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Welcome to Mom and Dad are Fighting, Slate's Parenting Podcast for January 16, 2014,

the Be Present Edition.

I'm Dan Cois, an editor at Slate.

I'm the dad of Lyra, who is eight, and Harper, who is six.

And I'm Alison Benedict, also an editor at Slate, and the mother of Harry, five, Sam, three this week, and Wally, 11 months old.

Happy birthday, Sam.

Thank you.

So today, in today's episode, we're going to talk about mindful parenting with Carla

Nounberg, who blogs on the subject at Sykes Central.

Is mindful parenting just another parenting trend that makes me feel bad that I can't

fulfill its requirements, or can it actually help me not yell at my kids all the time?

In our second segment, we'll talk about summer camp sign up, which is upon us already,

and argue about the various philosophies of summer parenting for kids, both young and old.

But first, our parenting fails and triumphs of the week.

Allison, you want to go first?

Sure, I have a triumph.

This is my first triumph.

Hooray, ever.

Ever, right.

It's the small one. But my five-year-old... Small steps. Small steps. Right, right. My five-year-old Harry, who's in kindergarten, about a week ago, he just kind of started mentioning around the house that he was hosting a pirate party, and we kind of weren't paying attention. I weren't really listening.

...