Author: Mackayla Turley

I’ve written about screen time as an adult – now it’s time to face the bigger challenge: kids’ screen time. It’s getting out of hand, y’all.A six year old does not need a smart phone.A ten year old does not need a facebook or instagram profile. Kids can be taught to eat at restaurants, go to a grocery store, and be in the general public without being handed an iPad. I’d even go so far as to argue that’s the only way they will learn how to behave appropriately in those situations. I know it’s a hard pill to swallow.…

Years ago, I read a poem and it’s been stuck in my head ever since. Dust If You Must by Rose Milligan is certainly worth looking up and committing to memory but it doesn’t quite capture my life circumstances right now. (What’s snow? Swimming a river? I wish!) With that in mind, I tweaked it a bit and printed to put in my closet for a daily reminder as I get dressed. Here’s my version: Dust if you must, but wouldn’t it be betterTo color a picture, or write a letter,Bake some bread, or plant a seed;Ponder the difference between…

The highlight of our summer will undoubtably be an upcoming road trip to visit family…though you wouldn’t know it when assessing the preparations for said vacation. I am the clothes packer, snack prepper, and entertainment planner for our trips; as I’m sure most moms are. This means a few days before we leave, I will get out the duffle bags and shove pretty much the kids’ entire wardrobes in. I’ll last-minute grab myself three t-shirts, two pairs of shorts, a few underthings, and tell myself that doing laundry on a trip is inevitable anyways. Hubby will be in charge of…

We are facing a screen time epidemic. I’m not talking about the kids – though the studies about adolescent screen time are damning and worth discussing. I’m talking about us: moms, grown-ups, adult society in general. How many hours of your day is spent looking at a screen? How many hours of your year? How about of your life? Screen time is tricky- it provides short-term enjoyment, but the opportunity cost is missing out on long-term development, growth, and enjoyment in many areas of life. Everyone’s seen the eye-catching, dramatic statistics before. We’ve all heard how the average person spends…

 If you’re really, really lucky, you have a friend that makes you a better person. Not just improves your life – that should be all friendships – but pushes you to grow and improve as a person. I must have wished on the right shooting star as a kid, because I have a couple of these friends – over the past few months they’ve really shifted my views on priorities, parenting, and community overall. Who you hang out with really influences your values, behavior, and thinking…which is how our family ended up putting in a commercial-strength tetherball in our backyard.…

At this point, I’m hoping my column has convinced you to pare down the items in your home to a manageable level. If it hasn’t, maybe click back to the Clear the Clutter article and give it a re-read. Once everything has a home within your home, it becomes a matter of resetting to baseline. After all, just because you’ve jettisoned the junk and cleaned the crevices doesn’t mean the rest of your stuff won’t get used and moved around, nor will dust stop accumulating or kid spills magically clean themselves. I keep the house in check with a morning…

A Perfect Parent I used to be a perfect parent,before I had babies of my own.I knew I could be superior,the perfection mine alone. Then they came,one, two, and three.My own little world,as perfect as could be. Hold on, now wait,what was this?After all my preparation,my perfection was amiss. I had lessons to learn,and character to grow.My babies deserved better,this is the love they’ll know. Patience to master,a temper to cool,there are many thingsto learn in parenting school. I’ll keep tryingto do my best.It helps knowingat least my love passes the test. Disclaimer/Reality Check: We’re all just doing our best.…

 Pahrump Mother’s Corner’s 4th Annual Baby Shower is coming up, and giving back to the community is on my mind. As I’ve gone through the beginning stages of parenthood, giving has looked very different as the kids’ needs change. In the season of newborns, I was barely keeping my head above water to give – I was able to participate in meal trains and organize occasional get togethers, but that was my limit. With young toddlers I found more free-time, albeit with said toddlers underfoot, and was able to focus on building a large community to support moms where the…

Finding friends as an adult can be difficult. Friendships no longer form over favorite dinosaurs or a love of building mud pits. There isn’t the commonality of classes or clubs to meet new people regularly. Opinions on serious topics, busy schedules, and lack of introductions all get in the way of making adult friends. Parenting only compounds the complications – add kids activities to the already packed schedule and parenting practices to the list of very strong opinions. For extra difficulty, realize how others treat your kids plus ow their kids treat your kids (and vice versa) will have an…

Mother’s Day is coming up. It’s a tricky holiday; a holiday where the usual magic-maker wants the magic made for her. In our household, I handle most traditions, gifts, surprises, and holidays. Birthdays, Half-Birthdays, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, St. Patricks, Easter, Fourth of July, the list goes on and on; the mama magic does it all. But Mother’s Day? Does the mama magic have to work for herself, too? Our household had consistently rough Mother’s Days before I decided to explain the expectation. I would secretly hope for cute candid pictures of me and the kids, huge hugs, grateful kiddo thank-you’s,…