Ever had those times when you just want to laugh at your kids? Sure, there are always times when you feel like smoke is coming out of your ears you are so mad, but then there are the times you want to laugh. You should be scolding them and letting them know that their behavior is inappropriate, yet you can barely hold back that snicker that is bubbling up.

Maybe you don't have these moments when you want to laugh hysterically, but I sure do. Sometimes when I probably should be giving some long, boring, drawn out lecture I find myself barely able to control my laughter. Let me give you an example.

In order to keep my son from destroying an entire bag of Doritos (one of his favorite snacks) all in one setting, we have made a rule that chips are put in a bowl, not eaten out of the bag. Then we hide the rest of the chips. LOL.

Well, one day my husband and I were quite sick, and our son was fending for himself. He decided to have some Doritos (don't ask me how he ever was able to reach them in the cupboard above the stove…I cringe to think of it). I staggered out of the bedroom to check on him, and there he sat watching his favorite show eating Doritos out of a bowl.

I was so proud of him. He ate a serving out of a bowl (I thought) and I complimented him on following the rules. On to the kitchen I went. The sight that met me was hilarious. There on the counter sat an almost empty family size bag of Doritos. Surrounding it was six bowls. They all had Doritos crumbs in them. He didn't eat out of the bag…he just had a different bowl for each serving.

I started laughing hysterically. How could I scold him? After all, I had already complimented him on using a bowl. I just had to laugh.

I could tell you story after story where I wanted to laugh at something my kids have done. I don't have time to tell you all of them. Sometimes I have to admit to them that something really is funny. Of course then I tell them why it may not have been a good choice.

Let me know about some of your stories. I'd love to hear about the ways your kids make you laugh! Thanks for checking out Parents R Us again!

Welcome back to Parents R Us. Today I want to talk about an important topic - Mothers. As you all probably know, this past Sunday was Mother's Day. This is a special day that is set aside to honor and appreciate moms and it's been celebrated for quite a few years now. This history of this day is rich, and I don't have the time to get into all of the history today, but the goal of this day, no matter the name, has always been the same - to take the time out to thank moms for all they do.

I have to tell you that as a mom I really enjoy Mother's Day. I've spent many years spending Mother's Day thanking my own mother, and of course I still do that, but for the past two years I have been on the other end of Mother's Day as well - the mother. I've only been a mom for almost two years now, and my Mother's Day was very special. I spent the day with those that mean the most to me and was showered with love and some wonderful gifts.

More than ever before I actually do realize how amazing moms are. I really don't think any of us women end up properly appreciating our mothers until we become a mom ourselves. Somehow things are seen very differently when you have "walked a mile in their shoes." There are days that you wonder how your mom ever did all she did and wonder how you are going to accomplish everything you need to do. This thought brings me to the main topic I want to talk about…going beyond Mother's Day.

It's pretty easy for us to just remember moms on one day. We send cards, shower mom with gifts, send flowers, and it's one of the big shopping seasons of the year. Just walk into Wal-Mart the day before Mother's Day and you'll see the card isle crammed with people vying for those last few cards and frantic men searching frantically through the store for a gift for their wives.

The thing is, moms need to be appreciated all year long. Don't just take one day to remember all your mom has done for you and to thank her. You can do this any day. Sure, Mother's Day is a special day, but don't go through the rest of the year taking your mom for granted. It's easy to just take everything that mom does for granted. I know I have been guilty of that myself. We should never forget all that moms have done. Moms are amazing. In fact, I really do believe that many moms are "super" moms.

So, while you definitely want to make Mother's Day special, make sure you take time to thank mom all year long for what she does. You mother is amazing. No matter her faults, no matter the mistakes she has made, just say thank you and don't ever take her for granted. And…if you are a mom, pat yourself on the back - you deserve it!

Welcome back to Parents R Us! Today I want to talk to you about something that I feel is important, and something that many families have forgotten - family time.

Today we all lead busy lives. Think about your own life. How many things do you have to do every day? Sure, you do all the important things for your kids. You feed them, clothe them, put a roof over their head, but how much time are you spending with them?

It's easy in a hectic world, especially as your children get older, to have that family time together. However, building those family ties is important. Family is forever!

Here in our house, we have a special family night about once a week. Now I can't say that there haven't been times when the situation called for family night to be put off, such as when sickness hits, but we do our best to make this a weekly routine.

The choice of activity varies. Often we spend time watching a good family movie. In fact, last week we watched "Bedtime Stories" together, which ended up being a pretty cool movie for the family. There are other times where we play games, or sometimes we invite over extended family for a nice dinner and chat.

With parents and kids going a million different ways these days, too many times families forget to spend time together. Then as kids grow up, parents suddenly wonder why their kids basically shut them out of their lives. It's because those family bonds were not tightly build during time together.

Years ago before computers and cell phones, families spent more time together. They enjoyed each other's company. Now families text each other or leave an IM. While new technology is great, there is nothing that will ever take the place of quality time with your kids.

Take the time out to spend time together as a family. We've forgotten today how important family really is. Spending time together can help. No matter what you do, try to spend one night a week having special time together. You'll never regret it.

Hello everybody and welcome back to another installment of the immensely popular and hip blog Parents “R” Us. Today we are going to discuss parental rights and the political effort to remove these rights from you and to put the power in your children’s hands. I had blogged about this on my political blog Simple Man Politics, but I felt it necessary to bring it to this forum as well.

As parents we can’t let our rights to raise our children be stripped away from us. We raise our children with the morals, values, and beliefs that we were raised with or feel are very important to living a healthy life physically, emotionally, and morally. We also reserve the right to punish our children for their transgressions in an appropriate measure, or reward them for their accomplishments as well.

Parental rights and children’s rights have been hotly contested issues in recent years due to the rise of socially relaxed morals and values as evidenced by our current government and its policies. Now there is a new player in the game of parental/children’s rights and that is the United Nations and boy do they have it in for us parents.

The UN has this thing called the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. This piece of international language that they want to pass of as a treaty was ratified by the UN General Assembly on November 20, 1989 and entered into force in accordance with UN article 49 on September 2, 1990. What they want to United States to sign this treaty thereby giving the UN legal authority to enforce its rules against US citizens.

In a nutshell what this document says is that we as parents no longer have the right to punish our children. This document would also make spanking your child a criminal offense of assault. This document goes even further than that though it also implies that as a parent you have no right to know if your child is pregnant or o prevent an abortion. Basically this treaty puts the power in your child’s hands, but what does a child know about making responsible decisions.

There is however an organization out there with the information you need to know more details about this UN treaty as well as how to fight against its passage. The organization is parentalrights.org and its founder is a man by the name of Michael Farris. Michael Farris believes in protecting children by empowering parents, and it is from him that I first heard of this UN document.

That is all I have for you guys today, but look at the UN treaty and at parentalrights.org and you can see for yourself. I hope you all have an awesome day and a super weekend and we will be back again next week CIAO4NOW!!!!!