The day we knew was coming has arrived. My husband’s employer is transferring us out of state this summer, which means we are in the throes of our least favorite thing on earth: selling our house and preparing to move.

We’ve done the drill four times before. Pack away all the toys, touch up the paint, clean the carpets, scrub the place from top to bottom and keep it that way for a few months. This time we had a lot more clutter (thanks to having two more kids since the last time we moved), so I was prepared to shovel it all out. However, I wasn’t prepared for the other demands that our listing real estate agent would make before we could even put the house on the market.

“Buyers want it neutral!” he claimed. “They want to move in and not have to do a thing.” I’ve never moved into a house and not done anything … even when we bought one brand-new. So we’re the ones busting our tails instead. On top of that, we’ll be doing the same thing to our next house.

So we’ve painted and power washed the whole outside; trimmed and mowed and mulched; replaced doorknobs, light fixtures, the faucet and even the kitchen sink. But my main beef is that he wanted us to paint practically the whole inside of the house as well – including the kids’ rooms.  I’m just shocked that I need to turn my home into a place completely devoid of all signs of children. What buyers but those with at least a couple of kids would want a five-bedroom home on a cul-de-sac? So any room with the slightest semblance of color is now a lovely shade of … tan, taupe, cream, blah, blah, blah. This is the first time we’ve been told that we have to repaint. In the past we’ve sold houses covered in wallpaper!

Even when we moved in four years ago, the kitchen was a dark, pukey green. So I painted it sea glass green (the featured color this month in “Better Homes & Gardens,” by the way) to go with my diner theme. Nope, a total turn off, our agent told us. I can’t believe that people wouldn’t be able to see past a paint color and instead focus on the terrific layout with a huge island, double ovens, a walk-in pantry and large eat-in area overlooking the wooded backyard. So down came all the diner decor and up went a pale sage green.

“What’s wrong with our house?” my 10-year-old daughter asked between brush strokes.

“Well, sweetie, apparently it’s not good enough for anyone right now,” I replied while obsessively cleaning fingerprints off the freshly painted trim and wondering how on earth we have managed to live in such colorful, dinged-up squalor.

“Why are you buying new decorations?” she asked on a trip to Target.

“It’s called staging, honey. You have to make it look really nice even though most people with young kids don’t actually live this way.”

What great lessons I’m teaching our kids. That the only thing people care about is what something looks like. (And this doesn’t apply just to homes.) I’ve watched “The Stagers” and “Designed to Sell” on HGTV. Makes for great television, but now homebuyers have come to expect every house they enter to have an interior designer’s touch, and if it doesn’t, they move on. Unfortunately, I have to play the game because I’m the one with a house to sell.

Somebody, please buy it … and soon!

Learn more about JoAnn

I think the heat of the summer is getting not just to them but kids everywhere. I’ve witnessed more meltdowns in the past few weeks.

The “It’s not my party but I’ll cry if I want to” meltdown: I took my older son to a bowling birthday party with about a dozen 7-, 8- and 9-year-old boys. Even though the party started at 3 p.m., the host set out hot dogs, chips and soda for each attendee. One kid instantly started bawling because tea wasn’t a beverage choice. Then he whined loudly that he doesn’t eat hot dogs, insisted that it be removed from his presence, and basically caused the birthday boy’s mother to focus more attention on trying to make him happy than on her own son. The boy’s dad, who was off on the sidelines, had a great opportunity to teach his kid about politely saying “No, thank you,” when offered something he doesn’t care for. Instead, he tried to get his son to calm down, made the empty threat to take him home, and ended up bringing him to the snack bar to choose something else. Victory for the kid, misery for everyone else.

The “end-of-a-really-fun-day” meltdown: We had some friends visiting from out of town recently, and to beat the heat I suggested going to see the new exhibits at the renovated Discovery Place in Charlotte. It was a very long hour listening to the backseat soundtrack: “I’m hungry!” “How much longer?” “I don’t want to watch this movie!” After we finally arrived, they still weren’t completely happy.  Some areas were a blast, but others were so boring that they couldn’t possibly bear to stay another minute while their parents finished reading a display. Yet when we had to go because it was closing time, they ramped up the whining again – because they didn’t want to leave. Again, here was a great opportunity for their parents to coach them in saying, “Thanks for taking us to a really fun place!” and to reminisce about their favorite parts, but no such luck.

