Carnegie Hill Mom

If it takes a whole village to raise one child, then thank goodness I live in New York City. As a stay-at-home mom of four on the Upper East Side, I’m grateful for my network of friends, babysitters, and neighbors who help when I need to be multiple places at once. Within 15 minutes of both my babysitters calling in sick today, I recruited a neighbor to monitor my sleeping toddler and a classmate’s dad to pick up my twins from Kindergarten while I hopped on the bus to collect my third from preschool. Finding last-minute creative childcare solutions that are affordable means embracing our beloved city. While some parents might be daunted by the thought of raising kids in New York City, especially when family lives across the country, there are certain characteristics of NYC life that work in moms and dads favor when it comes to childcare. Love your neighborhood Take advantage of high population density. Look for a sitter in your local neighborhood so her punctualit...

Some twin parents cope with newborn chaos by camping out at home. We survived by staying on the move, buckling up for the wild ride ahead. We warmed up by strolling our twins home from the hospital, ramped it up with daily walks in Central Park, and by two weeks old launched into our first mini road trip: 75 miles from New York City to New Hope , PA. We discovered rest stops and scenic turn-offs we never knew existed as we tried to calm a chorus of newborn tears with side-of-the-road breastfeeding, messily mixed formula, diaper changes in the trunk, and (finally) me sitting between the car seats where the babies could cling to my index fingers. We navigated our double stroller over the bridge from New Jersey to Pennsylvania and into a restaurant with outdoor seating that we had frequented as a married couple. All I remember is trying to juggle babies, bottles, breasts, and what I’m sure was a delicious meal that mainly ended up in a to-go box. Note to multitasking diners, ord...

Have you ever noticed how kids vie for your attention at the most inconvenient times? Ridiculous, rude or lazy demands irritate me and often get ignored. But there’s one type of request that I feel horrible brushing off: story time. “Mom, will you read this book to me?” “Arrgh, there’s too much going on right now,” I say while the kitchen timer beeps, my one-year-old practices standing on the edge of the couch and my three-year-old sings, “I need a wipe! I need a wipe!” “Mom, can we read this book?” “Sorry, sweetie. There’s no time. We’re trying to get out the door.” “Mom, what does this say?” “I can’t see what you’re reading,” I yell from the shower. “Ask your brother.” My new year’s resolution is to create more opportunities to say yes to my kids , especially regarding their hunger for reading. It might mean planning an extra five minutes of wiggle room in our morning routine to save time for a book. It likely means reducing screen time (...

The true sign of a veteran traveler is the ability to roll with the punches that holiday travel throws your way. An involuntary bump taught me to hope for the best but pack for the worst. It all started when we didn’t bother with online check-in the day before our flight, knowing that we’d need to see an agent at the airport anyway to get our infant-in-arms boarding pass. Southwest also lets families board between the A and B groups, so the exact boarding position printed on your boarding pass doesn’t need to be an A to get seats together. While my husband returned the rental car, I took my time getting our four kids through security and the bathroom and snagged some empty seats by the window so we could watch the airplanes before I asked the gate agent for a stroller check tag. That’s when the agent informed me that they didn’t have room for our party of six on the flight. If you tell that to a mom who has spent that last several hours exerting ridiculous amounts of em...