Danyel Aversenti had a great response (via Facebook) to yesterday’s question (“What’s a reasonable budget for holiday spending?“);

“My Holiday Budget is whatever I can donate to charity is matched for what I spend on presents. One really wonderful charitable giving opportunity, of which I’ve contributed to for the past 2 holidays is buying presents for a family-in-need through the Coordinating Council for Children in Crisis in New Haven, CT. Whatever I am able to spend on that family, I match and spend on my own.”

Danyel gets it. One of the things I regret is being overly materialistic at the holidays. (I’ve always been a strong proponent of the “one for you, one for me” method of holiday shopping, but I’ve certainly never applied it to helping others!)

Join the conversation:  How can you regulate your children’s expectations of the holidays?

Having teenagers is weird; they’re becoming adults, and I continue to act like a child. (It’s the circle of life.)

And when it comes to getting them holiday gifts, it’s even more complicated…

Our guest conversationalists this week think the best gift for a teenager is money.

What do you think?

With the holiday travel season in full swing, this becomes an even more important parenting skill to have in your tool kit.

(Benadryl, by the way, is cheating.)

What’s your secret?

In our conversation at Geronimo, Paul Schatz noted the fact that it used to be common to treat all children the same way, but wondered if there needs to be “different ways to raise each kid to make sure they excel the most”.

Great question. This is one of the most confusing things for me as a parent.

How about you: should you treat all of your kids the same?

Mark Oppenheimer raised this question during our conversation at Claire’s about the whole “back to school” phenomenon.

We also discussed those tiny chairs they make you sit in for parent-teacher conferences. Are they kidding? If you can’t find me an adult sized chair, let’s just meet at Starbucks.

So, what is a good philosophy for parental involvement in schools?

Guest editor (and Yale soccer coach) Brian Tomkins raised this issue in the Glenwood episode, having witnessed ill mannered kids taking more than one hot dog in a long line at a camp lunch this summer.

The simple answer, of course, is for parents to model considerate behavior themselves: but based on the seemingly “epidemic” nature of this problem, we’re obviously falling short.

How can we, as parents, reverse the trend?

This extremely important question was pitched by provocateur (or should it be ‘provocatress’?) Danielle Ginetti from one of Duo and my favorite New Haven watering holes, 116 Crown in New Haven.

In Episode 3, Danielle shared her concern that “…there’s no set standard”, and I have to agree.

How are we supposed to be raising our children? Please share in the “Comments“!

There don’t seem to be any job openings for XBox players this summer, which is unfortunate, because I have a couple of highly qualified applicants living with me: my two teenaged sons.

I learned some valuable lessons while working on my own summer jobs: the fine art of getting a lot done in the morning, choosing a restaurant for lunch that doesn’t “card”, and finding quiet place to sleep in the afternoon.

If you’ve wanted more for your son or daughter in the summer job department and have met with success, please share in the Comments section!

This question comes from comes from Erik: “My 21 month old son … loves to throw his food while sitting in his high chair. I’m sick and tired of finding food all over the dining room wood floor. So what do [I] do? Need some answers … Debating whether or not to break out the flip video for proof. ”

I totally get Erik’s dilemma – it seems as though the second my kids got the hang of ingesting their food, they moved on to the considerably more entertaining act of propelling their food.

Have YOU experienced this conundrum? (Or, more importantly, did you find a solution that actually worked?!?)