Kids just know that whining works to get them their desired results. Even my 2-year-old daughter deliberately turns up the volume because she knows it’s her get-out-of-church-free card – which is exactly what she wants. We parents are kind of stuck. If we’re in a public place, especially one that requires sitting still and being quiet, it’s hard to wait out the tantrum when you know your kid is annoying everyone else around you. If we’re somewhere fun, we can remove them from the scene or even go home – but in many cases, punishing the whiny child’s behavior also punishes the older kids who are behaving. One kid ruins it for everyone else.

So what’s the cure? How do you handle whining?

Learn more about JoAnn

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• Pregnancy after miscarriage: A letter to my unborn son
• Don’t be a granola head; have your child vaccinated
• An honor to serve, but what if?
• Social networking or flirting with boys?
• Can a tot tattoo keep our children safe?

My number one money-saving tip is to camp at Fort Wilderness, which has several benefits. Because we have seven people, we automatically would have to get two hotel rooms or a suite at a cost of $200 to $300 per night — just for a place to sleep and shower! Our pop-up camper provided the same service for $42 a night. Even if you took a tent, the bathhouses are beautifully tiled and spotless.

Staying at a resort on Disney property has additional perks, too. Our campground pass was good in any theme park parking lot, which normally costs $15 per day. You also qualify to take advantage of Extra Magic Hours, which is when one park stays open one to three hours longer for resort guests. This takes some planning ahead because which park is open for which hours varies daily, and not all attractions stay open during the extra hours (such as the animal safaris at Animal Kingdom or the Fantasmic show at Hollywood Studios).

My second-biggest penny pincher tip is to bring your own food. Disney is one of the few places on earth that allow outside food and drinks in soft-side coolers, so we always pack a huge one with enough drinks, snacks and lunch to get us through the day without having to go back to the car for a tailgate picnic. When we do buy a meal (at a counter-service restaurant, not a sit-down place), we get adult-size portions for the kids to share, and no drinks. We eat breakfast in the camper. If you’re staying in a hotel without a fridge and/or microwave, bring a huge cooler for milk, juice and drinks, and use the hotel’s ice machine to keep it cold. I’ve even used the coffee maker to heat water for instant oatmeal. Don’t forget the cereal, bowls and spoons!

Before you groan about lugging around a huge bag of food all day, bring a stroller, even if your kids don’t actually ride in it. Use it like a shopping cart for your cooler, camera bag, sunscreen and umbrellas (it rains almost every day at 4 p.m. in Orlando). Anything you bring from home is going to be cheaper than buying it in the park, so plan ahead.

Skip the souvenirs. If you’ve been to Disney before, pack the Mickey ears your kids had to have on your last visit. Buy licensed character T-shirts at a discount store before you go, and wear them instead of buying one at a park. If your kids want to meet characters, prepare to stand in line, and bring your own autograph book and pen — and a camera — for a practically free keepsake. My kids enjoy pin trading, which can get out of control at $6 to $8 a pop, so instead we buy sets with six pins in them at $4 each, and they entertain themselves trading with Disney cast members. If they find one they like better, they have to give one up.

What are your best money-saving tips when you go on vacation?

Learn more about JoAnn

Read more from the Parents Panel:

• Can a tot tattoo keep our children safe?
• Beach-goers’ attire leaves little to the imagination
• Appropriately celebrated right of passage?
• Pregnant after 40
• Character is habit-forming

In my pre-mom days, I worked as a newspaper copy editor. Part of my job was to ensure that the newspaper delivered to your door was free from any spelling, grammar, punctuation, style and/or usage errors; poor sentence construction; and inconsistencies.

Newspaper articles were supposed to be written for an audience with an 8^th-grade reading level. Assuming, of course, that your average 8^th grader knew how to spell (and define) common words or when to use a semicolon, and could differentiate (and appreciate) the nuances of a writer’s carefully chosen words. That was way back in the early ’90s, when print media’s only real competition was the nightly newscast and a handful of cable channels.

My concern is that today’s tech-savvy kids can simultaneously navigate the Web, text on their phones, play video games and listen to their iPods, but are completely oblivious to the rules of the English language. It’s not entirely their fault, though. What’s killing basic written English is that those adults who should be setting the example with proper spelling and usage either don’t care, want to act like they’re cool, or never bothered to learn it themselves:

Texting: Who needs to learn the difference between “to,” “two” and “too” when “2” does the job? Or “4,” for that matter. Personally, I H8 it!

