The number one distributor of toys in the world is McDonalds and nearly all of these toys I would classify as being annoying. They are either poorly constructed or they serve little to no purpose or most notably they make annoying sounds. Recently, our family has collected a few McDonald’s toys both to our shame and our children’s delight. Most of these toys are simply thrown away when the kids aren’t looking, because let’s face it—they’re trash to begin with. However,

Recently returning home from Cape May, NJ our family had an abnormally hellish ride home. We have three daughters and during our stay in Cape May they all managed to find dozens of amazing sea shells. Now, let me start by saying I am not the kind of guy that gets excited about sea shells but the sea shells they found were actually kind of impressive. My girls found many different kinds of shells over the course of the weekend but the really special ones were the conch shells. They found conch shells ranging from about a half an inch in height to several inches. One of the most large and brilliant shells actually had a resident still inside and this resident, of course, did not want to come out. The only way to get the creature out of the shell was to cook him out. After a boiling the shell with the mollusk in side for nearly ten minutes, the mollusk finally relinquished his control on the shell.

Totally required viewing:

*Note: this post isn’t to suggest in any way that these techniques are to be used to discipline children, but rather its point is to shed light on the fact that we as parents tend to flip out on occasion and poke fun at the universal reality which is sometimes parents flip out.*

As parents it can be a struggle against impossible odds to keep our cool when our kids relentlessly assault us on many levels as both a parent and human being.  With three girls myself it can be a losing battle many days.   For instance, here’s a typical scenario, my eldest takes a toy from youngest--my youngest, a 3 year-old, throws a toy train hitting my eldest in the head (and runs off)--at that same moment my middle child puts her foot in her milk and spills it everywhere.  In this hypothetical scenario I have one child crying because they know they are in trouble for hurting their sister, one child crying because they spilled milk everywhere (including all over herself), and one child is crying because a small train landed on their forehead mere seconds ago.  The cacophony of such a situation is enough to make a heavy metal rock star beg for silence—I theorize, but what about us professional parents?  Do you flip out?  What happens when you do?  How do we flip out correctly?