I could feel Maria’s pain and frustration when she shared the story of her recent blowout with a friend who happens to also be her daughter’s BFF’s mom. I have two thoughts about this issue and have personally experienced both. 1) The friendship will heal because you both are actually friends and want it to heal. 2) The friendship will never recover (even with your best efforts) because it never actually meant that much to...

Today we heard the devastating news of the suicide death of Michael Blosil, the 18-year-old son of Marie Osmond and Brian Blosil. It was only a few days ago that 42-year-old Andrew Koenig son of actor Walter Koenig (of “Star Trek” fame), was also found dead as the result of suicide. The fact that these two suicides were the children of celebrities is, in my opinion, not coincidental. The two things are clearly related. Both of these...

Tova, my 6-year-old daughter, has been dealing with envy and jealousy a lot lately. As anyone with two kids knows, sibling rivalry is at times unbearable! I honestly wonder how my mom survived with three girls fighting over bathroom space, clothes and boys for 18 years! I do know that all the moms on my block would get together and drink wine (from a box), starting at around 4 PM every day. It was pure 1970s survival drinking. Lately, Tova has...

What is going on with these murdering moms? Stacey Pagli was arraigned Wednesday on charges of killing her daughter, Marissa Pagli, 18. Officials say that it appears Marissa was strangled — and that Stacey has attempted suicide in jail. What is going on with all these murdering moms? Well, it seems that it is not that uncommon — it is just horrifying to our sensibilities as caring and loving mothers. According to the U.S. Department...

My 6-year-old daughter, Tova, came to me last week in tears after her “besty,” Sophia, got mad at her for playing with another a little girl. Tova started crying as soon as the automatic door on our minivan slid shut, and when the snot started coming out of her nose, I knew it was serious. Tova is a confident and happy girl with a lot of friends. (A Sagittarius, she’s pretty easygoing and always ready for a party.) What she...

A mother we talked to last month, Corey Waters, told us she was forced to disrupt the adoption of her son because he assaulted her daughters. She says: “He has suffered extensive abuse in his life — in the orphanage for sure. He has hurt some of our kids; it is not safe for them to be around him, and he has been in a residential treatment center for a long time now. It has been very painful process to get to the point of deciding to...