Advertising and product names: Thankz, Bratz dollz. Girlz and boyz everywhere think adding “z” is how to make wordz plural.

The Generation X coolness factor: Our X-cellent, X-citing, X-treme obsession with trying to make words begin with “X.”

Spelling and grammar check: Why bother learning the rules when Bill Gates fixes your mistakes automatically?

Musicians: It’s bad enough that their song lyrics use poor grammar without the enclosed song sheet containing alternate spellings to every word.

Letting kids spell words FO-NET-ICK-LEE and not correcting them. Do kids even take spelling tests anymore? Or will we damage their self-esteem by telling them they did something wrong?

Lack of access to quality children’s books that contain proper grammar and spelling. Instead of reading a well-written book, many kids spend the majority of their non-school time plugged in to a medium that doesn’t contain the written word at all, or if it does, is often peer-produced and incorrect.

Because I want my children to learn and use proper English, the first half of our homeschool day is devoted to language arts: spelling, phonics, grammar, vocabulary, dictionary usage and writing skills. I want them to be able to read any book and understand it (or to at least consult a dictionary when they don’t comprehend a word). Knowing how to read and grasp what they’ve just read is the key to all other learning and a skill they will use for the rest of their lives.

Am I just an old-school fuddy-duddy who is fighting an uphill battle? Do you enforce proper grammar and spelling in your home?

Learn more about JoAnn

Read more from the Parents Panel – click here

The first informed me that she eats only hot dogs, hamburgers, pasta with marinara and Parmesan cheese, and no vegetables. Three more girls didn’t like carrots or celery or broccoli. Then came the kicker: two girls are “vegetarians” who not only don’t eat meat but also don’t like most vegetables or cheese. So much for Dutch-oven cooking. We ended up borrowing a camp stove to cook pasta, and even at that five wanted Alfredo sauce, two ate it plain, and only three girls and the leaders ate it like baked ziti.

Breakfast was no different. Again, I wanted to cook over the campfire, but the girls couldn’t come to a consensus about pancakes, scrambled eggs or grits. We had to settle for oatmeal on the camp stove with a “fixings” table so they could have it their way with raisins, syrup or brown sugar. We coaxed one girl into trying the oatmeal, which she eventually did and then enjoyed. Lunch was a taco salad so the girls could just pick out which toppings they wanted and avoid the rest. And yes, one girl ate just a plate of plain Fritos.

No one complained about making S’mores, though.

I’m not really one to talk. My finicky eating habits go back to the Carter administration. To maintain peace at the dinner table, my mom gave in and just made my brother and me what we wanted and never really pushed the issue. We came up with all kinds of creative ways to avoid actually eating things like mushy canned peas: pouch them in a cheek, then claim needing to use the bathroom and deposit said peas in the toilet. Wait two minutes, flush and return to the table hoping that Mom had given up in frustration. Or have Nana, my grandmother, aid and abet us by taking bites from our plate when Mom wasn’t looking. Today’s kids just say “no!”

I wouldn’t touch tomato sauce on pasta or pizza until I was in high school, and I still won’t eat chunks of tomatoes. Still not a fan of most green vegetables, either, especially if they are overcooked and mushy. I can’t stand having the seeds from strawberries or raspberries in my mouth, nor the stringy pulp in orange juice. And I can’t even look at seafood unless it’s in shell-less, clawless, boneless white blobs after being traumatized by ordering fresh paella in Spain and having my dinner stare back at me.

My husband, who has traveled the world with the Navy and is willing to try nearly anything, was well aware of my food issues long before we got married. After witnessing my meltdown over the paella, he came close to making me sign a pre-nup stating that I will try new foods and not let our future children be picky eaters. Since I do the grocery shopping and cooking in my family, I have managed to accommodate my own palate while still giving our kids a better variety. In the process, my limited food repertoire from 15 years ago has nearly doubled.

The home rule is that everyone, me included, has to try one bite of everything at each meal, even if it’s something they tried last week (and the week before and the week before) and didn’t like. This is great in theory but isn’t exactly effective until a kid is about 5 and you can reason with them. Our two youngest kids haven’t bought into this practice yet and consequently hold out for dry cereal or pasta after either spitting out the offending food or throwing the entire plate on the floor to render it inedible. But our two oldest girls, ages 10 and 13, eat nearly anything served to them without discussion and have for years.

