This past Tuesday, August 6, was my mother’s 31st anniversary in heaven. For some reason, this does not make me as unhappy as it used to or as unhappy as Mother’s Day sometimes makes me feel. I feel a certain nostalgia, maybe because the summer holds such special memories for me regarding my mother.

Many things in our society have changed, but the one constant is that Rockaway kids have the life. When we were kids, my mother barely used the car. We rode our bikes EVERYWHERE. While today’s kids

While writing this column, I started to research the term, “bucket list.” I had remembered a movie starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, which was made in 2007, and the research online says that is generally when the term was born. The two men break out of a cancer ward and attempt to do things they have wanted to do before they die. It comes from the phrase, “kick the bucket,” which we all know means to die. Another show I enjoyed was a reality show on MTV called, “The Buried Life,”

This weekend we celebrate Father’s Day. Of course, the dads get the better weather. It seems dads always get the better day. My friends are often running around on Mother’s Day and say, “There will probably be no sports scheduled for Father’s Day.” However, with all of the sports these kids are playing today, I am sure both parents will be running around this weekend, trekking these kids to lacrosse, soccer, baseball, softball or whatever sport kids are now playing.

I want to give a shout out

Babysitter: a person who looks after a child or children while the parents are out.

What has happened to the babysitter? Do kids still babysit? Do parents still hire babysitters?

It seems recently that kids are everywhere I go. Now, my children are 21 and 26, so I like the no children atmosphere. I know the babysitter is expensive but children do not belong in certain places at certain times. Here is my children etiquette column.

Children should not be in the following places:

I recently

The end of this school year has me scratching my head. If you read my column weekly, you know that I do not think everyone should get a trophy and that we need to be a bit tougher on our children. As a high school educator, I believe the quality many kids are missing today is grit. Many kids today cannot overcome obstacles as we have leveled all of the obstacles for them.

One reason I believe we are inflating the self-worth of our children is the constant praising of our children. When I say

Thank you so much for all of your emails this past week. Everyone seems to be on the same page with people needing beach etiquette. I just want to note these rules are for everyone, not just our visitors. My favorite text was from Beth O’Neill who said, “Love the column!!! I vote you make copies and I’ll help laminate and we will post all over the boardwalk and beach walls.”

Here’s Part 2:

Rule 4: PDAs. Our beach is a public beach, not a private beach on a romantic getaway. You may hold hands