Eleanor Howard

Freezing your child's credit isn't the most exciting or glamorous thing to do but it IS critical. I just finished freezing my kids' credit and honestly I shouldn't have waited this long. My mistakes...

-- you should go on the Amazon tour!! It’s a FREE 60-minute interactive, guided walking tour at the Amazon Fulfillment Center right here in Chattanooga – known as CHA1! My family had a great time on our CHA1 Amazon tour. It’s a lot fun, super interesting and makes something that is known as worldwide – feel a little bit local.

Who comes to mind when you hear the name Alex? Taylor Swift or Taylor Lautner? What about the name Carson? Cameron? Morgan or Reese? What about names like Peyton? Dylan, Riley or Jordan? Are...

What’s the point of Earth Day and doing “good” for the earth? Earth Day represents universal support for the environment, its protection and a reminder to care for the ground and air and water...

Laughter is an important part of our family’s life. Laughter is one of the most valued keys in our happy home. For us, laughter smooths out the jagged edges on a rough day and it brings us together when we feel separated by the busyness of life. Laughter is that special place on the bridge between us, and the kids. 

“I’m leaving my family for a week! It’s the longest I’ve ever been away from them and I’ve never traveled for fun without them!”

Parents and teenagers debate many issues but technology and social media usage is one of the hottest, hot buttons I’ve discussed with my parenting friends. The time spent on phones, tablets and computers is overloaded with conflict and many differences of opinions. Social media usage and even how much time parents themselves spend scrolling and posting affect our kids and demonstrate what we value as important.

What my teens remember fondly and what they hated about those early years at Christmas surprised me. I’ve learned a few things, made some mistakes and discovered what seems to be most important to my children. What I thought would make their Christmas magical and perfect was different than what I imagined. So the following list is made with love and respectfully offered to help the rookies and parents with small children give themselves a little bit of breathing room this holiday season.

Girls often get a bad rap for being cruel and cliquish and have a Mean Girls attitude but my from what I can see what teen girls say about themselves is sometimes worse than what they say about each other.

I think most parents instinctively guard their children against obvious dangers but when are we using our own experiences to color our kids' view of the world? I think parents have a tendency to size up a situation because they've seen too many things go wrong. Is there a way that we can steer our kids around the same mistakes we made without infringing on their own observations?