Picky eaters can be reformed … if their parents are willing to step up to the plate.

Learn more about JoAnn

Read more from the Parents Panel:

• To DIY or not to DIY? That is the question
• Happy Mother’s Day . . . and by the way, it sucks to be you
• Horse sense for parents
• Why, South Carolina?
• Burning the candle at both ends
• The benefits of a built-in babysitter

Before: Call teenage neighbor a week ahead of time to nail her down. Wait for her to check her social calendar, the high school football schedule, her own sport practice schedule, and with her boyfriend before giving me an answer. Call back a few days before the event to remind her. Call her 15 minutes after she was supposed to arrive to see whether she was still planning to come. Miss out on evening because an old friend of hers came to town and she opted to see him instead.

Now: Inform daughter in person of our plans.

Before: Scramble to tidy house, cook dinner for kids and sitter, write out instructions for getting each child ready for bed, and get myself ready to leave on time.

Now: Feed kids without worrying about cleaning up before I leave; no need for an elaborate explanation since sister-in-charge is intimately aware of the family’s schedule and routine and can decipher what a babbling 2-year-old wants.

Before: Kids competed for sitter’s attention while she texted friends, called mom to bring her dinner since she didn’t like what I had prepared, and sat on her duff watching movies or doing homework.

Now: Daughter doesn’t have a cell phone, a boyfriend or picky eating habits, and she still loves to play at the younger kids’ level. Bonus: She does dishes.

Before: Shell out $10 an hour for aforementioned sitter to arrive late and basically just sit around — essentially getting paid to text since one evening with us covered her monthly cell phone bill.

Now: Pay daughter half that rate knowing that she is very good at saving her money for short-term wants and long-term goals.

Before: Drag all five children everywhere as I shuttled each one to their extracurricular activities and let them sit in the van for hours watching DVDs; schlep everyone to the pediatrician with homeschool workbooks in hand.

Now: Take only the child with an activity or doctor’s appointment out; let the youngest have her afternoon nap while the other kids play at home; give myself an hour to run errands in peace without fussing with car seats, juice cups, diapers or an annoying DVD soundtrack.

Freedom is a beautiful thing.

Learn more about JoAnn

Read more from the Parents Panel:

• A spanking for the latest critics of corporal punishment
• Who is more hostile: Teenagers or society?
• Do you want fries with that?
• Meaningful meals
• The thrill of flying . . . not
• Lessons learned?

Fisher-Price’s latest line of infant development toys is called “Laugh & Learn” and includes a tea set, vacuum, shape-sorter cookie jar, camera, shopping cart, purse and CD player. Each one of them has buttons to push to make fun, semi-realistic sounds. The toys call out numbers, colors, shapes and the alphabet while set to music and flashing lights. Is this part of the Baby Einstein fallout in that everything an infant touches must be deemed “educational”? Why does the classic Rock N Stack now need to be sparkly, star-shaped, make sounds and have a face painted on it? What was wrong with the old donut stacker (which we still have from 12 years ago)? Oh right, there’s no money in them.

We still own the (silent) play kitchen my oldest daughter got when she turned 2 way back in 1998. Kate had to make the “beep, beep, beep” sounds herself as she pushed the number pad sticker on the microwave, or “pssshhhh” to simulate water running in the sink. The set came with play food, dishes, utensils, cookware and a Victorian-style plastic tea set. This play set has seen more action over the years than any of our other toys combined. Now that it’s in little sister Megan’s room, she loves to play tea party with her big sisters. They “whoosh” the tea from the pot, stir in sugar and slurp from the plastic cups, pinky extended, while enjoying a pleasant babbling conversation. But then Megan received the aforementioned Fisher-Price tea set for Christmas. No more “whooshing” the tea because the pot automatically makes a pouring sound when you tilt it up. Push the magic tea bag button to learn manners, numbers and shapes. Megan quit making her own sound effects for a while, but I’ve noticed that she’s starting to push the newer model away in favor of the older, simpler, silent one.

