This is what Managing Editor Cassandra Lane is featuring on Instagram now.
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On Grief, Public Memorials and Our Children
To be a parent is to want to give our children the world. We hope to protect their innocence as long as we can, to shield them from bullies and bad news, even though we know that “the world” holds as much pain as it does joy, and that our arms are not long enough, […]
For the Love of Family, Dance and L.A.
If you’re someone who is never satisfied with your progress, who is always, as singer Ciara puts it, trying to “level up,” you have a trait in common with “Dancing With the Stars” performer Gleb Savchenko. Born in Moscow, Savchenko has been dancing since his legs could hold his weight. Over the years, from Russia to Hong Kong and […]
Resort Living Just Down the Highway
My husband, Marcus, and I are running late for our couple’s massage at The Spa at Terranea Resort in Palos Verdes. As we walk-jog down the small hill from our Bungalow suite, the heat rising from my neck to my face is induced more by stress and embarrassment than an elevated heartbeat. Earlier that morning, […]
Relax into Musical ‘MindTravel’
Murray Hidary is on a mission to help you release the worries and daily stresses that get tangled up in your head and trickle down to tense your neck and shoulders. A pianist, composer, visual artist and tech pioneer, Hidary’s antidote is his piano, a musical organ he hopes will help your brain, that overworked […]
This MLK Day: Share ‘A Place to Land’
When children first learn about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., they are mesmerized by his resonant, booming voice espousing ideals on equality, compassion and freedom. But how many of them learn about the grueling behind-the-scenes work it took to craft those famous speeches? This MLK Day, consider introducing the children in your life to “A […]
The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far from the Tree
On a recent Friday, as scores of people across Los Angeles prepared to go out drinking or stayed in to binge-watch their favorite TV shows, a small group of writers at The Last Bookstore explored the impact our parents’ lives, traits and behaviors have on us – for better or worse. The event was a […]
A Weekend Date in Carmel
On the second Friday of the school year, my husband and I hit the road for a 330-mile road trip to Carmel-by-the-Sea, that jewel of California that sits on the Monterey Peninsula. It’s always hard leaving your kid, but we had equipped my mother-in-law with detailed instructions on afternoon pickup and our complicated TV remote […]
Our Children’s Keepers
This past January, when L.A. County public school teachers, students, parents and other allies donned red shirts and took to the streets for a six-day LAUSD strike, the state of k-12 education was on most everyone’s mind. As debates over traditional public vs. charter school choices and issues of access to private and highly selective […]
Letting Kids Explore Their Sense of Style
My high school cafeteria was its own kind of runway, a place where the popular kids paraded their personalities and latest outfits while the timid, clumsy and fashion-starved hoped the ground would open up and swallow them whole. I would like to say I existed somewhere in the middle, but I would be lying. Then, […]
Dream, Explore, Create in Octavia Lab
The library was once the place we ventured to research, study, check out books. Along came the internet, and some of us began viewing libraries as halls of dusty irrelevance. In response, the Los Angeles Public Library has for some time positioned itself as a hub of state-of-the-art technology and learning, and its latest foray […]
Smorgasburg LA: Opening Up Taste Buds and Business Opportunities
In 2009, my husband and I left our beloved West Adams neighborhood in L.A. and moved to the ’burbs so that I could be closer to a new job in Cerritos. I salivated over my 15-minute commute but desperately missed being in the “center of it all,” particularly the vibrant literary, artistic and culinary communities […]
Anthony Alabi: on Family, Fatherhood and Failure
For four years, Anthony Alabi lived what many would consider the NFL dream. He played offensive tackle for the Miami Dolphins and Kansas City Chiefs. After those stints, another team was angling for him, but Alabi was already in L.A., pursuing a different dream that had been with him since childhood: acting. It was 2010 […]
Tomorrow’s Sci-Fi Writers Shine Today
Each May, the Pasadena Playhouse District transforms into a literary mecca. Its streets, alleyways, the playhouse itself and surrounding buildings teem with novelists, memoirists, journalists, food writers, political columnists and actors who cross the brick-laden streets to attend LitFest Pasadena. This year, L.A. Parent was a proud sponsor of a Litfest Pasadena event called The […]
John Ratzenberger: Seasoned Actor’s Work Spans Generations
You and your parents probably remember John Ratzenberger as the know-it-all mailman and bar regular Cliff Clavin on the hit TV show “Cheers,” but your kids have never heard of him. At least, not by those names. Depending on their ages, they may know him as the animated voices of Mack in “Cars,” P.T. Flea […]
Dodger Season! It’s Time for … a Date in Echo Park
