Profile of Dara Squires

Biography

Dara Squires was born and raised in Newfoundland (except for a childhood stint in Quebec). Though she went away for university and work, she and her husband decided to raise their children in their home province. She currently lives in Corner Brook with her brilliant management librarian husband, her three angelic devils, and a bunny rabbit. A former literacy professional, she works from home writing and blogging. You can find her online at www.readilyaparent.com or contact her via her facebook group www.facebook.com/readilyaparent or her email darasquires@gmail.com.

 

All articles of Dara Squires

• What families need, at least from my side of the road
  Monday, Stephen Harper’s Conservatives started the debate raging about what families need to see in the platforms of the major political parties ...
• Giving and getting trust
  What do a two-year-old, a 14-year-old, and the country of Libya have in common? The fight for independence.Thankfully, our children’s fight is ...
• The true value of International Women’s Day
  Margaret Wente, that paragon of uninformed and self-serving reporting, published “For the Free, Educated, and Affluent, Welcome to the Century of ...
• Partisan parenting and guilt
  Did you go through natural labour or an elective C-section? Did you breast-feed or formula feed? Is your son circumcised or intact? Do you give ...
• Testing, testing: one, two, $200
  From the moment a couple decides they may even be considering getting pregnant, they become a prime marketing group. Conception, pregnancy, ...
• Maria and Heather: Will they turn out to be the next...
  Over two years ago, little eight-year-old Maria Aragon began loading videos of herself singing and playing cover songs of hits to YouTube using ...
• To teach them to survive must we teach them to lie?
  Honesty is the best policy. That’s what I try to teach my children and that’s what my parents taught to me. I’m also trying to teach them, like ...
• Sane safety or cultural coddling?
  Once there was a young woman who desperately wanted a baby. She started taking folic acid — to prevent spina bifida — and quit drinking alcohol — ...
• Why good mothers are superior
  The parenting world was in shock last week, as Amy Chua’s article “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior” appeared in the Wall Street Journal and ...
• Here be monsters
  Recently I read the tear-jerking true story “Things That Went Bump in the Night” by Anna Belle Kaufman. In it she tells of how she sprayed ...
• Bringing family to the table
  As a parent, I often look back at my own upbringing and wonder what exactly my parents did to help me become the adult I am.The fact is, they ...
• Ho, ho, hold me — how to support a nursing mom at...
  Do you find it hard to concentrate on your regular daily routine during Christmas? There’s the stress, the distractions, the interruptions, all ...
• The best gift
  My grandfather was a war veteran who knew how to tie a fly, brew wine, and bake the world’s best cinnamon buns. He fished with his tie on — and a ...
• Disorderly advice
  Last week, I was contacted by Tralee Pearce, a reporter from the Globe and Mail. She was writing an article about picky eaters in response to a ...
• Medicine for milk
  After over two years of deliberating, weighing the benefits and risks, and hemming and hawing, my husband and I have decided to put our eldest ...
• The Christmas Conspiracy
  Once again, Canada has a strong dollar heading into the Christmas season. So, once again, Canadians plan to spend more at Christmas.Christmas ...
• Parents: Please don’t break your children
  What parent hasn’t made mistakes? What parent hasn’t feared literally breaking their child? I’ve walked my newborn’s head directly into a ...
• Is your child addicted to social media?
  Last week, a 22-year-old mother in Florida pleaded guilty to second degree murder in the death of her three-month-old son. Apparently, the baby’s ...
• Taking some of the scare out of Halloween
  What’s scarier than ghosts, goblins and witches knocking on your door? Well, what you’re dropping into their outstretched hands could be way more ...
• Hospital needs more healthy choices
  Have you heard about the latest treatment approved by our health board? Truthfully, it’s been around for ages, but I’m just noticing it lately, ...
• Canada's child soldiers
  Six-year-old Adam Keeper is the youngest. Typically they’re adolescents like Dawn Marie Wesley, Hamed Nastoh, Emmet Fralick, Greg Doucette, Reena ...
• A baby-friendly
  I just wish mother’s milk flowed into every child born in this province as well. Newfoundland has the worst breastfeeding ...
• What we can learn to help our children learn
  High school students often have less than a half hour of homework a night. Primary students have no homework and are often not even formally ...
• The daycare dilemma
  And despite the fact that working women still only make about 71 cents to ever $1 that men make, these numbers still mean that women’s work is a ...
• It's bedtime, but where
  One of the biggest undertakings a pregnant couple engages in is “the baby’s room.” Picking the perfect crib, décor and accessories is important ...
• How to respond to a friend’s pregnancy loss
  I was shocked and confused. How will I explain this to everyone? How will I get through this? Fortunately, I didn’t need to know those answers ...
• Intervene ... or ignore the scene?
  In this case it was an attendant who took a crying baby from a slapping mother.The story has become blurred in the midst of all the media stories ...
• Victims of the corporate formula
  That column was inspired by the aftermath in the media when Pediatrics released a report analyzing the health-care costs of formula feeding. The ...
• The Parenting Licence
  And why not? In some ways, it makes utter sense. Adoptive and foster parents have to pass evaluations and tests in order to be allowed to take a ...
• The Parenting Licence
  And why not? In some ways, it makes utter sense. Adoptive and foster parents have to pass evaluations and tests in order to be allowed to take a ...