Yes, I know there are still plenty of classic toys available – we already own wooden stackers, a shape sorter, a bead track, wooden puzzles, alphabet blocks, wooden building blocks, and a whole host of building toys such as gears, Legos, Mega Bloks, Lincoln Logs, Tinker Toys and Kid K’nex, all of which are regularly employed to make support structures to complement whatever imaginative play my older kids are doing. After seeing the big Navy ships, planes and helicopters during spring break in Norfolk, Va., they came home and made an aircraft carrier out of blocks and flew the boys’ die-cast airplanes on and off (adding their own rumbling sound effects, of course).

Knowing how much my older kids love to create and invent, I don’t want little Megan’s imagination stifled by a bunch of mindless button-pushing. Hmm, maybe the best gift I can give her for her birthday is to get rid of the toys that do everything for her and instead put the money I would have spent into her college account.

What are your favorite toys for young children? Do you think today’s whiz-bang toys are discouraging kids from using their imaginations?

Learn more about JoAnn

Read more from the Parents Panel:

• Do you want fries with that?
• Who keeps giving politicians passes to act like children?
• Meaningful meals
• The thrill of flying . . . not
• Lessons learned?
• A bit of culture becomes family-bonding time

Newspaper articles were supposed to be written for an audience with an 8^th-grade reading level. Assuming, of course, that your average 8^th grader knew how to spell (and define) common words or when to use a semicolon, and could differentiate (and appreciate) the nuances of a writer’s carefully chosen words. That was way back in the early ’90s, when print media’s only real competition was the nightly newscast and a handful of cable channels.

My concern is that today’s tech-savvy kids can simultaneously navigate the Web, text on their phones, play video games and listen to their iPods, but are completely oblivious to the rules of the English language. It’s not entirely their fault, though. What’s killing basic written English is that those adults who should be setting the example with proper spelling and usage either don’t care, want to act like they’re cool, or never bothered to learn it themselves:

Texting: Who needs to learn the difference between “to,” “two” and “too” when “2” does the job? Or “4,” for that matter. Personally, I H8 it!

Advertising and product names: Thankz, Bratz dollz. Girlz and boyz everywhere think adding “z” is how to make wordz plural.

The Generation X coolness factor: Our X-cellent, X-citing, X-treme obsession with trying to make words begin with “X.”

Spelling and grammar check: Why bother learning the rules when Bill Gates fixes your mistakes automatically?

Musicians: It’s bad enough that their song lyrics use poor grammar without the enclosed song sheet containing alternate spellings to every word.

Letting kids spell words FO-NET-ICK-LEE and not correcting them. Do kids even take spelling tests anymore? Or will we damage their self-esteem by telling them they did something wrong?

Lack of access to quality children’s books that contain proper grammar and spelling. Instead of reading a well-written book, many kids spend the majority of their non-school time plugged in to a medium that doesn’t contain the written word at all, or if it does, is often peer-produced and incorrect.

Because I want my children to learn and use proper English, the first half of our homeschool day is devoted to language arts: spelling, phonics, grammar, vocabulary, dictionary usage and writing skills. I want them to be able to read any book and understand it (or to at least consult a dictionary when they don’t comprehend a word). Knowing how to read and grasp what they’ve just read is the key to all other learning and a skill they will use for the rest of their lives.

Am I just an old-school fuddy-duddy who is fighting an uphill battle? Do you enforce proper grammar and spelling in your home?

Learn more about JoAnn

Read more from the Parents Panel:

• Should I be chicken about adding a coop?
• Motherhood Martyrs: Asking for help
• The thrill of flying . . . not
• The one and only you
• Lessons learned?
• A bit of culture becomes family-bonding time

We know firsthand how life can change in a split second. In July 2007, we set off on a three-week road trip with four kids and a newly purchased travel trailer in tow. I spent weeks gathering everything I thought we could possibly need during that trip and packed every nook and cranny on the trailer – a full set of kitchenware, towels, food and drinks, toiletries, first aid supplies, diapers, clothes, toys, bikes, swim gear – we were prepared for anything! The one thing I wasn’t prepared for was how to drive a fully loaded trailer. As we crossed from North Carolina into Virginia on I-85, the trailer started swaying. I kept accelerating trying to overcome it but lost all control when the road started going downhill. All I could do at that point was pray like never before that I wouldn’t kill my entire family.

