Columbus Parent Archives

Members of the Delaware Arts Festival Association believe art speaks to everyone.

Inspiring news for and about Central Ohio parents!

The Beat's (a.k.a Jim Fischer) picks for May.

The next time you go to a restaurant with your kids, you might do a double take after looking at the kids' menu. That's because nowadays you are just as likely to find entrée choices like oven-baked French fries and fried shrimp with cocktail sauce sharing the page with burgers, hot dogs and mac-n-cheese. The restaurant industry's youngest patrons, it turns out, are developing more sophisticated palates.

While parents never want to see their child stuck on the sidelines, knee injuries are a common cause of missed time from sports in pediatric and adolescent athletes. Knowing how to identify various knee injuries can help athletes get diagnosed, treated and back to playing sooner rather than later. And always consult your child's pediatrician with any concerns about your child's health.

With so much focus on making sure kids have "good self-esteem," we parents tend to take every opportunity to tell our kids that they're great. However, two influential researchers have discovered that self-esteem is based on kids feeling a sense of control over their environments.

Every other year, our family takes a summer vacation with two other families. With six adults and eight kids, our group is rolling chaos. Typically, we head for the beach. But on our most recent trip, we opted for the mountains of Pigeon Forge, Tenn.

When Nathalie and Richard Upton wanted to open a J. Gumbo's franchise, they were drawn to downtown Delaware.

Susan Porter-Pintz wants her children to know that food originates on a farm - not at a grocery store.

Our literary picks for May.

I have to admit I am a fan of cozy libraries with quiet nooks and corners. All the better to read in and, despite its size, the Westerville Public Library provides just that kind of experience. The facility, located just south of the Uptown Westerville business district on State Street, has been expanded and renovated several times in its 61-year-old history, most recently in 2006. The result is an interestingly configured but comfortable floor plan.

Myleigh Jo Kinter, 5.

Potted flowers and plants make great gifts, but plain terra cotta pots can be a little boring. This project uses the yarn scraps from winter knitting or crochet projects to dress up a spring flower pot.

I spend a lot of time talking about dads in this column. Because I'm a dad. But May means Mother's Day, and the moms in my life - particularly my mom, my wife and my mother-in-law - deserve more plaudits than I could ever fit here. In fact, they're the main reasons I'm able to type these words.

Each family that I see in my counseling practice is unique, but there are some universal truths. "Should" is one of them. Should, as in, "woulda, coulda, shoulda."

My pal Mila has six mouths to feed. She spends $900 on groceries each month. She coupons, shops the sales and cooks at home. She's doing great - spending less than a typical American family of four for groceries, according to the USDA - but money is tight.

While eggs and bacon take center stage, toast is generally relegated to a supporting role at the breakfast table. So when my daughter and I heard that Dan Reisenberger - better known locally as "Dan the Baker" - had opened an eatery dedicated to toast, we were curious to check it out.

The Columbus Museum of Art knows how to make moms feel special on Mother's Day.