PRODUCT REVIEW: Nivea Slimming and Cellulite Creams

What Is It? In my growing dread, er, enthusiasm, for the approaching summer weather, I decided to give a month to try these two slimming and cellulite creams from Nivea.

PRODUCT REVIEW: Total Effects 7-in-1 Anti-Aging UV Moisturizer plus SPF 15

PRODUCT REVIEW: L'Oreal Go 360° Clean

What Is It?: L'Oreal's new line of skin cleansers, Go 360° Clean, includes four varieties, each coming with a quaint little rubber pad called a "scrublet" for gently cleaning your skin.

Hallowe'en Street Cred for Parents

Dear fellow parents, I want to let you all know how impressed I was when I dropped my kids off at school today. I saw some pretty amazing costumes: a bishop, a terrifyingly bloody baker, a stunningly beautiful angel.

Family Friday: Weekend Divorce

I have a friend who recently became divorced and she has been sharing this experience with me. Don't worry, I'm not about to turn around and put her intimate details on the Interweb, but I had a sort of epiphany while we talked about how her life has changed. One of the few upsides of such a difficult situation seems to be that you get the occasional week or weekend off. Of course, this depends on your child custody arrangement, but for her, she has the kids one week and her husband has them the other week.

Family Friday: Healing Au Naturopathic

I love my family doctor. She's only the second doctor I've had in my life: the first was the doctor who delivered me (and she'd been MY mother's doctor since she was a child) and then my current doctor, who is equally wonderful.

Are pageants akin to child abuse?

I was flipping channels the other night and came across a show about a children's beauty pageant. I was transfixed. It was a visual assault of teased hair, garrish makeup, and every pastel shade of sateen known to man.

Family Friday Q & A: What do I tell my son about his absent dad?

Single Mom asks: My boyfriend left me when I was 10 weeks pregnant. I want to know how I should handle the topic of my son's father when it comes up. What should I say? How do I handle it so he doesn't feel like he was abandoned by a parent who didn't even know him?

Family Friday Q & A: Kinder Kindergarten Girls?

Worried Mom asks: My daughter came home from preschool and told me that the usual group of girls she plays with told her she couldn't play with them. My first reactions were sadness then outrage. Is it possible that she is being targeted by mean girls to the age of 4 or is this just a development stage I didn't know about? I asked my daughter if she'd like me to speak to her teacher or the mom's of the other girls but she said no. I am at a loss. Please help.

Family Friday Q & A: I don't want to fight about food!

Urban Mom asks: How do I keep food from becoming a battle?

Family Friday Q & A: How do I get my kids interested in sports?

Urban Mom asks: How do I get my kids interested in sports? Jennifer Kolari answers: This is an interesting one. It’s hard sometimes as a parent to know when to push our kids and when to let them make their own decisions. Some kids are born loving sports, it’s a big part of their identity: they live it and breathe it.

Family Friday Q & A: How Do We Deal with Mean Girls?

Special K asks: Q: My daughter is in Grade 5 and this is the time when girls start to become quite "cliquey": friends today, enemies tomorrow. How can I help her navigate all of that while still boosting her self esteem? Also, how do I get her ahead of the inevitable "peer pressure" stuff that happens later. I want her to have the confidence to speak out.

Family Friday Q & A: No Time to Connect with My Kids!!

Do children belong at weddings?

There you were, just sipping your coffee, browsing the Internet, thinking you'd read the Family Friday blog. Little did you know of the drama, the angst, the veritable fever-pitch of a debate raging in thousands of homes around the world: should children attend weddings? You might or might not be surprised to hear that many people believe children and weddings don't mix (although pet dogs are apparently de rigeur).

Canadian Couples Weather Cash Crisis

There aren't many people who aren't feeling the financial pinch these days, whether you work in manufacturing or lost a bundle in the stock market.Most people know someone who's been hit by the current economic crisis, including themselves.