We hit the guardrail, spun the whole assembly around 180 degrees, flipped the Suburban and rolled over three times, coming to a stop on the truck’s roof 20 feet down a ravine. I had become tunnel-visioned and couldn’t see my husband or kids, but he could and reassured me that they were all OK, scared, stunned and hanging upside down still strapped in their car seats. Miraculously, we all walked away without a scratch and even saved our two gerbils.

When we escaped though the windows and hiked up the hill to the road, it looked like a tornado had hit – a huge pile of twisted metal and splintered wood. The swath of debris was as long as a football field. Almost everything I had packed was smashed, ripped and covered with food and dirt. I realized we were 200 miles from home with nothing but the clothes on our backs.

I borrowed a cell phone from one of the many people who stopped to help us and called my mom. “Well, we’re done,” I said, and relayed the whole story. “How are you so calm?” she asked.  I replied, “We are all alive and not even hurt. Everything else is replaceable.”

Since then, our modus operandi has been to put family first, cherishing all the time we can spend with our kids and each other. We’re trying not to be so uptight about all the minutia of daily life that can drive you nuts if you let it.

Does it really matter how clean my toilets are (within reason) or whether our clothes are ironed or what brand they are? We’d rather spend a beautiful Saturday playing in the yard than mowing it. Doesn’t it make more sense to talk to your kids face to face than catch up with them on Facebook? I do still get annoyed when things that are supposed to save us time malfunction, and we have to spend more time fixing them (like the computer virus we had to battle for three days a couple of weeks ago) instead of doing something fun with our family. Only God knows how long we have here on Earth. I don’t want to waste a minute of it!

What’s important to you? Has anything ever made you reassess your priorities?

Learn more about JoAnn

Read more from the Parents Panel:

• Motherhood Martyrs: ‘Me time’ and collard greens
• It’s called a knife . . . please use it
• Three easy steps to improve children’s health
• If only I had realized how fast they grow up
• Enough of the Tiger Woods stories already
• Can anybody tell me what’s going on?

It made me wonder how many kids are labeled early in life and end up becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. If a child is labeled a troublemaker in the classroom, his teacher expects him to have poor behavior most of the time. The kid known as the class clown often continues his antics to keep his title. The child who is constantly criticized comes to doubt her own abilities and becomes helpless, afraid to even try something out of fear of being criticized again.

But even positive labels can be a burden. The girl everyone thinks is amazingly beautiful comes to expect the constant admiration and affirmation from her friends and ends up using her so-called beauty to manipulate others to get what she wants.  The child labeled a model student when good grades came easy now feels pressure to perform and deliver those grades at any cost — and starts cheating.

Labels can become a convenient excuse not to try harder, to do better or to change bad behavior. Most people merely do what is expected of them. If a child’s behavior is noticed by an adult – praise for an A+ paper, a trip to the principal’s office – the child now has an incentive to continue the behavior in order to keep getting the attention, positive or negative.

Labels can also be a form of bullying. Calling another child names – dumb, poor, ugly — in front of a group might make the bully feel superior, but the kid on the receiving end internalizes the label – “If everyone thinks I’m stupid, I must be.” Who wants to fight the uphill battle of proving them wrong?

I suspect that my oldest daughter has an auditory processing disorder, where she has trouble distinguishing sounds being spoken if there is too much background noise (I have the same problem). When she was in fourth grade, her teacher had such a Southern twang that often Kate missed what she was explaining. Early in the school year, I encouraged her to raise her hand and ask the teacher to repeat what she said. You can probably guess how this played out. The teacher got tired of repeating herself, kids started calling her dumb, no one would play with her, her grades took a hit, and I ended up having to reteach her each lesson from the textbook when she came home. (Hence how we ended up homeschooling.)

The one thing I didn’t do was rush off to the doctor to get a diagnosis (itself a label), especially since there is no magic medicine to “fix” her problem. If we had stayed in school, each day would have been a struggle as she not only coped with the problem itself but also the label the kids had slapped on her.  I’d rather have her gain confidence in her abilities to do school work without worrying about what other people think. In the meantime, I also can teach her some coping mechanisms to compensate so she can eventually sit in a classroom and learn without the burden of a label dragging her down.

Have you or one of your children ever been labeled, good or bad? How did the label affect them?

Learn more about JoAnn

Read more from the Parents Panel:

• A broken coffee cup is filled with memories
• It’s all about values
• Sex addict or dog? Are you kidding me?
• How many moods can a teenager have, for Pete’s sake?
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• Children should live the dream . . .