The Best and Useful Gifts for New Moms

When a woman gives birth, she becomes selfless and only thinks about her baby. You can help her by buying her thoughtful gifts that would make her experience as a new mom pleasant.

Welcoming a new baby calls for celebration. Celebrating the birth with a gift is a brilliant way to share joy, especially if you cannot see the parents or baby in person. When buying a gift for the baby or the parents, think about how it will make life easier for both mom and baby. The following are some of the most valuable gifts you can give after the arrival of a new baby.

1. Baby Vests
A baby should have at least ten vests, short-sleeved and long-sleeved. In the real sense, baby vests are tops with a crotch, and they are sometimes called bodysuits. They are convenient as they form the basis of all outfits, no matter the day or season. On a hot day, a newborn needs a short-sleeved vest, and when the weather is chilly, they’ll require a long-sleeved vest as the first layer of clothing. You can buy a few plain white, and the rest is cute designs and colors depending on the baby’s … Continue reading..

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Does Your Child Stutter? Help for Parents by Dr. Heather Grossman, Clinical Director of the American Institute for Stuttering

If you are a parent of a child who stutters, watching your child struggle to speak can be heartbreaking. You may worry how their speech will affect their ability to make friends, participate in school, speak up for themselves, and the list goes on. You probably have so many questions. Is it really stuttering? Will they outgrow it? Should I address it at all?

If you look online, you will find many differing opinions about the best practices for treating childhood stuttering, and about stuttering in general. It can seem overwhelming to navigate. But, excellent guidance and support are available.

Basic information about stuttering

The cause of stuttering is multi-factorial, meaning that a combination of different factors results in stuttering. It is inheritable, and runs in families. Given a genetic predisposition to stuttering, it is then “triggered” by environmental factors and other aspects of the child’s genetics, temperament, and speech-language skills.

Treatment for stuttering differs greatly from therapy for other speech-language difficulties such as those involving articulation or language formulation. At the present time, there are fewer than 160 speech-language pathologists (also known as speech therapists) who have received Board certification as fluency specialists from ASHA (the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association). … Continue reading..

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My Visit to RiseNY by Robin Gorman Newman

As a native New Yorker, I have long enjoyed what the city has to offer, so when I heard of RiseNY and was invited to visit, I seized the opportunity.

RiseNY, a new attraction in NYC that opened last month, is an immersive love letter to the Big Apple that pays tribute to the beloved city through exhibit, film and ultimately a ride that lifts you off your feet, literally.

Located at 160 West 45^th Street – between 6th and 7th Avenues, it is well situated in the Times Square/Theatre District area, to conveniently catch the eye of both tourists and ardent New Yorkers.

The visit begins when you take the elevator up, and you find yourself in a re-creation of the city’s first subway station where you watch a brief film about NYC’s global impact by award-winning documentarians Ric Burns and James Sanders, and narrated by actor Jeff Goldblum. As the film ends, a present-day simulated subway car transports you to the galleries that showcase the pop-culture evolution of NYC and its worldwide impact.

Each of the seven themed galleries – Finance, Skyline, TV/Radio, Fashion, Music, Broadway and Film – highlight historical events, inventions, and people that … Continue reading..

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Penelope: Show Review by Debra Nussbaum Cohen

Women have created and written many things for which men received the public credit. The game Monopoly, for instance, contrary to the tale written on a paper long included with every new game, was created as a cautionary tale by Elizabeth Magie, a staunch anti-capitalist. Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke, is believed by some to have written works attributed to William Shakespeare. And Homer’s “The Odyssey?” Some scholars suggest that the tale of Odysseus, king of the Greek city Ithaca, and his decade-long journey home from the 10 yearlong Trojan War, was not written by the poet Homer, to which it has been traditionally credited, but rather by Odysseus’s queen, Penelope.

Hung on the thread of this thin historical possibility, as noted in the program, a delightful new musical, titled “Penelope: Or How the Odyssey Was Really Written,” has been created by Peter Kellogg (book and lyrics) and Stephen Weiner (music). Produced by The York Theater Company, it is playing its world premiere at the Theater at St. James on the Upper East Side.

It tells the story primarily from Penelope’s perspective. Beset by five men known collectively as her suitors, Penelope must contend with their eating and drinking her … Continue reading..