Family Friday Q & A: Travelling dad feels left out

Dadweight asks: I've got 2 kids and my wife, a freelance writer, stays at home with them. I'm also the primary breadwinner for our family and I travel all the time for work. The kids are now 8 and 11 and I really feel like I barely know them and, well, my wife has little sympathy for me…she says "You're the one who chooses to be traveling 2 weeks a month."

Family Fridays Q & A: My toddler won't stop whining!

K's Mama asks: I could use some advice on disciplining toddlers. My two year old has started whining for everything and throwing tantrums when she doesn't get her way. Got any advice?

The Highs and Lows of Modern-Day Parenthood

Today on my Food for Thought blog on FoodTV.ca, I talked about frantically shopping at 10pm on Monday night because I had nothing to prepare for the kids' lunches the next day. Now, that could just be bad planning on my part, but more often than not, I find we're running around on the day's second shift trying to catch up well into the late hours of the evening. If we collapse on the couch by 10:30, we're doing well.

Family Friday Q & A: I'm raising a vegetarian

Meatless Mom asks: I'm raising my child vegetarian. Now that she's close to turning three, she's starting to notice when others are eating meat. What's the smartest way to handle the situation without turning her eating habits into a power struggle?

Family Fridays Q & A: My child is always lying!

Beacher Mom asks: I would like to know how to deal with an 8-year-old who has no trouble lying straight to my face, repeatedly, sometimes about very silly things (like not eating lunch) but sometimes about more serious things that are harder to find out the truth about. HELP!

Family Fridays Q & A: My child lacks empathy

Q: I have a seven-year-old who is completely devoid of empathy and a four-year-old who has extra to spare. Can empathy be taught?

Family Fridays Q & A: I dislike my child's friend

Every Friday, we'll answer one question sent in from slice.ca readers to Jennifer Kolari, family therapist and author of Connected Parenting. Have a dilemma you want Jennifer to help with? Visit our Family Fridays page to post your question.

Book Giveaway!! Let's talk about (teen) sex

Dad's Bedtime Mayhem

For the past couple of nights, my husband and I have mixed things up at bedtime. He usually cleans up after dinner and makes the kids' lunches for school while I "supervise" bedtime. Lately that's meant me reclining on my bed reading my book while the children take as long as they possibly can to finish their baths, get into pajamas, brush their teeth, etc.

Family Fridays wants to hear from you!

Giving Real Housewives a Bad Name

You know, I believe there is a place in the TV universe for fantasy/reality television (how else can the rest of us feel good about ourselves if it isn't by watching Ozzy Osbourne stumbling and muttering like a ninety-year-old gaffer??) but I finally have to say these women, AKA the "real" housewives of Orange County, give housewives a bad name.

When your own family drama just isn't enough

Lately, I've been using books as an escape. When life is stressing me out and there's too much to do, I find I can really relax by spending 20 or 30 minutes reading.

To Buy or Not to Buy?

My mother loves a deal. It's a little scary some times the lengths she'll go to save a buck. She's also the person who will eat the leftovers in my fridge that were long past where we would consider eating them because she doesn't want them to go to waste. I have a little of this compulsion to save, and lately I've been feeling the urge in terms of our biggest investment: our three-bedroom home in a nice middle-class neighbourhood in downtown Toronto. The more housing prices go down, down, down, the more my palms itch with the urge to sell, sell, sell.

Scotch Mommy's OLAY Giveaway

I always knew decoding the human genome would be good for humanity. I didn't know it the way scientists knew it, but I thought a lot of good things might flow from it. And, lo and behold!, I was right! Along with research into finding cures for kidney disease, cancer, and heart disease, scientists have also been able to understand what makes skin age. Cures for serious illnesses AND better skin! Woo!

Guilty Confessions from Scotch Mommy--AND a Giveaway!

