Editor's Note: Amy Mascott is taking a vacation from column writing for the summer to work on various other projects and spend time with her family while keeping her mom "mojo." Click here to read past "Mom and More" columns.

This weekend marks the first official weekend of summer break for county schools. So now what? Maybe you’re one of those parents who can’t stop smiling now that your kids will be home 24/7, or maybe you’ve noticed 10 new gray hairs in the few days since your kids have been on break. Maybe you fall somewhere in between. In any case, from now until mid-August, it’s "No more pencils, no more books," ... no more kids in school for the majority of the day. And no more schedule to keep families moving forward. So rather than have your family become nocturnal by summer week numero dos, here are some…

I never thought I’d do this, but I am skipping my high school class reunion. And you know what? It's not because I've got something to hide, 10 pounds to lose or big, conflicting plans that weekend. Sure, I can always improve, and I'd love a makeover. (Wouldn't we all?) I'm a mom who's doing what she can to keep her mojo—three kids and a crazy dog and all—but I'm just not feeling the reunion this time around. I loved high school. I enjoyed it all—the excitement and challenges, the anxiety and stresses. I was active in student government, a member a ton of clubs, a peer counselor and co-…

Dear Golf, I totally hate your guts. I can’t stand that you’re such a ridiculously long game. I don’t understand why you make people drive hours to play your courses. You’re too expensive; your equipment, your clothes, your fees are like a black hole for our hard-earned money. I’m fed up with your driving ranges, your 9-hole game and your dreaded, nasty 18-hole game. I am sick and tired of you, my kids are tired of you and we want you out. Who has an extra Saturday or Sunday for you to steal the precious morning or afternoon hours? I know I don’t. No way. There are places to go here, people …

I can hardly write this without tearing up. Most of the free world knows that Oprah taped her last show this past week, and I am terribly and completely and wholeheartedly sad—through my mind, body, and soul. In all seriousness, I am an intelligent, confident and comfortable mother of three in my mid-30s who really is not sure how she’ll move forward after Oprah’s farewell season. There. I said it. I. feellikeOprahismyrealbestfriend. I really do. So when the show’s over, and I don’t have a lineup of Oprah shows on the DVR ready for a tired me and my glass of wine at the end of the week, I’m …

Last year, on the last Thursday of the last week of school, my daughter came home from kindergarten acting out of sorts, blue and really, really down. I asked her what was going on and what happened that made her feel that way. "Our 'Word Wall' is down," she said. "The walls in our classroom are getting empty, and we took everything out of our cubbies today. It's not my same class, and it just ... makes me feel funny." She was suffering from the ole "A New Change Is A-Comin' Syndrome"—the same one that I still suffer from with the change of seasons, change of schedule, change of just about …

I loved him. No, I adored him.  When he first joined our family, he felt strong, he felt safe, he felt like home. I eagerly fell into step as his most vocal adorer. I unabashedly, proudly, bravely sang his praises whenever I had the opportunity: "He’s so smooth. He’s so sleek. He’s so cool." "He’s just so comfortable, so roomy. He’s so sweeeeet. He really is the best thing that’s happened to our family. He makes my days so much easier. We are all so happy with him." But today I ordered his seventh new hubcap. Seventh. Siete. Sept. Seee-venth. Seven. So my love affair with Vanny is abruptly …

Before the day arrives, it's the talk of playgroup: How are you planning on spending Mother's Day?  On "the big day," emails are thrown back and forth sending "Happy Mother's Day wishes to my favorite moms" and "Hoping you get a chance to enjoy your day!" Texts and tweets with Mother's Day greetings are passed around like hotcakes (yep, "hotcakes"), and it's impossible to ignore the well-wishes on TV, on the computer, literally everywhere you turn.  The talk of moms at drop-off and pick-up this week was, of course, how each person spent her Mother's Day. And I realized that there's a split, …

Hey, you over there. Yes, you. You know who you are.  You and I have run into each other for the last five—hear me, five—years, and I know my face is familiar to you. Yours is familiar to me. C'mon, how about we just stop for a second and say "hello"? Find out if our kids will go to the same school? I know we're both busy, but maybe we could help each other out? Be friends, perhaps? We see each other everywhere. We're both part of the early morning crew at the gym, and even though we're all wiping the sleep from our eyes at 5:15 a.m., you know that after a few days, weeks, months, you notice …