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Help: Show Review by Debra Nussbaum Cohen

The title of a new play now being performed at The Shed in midtown Manhattan is “Help.”

“Help” as a demand. A scream uttered by the narrator, a Black woman standing in for playwright, poet and essayist Claudia Rankine.

“Help” is a challenging 90 minutes of theater focused on white (especially male) privilege and on Black anger at the endless emotional work of conforming to White expectations. An important and timely subject, especially in a still-fractured post-Trump America, where we continue to deal with the noxious racism, sexism and classism that the former president’s overtly crass cruelty unleashed into public view.

There is nearly nothing entertaining about “Help.”  Okay, perhaps the dance numbers into which the nine men and two women of the company occasionally and inexplicably break. At the end of one such number, when the company is gathered center stage and raised their hands in a Nazi salute, was discomfiting.

The world premiere of “Help” is a polemic which frequently feels more like being in a college lecture on the Black experience in modern America than theater.

Which, in fact, it is. “Help” is written almost verbatim on an essay Rankine wrote in The New York Times in … Continue reading..

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From Strength to Strength by Arthur C. Brooks (Book Excerpt)

2. The reverse bucket list

A second way to get started on the task of chipping away is to look at the counsel we get that is making us into dissatisfied homo economicus, and simply doing the opposite. For example, self-help gurus often give the advice to make an inventory of the bucket list on your birthday, so as to reinforce your worldly aspirations. Making a list of the things you want is temporarily satisfying, because it stimulates dopamine, the neurotransmitter of desire, which is pleasurable.

But it creates attachments, which create dissatisfaction as they grow. Remember my friend I told you about earlier, who fruitlessly sought satisfaction by checking off all his items. As the Buddha says in the Dhammapada, “The craving of one given to heedless living grows like a creeper. . . . Whoever is over- come by this wretched and sticky craving, his sorrows grow like grass after the rains.” ²² Personally, I have gone in the other direction instead–compiling a “reverse bucket list” to make the ideas in this chapter practical and workable in my life.

Each year on my birthday, I like my worldly wants and attachments–the stuff that fits under Thomas’s categories of … Continue reading..

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This Space Between Us: Show Review by Robin Gorman Newman

When you see a play that leaves a lot of room for questions, it then leaves a lot to be desired.  Such is the case with This Space Between Us, the new play by Peter Gil-Sheridan in its world premiere presented by Keen Company and directed by Jonathan Silverstein.

Billed surprisingly as a comedy, and it kicks off that way, the tone quickly shifts as it endeavors to provoke by introducing what feels like a cornucopia of issues, none of which get explored in a satisfying manner.

When we meet the family and others, they are convening at a racetrack for a fun afternoon, which ultmately turns sour.  Jamie, an attorney in his 30s, is meeting his parents, dad Cuban Frank, mom Debbie, and aunt Sister Pat, a nun.  They are readily joined by Ted, Jamie’s boyfriend and Gillian, a close friend of Jamie’s. While Frank gets elated when he wins a horse race, Jamie and Ted get visibly horrified when one of the horses gets injured and has to get shot out of mercy.  Yes….we hear the gun go off.  The significance?! To show the distinction in generational concerns?!

We see a birthday party thrown for Jamie, Ted winds … Continue reading..

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Is Your Teen Ready for Adulthood by Witty Ryter, author, Grown-Up Stuff Explained

The goal of every parent is to see their child grow up to be a self-sufficient, confident, and productive member of society. From the time they are born, we nurture our kids and give them everything we can to help them thrive. We try to fill their minds with positive messages and encourage them to have a strong moral compass, be genuine, and value an honest day’s work. We do all those things even though their young minds may not yet fully grasp the practical applications of our lessons.

While we spend a lot of time teaching our offspring about life, it’s simply impossible to cover everything they’ll need to know before they need to know it. Our days are so absorbed by constant distractions and competing priorities that we are often surprised by the fact that our toddlers are suddenly teens on the cusp of adulthood. Where did the time go? We ask ourselves that question, as we also wonder if they are ready to handle the challenges associated with being a grown-up.

For many young people, the initial answer is a resounding “no”. What else can 17-year-old kids say when they are about to turn 18 and will … Continue reading..

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