Sometimes, as parents, we have to squeeze a quick date in after school drop-off. Such was my treat on a recent Wednesday after I dropped my son off at his school near Dodger Stadium. I used to work for the Dodgers, and one of my favorite ways to take a break from Blue Heaven was […]
Mardi Gras in Los Angeles
Much of my small-town Louisiana childhood was spent taking French classes at school, shelling field peas on Grandmama’s front porch, scaling perch that Uncle Herbert brought over by the bucketfuls and daydreaming about one day moving to New Orleans, which sat like a dream a few hours east of my hometown. When, in my mid-20s, […]
Living the Pop-Star Dream in Punta Cana
A family vacation at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Punta Cana includes a KIDZ BOP fan experience as part of the all-inclusive package. Expose kids to music early, and a river of melodies and beats is likely to course through their blood for a lifetime. A lullaby or Beethoven can calm them when they’re […]
Novel Explores Familial Love as Expansive as the Sky
I was reading something the other day that urged parents not to “forget about the kids” this Valentine’s Day. Maybe your kids will make grams for their friends or give their teachers boxes of chocolates, but while the day is all about love, the focus is usually on the romantic kind. And although romantic love […]
‘This Is Us’ Star Lonnie Chavis Expands His #FixYourHeart Message
When NBC’s “This Is Us” star Lonnie Chavis discovered that a few people trolling his Instagram account were making fun of the gap in his teeth, he clapped back. Not with retaliatory words; instead, the 10-year-old sent a message that prescribes self-reflection and self-acceptance as antidotes to eradicating a culture of bullying and low self-esteem. […]
‘From Me to You’ – Letters from a Dad’s Heart
Norman Aladjem made it through a good-size chunk of his adulthood working as an entertainment industry executive and living it up as a child-free bachelor – you know, one of those “commitment-phobic L.A. men.” Hey, those are his words, not mine. When he was a teen in Cleveland, a cheerleader named Laura had been his […]
Seth Fishman: A Book for Your Kids’ Million-and-One Questions
You’ve been there – stuck in rush-hour traffic, your teeth clenching, your fingers gripping the wheel – while your precious little one pings you with a million questions from the car seat. “Mommy, why is the sky blue? How many stars are there in the whole wide world? How many people? How many suns? How […]
Chris Erskine: On ‘Daditude,’ Humor and Dealing with Grief
My eyes were a faucet, leaking tears that dropped onto the newsprint and merged with the ink that made up Los Angeles Times writer Chris Erskine’s first column about the death of his oldest son, Christopher, in March. I tried to imagine the columnist at his writing desk, crafting raw grief into words as clear […]
Breegan Jane: Designing New Visions for Work and Family
In 2014, Breegan Jane had the kind of wedding that inspires dreams. With glowing skin and an adorable baby bump, she wore a gorgeous sand-colored gown as she and her groom stood barefoot on the beach. But since the couple’s marriage and Leona, a restaurant they owned, fell apart a few years later, she has […]
Mike and Heather Spohr: Survival of the Fittest for Parents of Toddlers
If you love “The Walking Dead” but have young children at home, you’ve probably fallen behind in your consumption of the zombie show – or anything like it. Next time you tuck your tot in, get your fix via a hilarious parody of zombie survival guides: “The Toddler Survival Guide.” Written by husband and wife […]
The Magic of Orlando Stretches Beyond Disney
I’ve been visiting Orlando once or twice a year since my mother moved there 20 years ago, and while Walt Disney World held its magic during those early years – and then again when I became a mom, watching my little boy’s eyes light up with wonder – these days, my family and I rarely […]
#CampReady in Los Angeles: Outwit Summer Brain Drain
Imagine, for a moment, that you are on “Jeopardy!” Host Alex Trebek rattles off the answer to the question you need to provide: “This phenomenon results in two to three months of academic learning loss in school-age children.” You punch your buzzer and light up your podium. “What is summer brain drain?” you yell, triumphant. […]
Mackenzie Hancsicsak of ‘This is Us’: Tackling Big Issues With Her TV Family
On a recent morning, sandwiched between a hair appointment, a Golden Globes gifting suite and a wardrobe fitting at Paramount Studios is Mackenzie Hancsicsak’s interview with me at the L.A. Parent office in Woodland Hills. The 10-year-old has grown used to the schedule that her role as young Kate Pearson on the Screen Actors Guild […]
Elizabeth L. Silver: Dealing with Uncertainty in the NICU
When we bring our first newborn baby home from the hospital, we expect that we’ll be up at ungodly hours. We have been told by loved ones and strangers alike that our lives are about to change forever. In the midst of our nervousness and joy, we accept these night- and life-altering changes with chagrin […]
Having the Race Talk with Kids: Parenting Resources by Age
I grew up in a small paper-mill town in central Louisiana during the late 1970s and ’80s – a time still rife with the lingering effects of segregation. My family lived on what folks called “the black side of town.” On the bus ride across town to school every morning, my friends and I fawned […]