Parenting

By Melissa Stefanec      MelissaStefanec@yahoo.com In Shakespeare’s iconic play, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” there are jaded lovers, mischievous fairies, spells and love triangles.

By Melissa Stefanec   MelissaStefanec@yahoo.com As the parent of two children who enjoy making music, the end of the school year meant quite a few

By Melissa Stefanec      MelissaStefanec@yahoo.com After what feels like months of grayness, snow, rain and cold, my family is more than ready for

By Melissa Stefanec    MelissaStefanec@yahoo.com What would you say if you were asked to finish that headline? Would you say difficult? Or maybe 13

By Melissa Stefanec   MelissaStefanec@yahoo.com Words are powerful. They can hurt and heal. They can discourage or inspire — create or destroy. Throughout our lives,

Some days, I wish I had an off switch. As a parent, I often find myself feeling like my life is a never-ending to-do

In honor of the month of love, this column will be about how much I love my body. I will start with a poem.

By Melissa Stefanec Being a parent means experiencing many contradictory things at once. Parenting is both beautiful and scary. Miraculous and redundant. Exhausting and

By Melissa Stefanec As a middle-class parent, the holidays fill me with sugar, spice — and a little dash of dread. It’s not the

By Melissa Stefanec American Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. It gives me a chance to combine two of life’s most wonderful things—gratitude