Just to be clear: these are not "guilty confessions" a la, "I daydream about Daniel Craig" or "I ate a box of Oreos while watching Battlestar Galactica last night." These are full-fledged in-the-closet bad mommy moments. There are days I walk around feeling pretty good about myself as a mother: I made the kids a great lunch—that I know they’ll eat (check!), I made a mid-week meal from scratch and nothing came out of a box (CHECK!), I managed to limit The Boy’s computer time to under five hours this week (DOUBLE CHECK!!). But other days, Scotch Mommy suffers lingering bouts of Mommy Guilt, a horrible yet totally useless emotion that serves no purpose other than to drag me down to the gutter of parental despair.

A Scotch Mommy Giveaway for Valentine's Day

I Survived Our Family Car Trip

No O Canada? WTF??

We Canadians are a confused lot. A sad, hand-wringing, worrying little bunch. Why else, I wonder, would the principal of a certain New Brunswick school decide to cancel, abolish, sweep under the rug, a little thing like the national anthem??

Some books belong on the big screen

I'm not one of those people who hates the idea of their favourite book being turned into a movie. I read and re-read The Lord of the Rings as a pre-teen and was thrilled when Peter Jackson turned my favourite books into a massive juggernaut of a trilogy.

Oooh, the Scent of a Man...

The other morning I was coming into work, completely lost in thought, sipping on my Chai Latte, when into the elevator stepped a man. I didn't notice him until I got a whiff of his cologne. It was very subtle and, I imagine, had the desired effect: I perked up and paid attention.

Another Gift Guide Giveaway!

Last week I gave away four items from my Top 10 Gifts Kids Want (congratulations to our winners!) and this week we've got prizes from my Top 10 Gifts for Mom as well as an item from the Top 10 Gifts for Hubby and Top 10 Gifts for Dad.

Kids' Gift Guide Giveaway

Dining with the President

While I wish I were talking about having dinner with President-Elect Obama (it's amazing how many women I know who have not-so-secret crushes on him), in my house, "We're dining with the President tonight" is code for eating a quick and easy President's Choice meal.

Women Want Their Heels

I know we've been enjoying a balmy fall but this is Canada, after all, and next week we could all be digging out from three feet of snow.

A Frightful Holiday

Hallowe'en seemed to roll around pretty quick this year: one minute we're rushing around like mad trying to get the kids ready for school, the next we're gearing up for the second-most important holiday in the Scotch Mommy household.

She Oughta Be in Pictures

My daughters have been taking dance lessons for a couple of years now, and they really love them. They recently signed up for the Musical Theatre class at their dance school, after seeing the great performances the class comes up with every year in the recital.

10 dermaglow Prize Packs to Give Away

It will be no secret to regular readers that I have been trying to improve the look of my skin for several months now. I've been seeing amazing results, thanks to fantastic products.

Stairway to Heaven—and Better Glutes

How's your pain body?

Over the last year or so I've tried to pay more attention to taking care of myself, instead of everyone else around me.

Get Me Organized - Part Deux

When Beauty Sleep Isn't Enough

My youngest, The Boy, came down with a horrible stomach bug this week and was kept awake four nights in a row with wracking stomach pains. Needless to say, hubby and I have not been sleeping. Yet, somehow, I have looked fabulous nonetheless, with people even commenting that I don't look like I've been up night after night with a sick child.

Get Me Organized

Last night I came home to a relatively clean home and our dinner cooking in our crockpot, thanks to my husband's quick thinking that morning.

Canadians Heart Their Cars

I read an article yesterday that said Canadians haven't reduced their demand for gasoline, despite higher prices. I can't say I'm surpised. If you commute to work every day, what are your options?

Countdown to September

Unbelievably, there are only three weeks and a few days left till school starts and I woke up this morning in a mild panic. At some point in the summer I decided I would try a new after-school child-care arrangement for my three kids but realized today I hadn't begun my search. We have a great community centre in our neighbourhood that offers an After 4 program where they pick the kids up after school

Treat Day!!

t's Friday morning, it's not raining, and that makes it treat day for Scotch Mommy. I found I was so happy this morning that it was sunny and it was Friday that I decided to indulge in a rare treat of a Grande Soy Tazo Chai latte from Starbucks---rare because if I indulge every day it will set me back $120 a month.