we object to, per se, it’s the unquestionably bad behaviour which we wouldn’t accept at any age. Now sit up straight and start gazing.

Kathy Buckworth‘s latest book is “Shut Up and Eat: Tales of Chicken, Children and Chardonnay”, and is available everywhere books are sold.  Visit www.kathybuckworth.com or follow Kathy on Twitter.

A mom of 8, it’s going to be really tough for Kate Gosselin to find a new boyfriend/husband. Who would be a great husband to Kate and a good step-daddy to  her kids?

Bret Michaels

He recently told CNN, “I’m a really active dad” to his daughters.  “We get the motorcycles out, we play ball, we swim, and I’m like, ‘Listen kids, hurry up, man. I may lose another organ.’”

He maintains a sense of humor despite a frightening period where he suffered an appendectomy, a brain hemorrhage, a ministroke and the diagnosis of a hole in his heart, all within the last four months.

The star of his own reality show “Rock of Love” and singer of the 80s hair band Poison, Brett earned much respect for competing and winning his year’s season of “Celebrity Apprentice”.

Although Bret isn’t married, he has a girlfriend.  But without the ring on her finger, anything is possible.  We think Kate and Bret would look great together.

David Duchovny

David checked into a rehab center for a sex addiction in 1998.  Several months later, he and actress Tea Leoni announced their separation. Together they have a son and daughter.  Could Kate keep up with his sex addiction?  Who knows but we thought it’d be fun to pair the two.

Jake Pavelka

Ok so he’s not a dad.  But Jake Pavelka is a media whore.  First on The Bachelorette, then as The Bachelor, Jake then went on to star in Dancing with the Stars.  His public relationship with Vienna has been a train wreck from the start. 

Now we hear rumors that he’s auditioning for other acting jobs.  Obviously he loves the attention and the cameras.  If he hooks up with Kate, he will undoubtedly be in the limelight for the long haul.

Colin Farrell

Irish actor Colin Farrell has a string of popular flicks under his belt. And while he’s a big hit at the box office, Colin is also still a hit with the ladies.

Irish actor Colin Farrell was voted “Hottest Single Celebrity Dad” in a poll conducted by dating Web site PerfectMatch.com back in 2009.

Colin has a great relationship with his son James, who has a rare genetic condition.  What makes Colin so much more attractive is the fact that here is this wild guy who shook up Hollywood with his good looks and partying ways, and now we see him a gentle father who is responsible and a nurturer.

Brad Pitt

Although he and Angelina Jolie seem as strong as ever, if they ever decide to split, he’ll know exactly how to juggle raising a handful of kids! 

Photo: INF