In addition to the Parenting Answers I provide through addressing the questions you submit and posting our own tips by topic, I am adding two new categories to the blog. In Dr. Rene at Home, I will write about my own family life including my children, my husband and the parenting decisions and mistakes we make. In Growing Up, I will write about my parents, my brother and my childhood in general. The plan is to link these things together with thoughts on parenting and conclusions incorporating current information. This is all stuff I think about that shapes my work, but don’t as often share.
As a bit of background, I grew up in Williamburg, Virginia. My father was an education professor at William & Mary from 1973 to 2005, and my mother was an elementary school nurse. They were both involved parents and seemingly before their time with postive discipline. I have one brother, Rodney who is three years older. We always seemed to get along, but didn’t often choose to play together. Williamsburg was a small college-town, it felt like most families knew each other or overlapped in some way. We grew up in a neighborhood with LOTS of children who were often outside. There was always someone available to play or ride bikes with. It felt safe.
Fast forward, I met and married Troy a year out of undergrad. We were together six years before we had Alicen and another two before Claire. They are now ten and thirteen years old. Troy’s family owns delis, he works far more than full-time. He completely supported my efforts to go through grad school and start my own business. I am now seven years into running Parenting Playgroups which offers parent workshops and children’s programs. At our height last year, we had 180 children in weekly programs. While I work, I still feel like a full-time mom. I drive in the morning and afternoon to get the girls round-trip to school and am able to be home with them in the afternoons for homework. It is all a juggle.
There are so many details I am leaving out of both of these stories, but that is what this blog is partially about.
Parenting by Dr. Rene 