I almost want to laugh when I hear the words “Spring Break” because for most parents, this week or so off of school is the absolute furthest thing from a spring break as we once knew it. Obviously, as we enter into the world of parenthood, complete with 800 pounds of plastic baby gear, sleepless nights and diapers and spit-up, we experience a paradigm shift of epic proportion. And we have to. From the minute that baby enters our arms, our lives change in ways we never could have imagined. The way we view sleep changes. The way we view our home, our pets, our clothes, our everything changes, …

I never would have believed it before I became a parent, but a good babysitter is hard to come by. And what a family would do to secure a good sitter never ceases to amaze me. It used to seem like there was an over-abundance of high school kids just hanging around, waiting for a call to come and sit for my kids or mow my lawn, but that’s not the case. Kids these days are busy—B-U-S-Y—so between sports, lessons, activities and jobs, it’s hard to find a responsible teen who has a free night, let alone a free Friday or Saturday night. Or if I do stumble across one who’s not busy, she’s most …

Spring is here, and aside from a lot of cleaning, garage sale-hopping and yearning for summer, spring also means a new season of sports for many families.   And our little family is doing a jig of joy because we’ve fallen hard for our community sports league. You got it. We have a big-time crush. All of us—from our youngest (who wishes she were one year older so she could play) to my soccer-loving husband (who has waited his life to coach our kids). This year rings in our second spring of participating in organized community sports, and again, I am amazed, in awe and in love with the …

This is the first time since I’ve had my three children that I am able to come close to finishing a conversation with a friend while our kids play at the park. I’ve only recently even considered stopping for a cup of coffee on the way and then proceeding to drink it while we're there, for fear of drenching myself in the scalding stuff as I run to rescue a screaming kid. Now, with a kids who can eat, drink, and, walk on their own, I feel like it’s an altogether different ballgame. It’s all about my spot on the playing field when we’re at the park.  Lately, I have to strategically position …

Every time I look outside and see the first buds of spring on the trees in front of our house, I think of our friend Scott. Four years ago this month, through tear-filled eyes, I watched the spring breeze blowing through the branches of those very same trees, fresh with blooms. It was quiet—eerily calm—while I sat in our bedroom rocker and nursed my 2-day-old baby girl. I felt smothered by emotions at the time—elation at the fact that we had just brought home our tiny, healthy baby from the hospital and excitement and eagerness about our new family of five. I remember feeling nervous, scared—…

Homework schmomework. That’s honestly how I feel about the work sent home with kids, especially early elementary school students. Those are my feelings from a parent’s perspective, that is. I don’t see my kiddo all day long, and then I have to surrender more of my precious time with her to school work? Wasn’t she there all day? Come on. She’s so little. How important is this one silly worksheet anyway? But from a teacher’s perspective, I see things quite differently. Homework, when it reinforces concepts taught at school, is important, not only academically, but socially, as well. Homework …

For the last few weeks, my first-grader has had a major freakout at least one day a week before school. Crying. Whining. Lots of complaining. Dragging her feet. More crying. The first time, I wasn’t sure what was happening. It was a Thursday, so I thought she didn’t sleep well and was just hitting the end-of-the-week wall that we all sometimes hit. The second week, I thought it was just a coincidence that her upset was on a Thursday morning, but by the third week, I figured something was up with Thursdays. And I was right. Thursdays are math quiz days, those weekly little buggers that test a …

Horseback riding camp. Dance camp. Band camp. Modeling camp. Gymnastics camp. Language camp.  There’s a camp for every kid out there. If your child is into science, there are more than 25 camps she can choose from. If he’s into sports, there are about 200 he could choose from. Want a music camp? Got it. Art camp? Yes. Computer camp, sailing camp, or scout camp? Check, check, and check. It’s nuts to me, but kids can attend a motorsport camp, an extreme sports camp, a documentary filmmaking camp. They can spend time at an inventors’ camp, an animal-interest, cooking, or theater camp, even a …