Every year, around mid-December, my husband and I sit down to make a list of the people we need to tip or buy gifts for during the holiday season. Every year the list grows longer. And since we've had kids? Well, honestly, it's gotten a bit crazy. There are teachers and teachers' aides, babysitters and school bus drivers, and the people who cut our children's hair (in addition to the people who cut our own). There's the woman who cleans our house twice a month -- a luxury, yes, but also a concession to the fact that as working parents, we simply couldn't keep up with the mess made by two children and still expect to spend any quality time with them.

And that's not to mention the mail carrier and the garbage collectors and the newspaper-delivery guy and all the other workers who frequently populate holiday-tipping checklists. Is it me, or can the holidays just about bankrupt a well-meaning family?

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Every once in a while, you read an essay in a newspaper or magazine that knocks your perspective sideways, making you decide you're going to live your life just a little bit differently.

I've just read one of those pieces. In it, New York Times writer Timothy Egan wonders about our children's futures, the fear we parents have about them, and the way we groom our kids to believe that, if they work hard and achieve in school, great things await them. The reality, he notes, is that it's a tough world out there, that even the graduates of top colleges are having a hard time finding jobs, and that those jobs are often not all that great.

How do we prepare our kids for that?

If you're the type who follows the box office buzz, you might have heard that feel good family flick Dolphin Tale took The Lion King 3D down a peg or two this past weekend. Too bad it won't last. This two-week stint of having to repeatedly tell the kids that you could watch the same flick at home for a whole lot less is a sign of things to come, frugal moms and dads.

Hollywood has heard the roar of the lion. And they're adding to the cacophony by torturing parents on a budget, er, hitting up the archives to deliver a whole slate of movie re-releases. Get your wallets ready, Mom and Dad, or start arming yourself with excuses to protect your bank account!

Do you ever catch yourself saying to your child (or under your breath within hearing distance of your child), "God, my job sucks." You can be forgiven for railing against the man with children present, especially given this not awesome job market and the general lack of respect for moms in the workplace.

But now that my oldest child is old enough to understand what a job, and work, actually is I've changed my tune. Mostly because the last thing I need is to raise a child who thinks work is evil, and basically the only thing keeping her parents away from her, when all we really want is to just be together. That kind of thinking is wrong, and that kind of influencing of a minor, is even worse.

I pulled myself together and really thought about what it was I wanted to convey to my daughter about not only work, but specifically my work. This may be way too ambitious, but I seized the opportunity and turned it into a big old teachable moment about family, work ethic, and life in general.

As if we didn't have enough to worry about raising kids in 2011, the Federal Trade Commission is out there scaring the pants off parents today with its Stolen Futures forum. Just the name sounds ominous, doesn't it? The problem? Your kid is prime pickings for identity theft, and it could take years before you figure it out.

OK, off the bat, it sounds a tad crazy. My kid doesn't have a credit card. She is always siphoning out of her piggy bank and begging to use it for ice cream. What would identity thieves want with her? She's a bit spendy! And yet, in 2006, more than 10,000 identity theft claims were filed on behalf of kids under 18.

For sale: know-it-all tween who, despite having all the answers, can’t seem to keep track of homework or know when to keep mouth shut. Omnipotent Preteen Princess comes with amazing acting ability and can command tears in the face of impending punishment. Make best offer.

I kid, of course. If sarcasm could be converted into patience, I’d have what I need to deal with Miss Thing’s antics. Yesterday, I got an irritated call from a teacher — in the middle of the day, which you know is hardly ever good news — who told me that Skylar had been talking excessively in school. During the obligatory heart-to-heart after this sort of thing goes down, she told me she doesn’t always confide in me because (wait for it) I try to teach her too much.

She ain’t seen the half it. There are oodles of things I — and other moms — need to get across to our daughters before they gallop across the threshold of womanhood. 

It's the year 2011. You know that, I know that, but apparently Paul Smith, a rabid, old-school traditionalist who also happens to be County Commissioner in Frederick, Maryland, hasn’t seen a calendar — or taken a whiff of the real world — in quite some time. His political platform is informed by his passionate Mormon beliefs, which is fine as wine when he’s not pushing the tenets of his faith on other folks.

But we practice the separation of church and state here, and Smith's 1950s nostalgia has inspired him to slash half of the funding to the Head Start program in Frederick County, located about 45 minutes outside of Washington, D.C. Why? Well, in a nutshell, he believes modern-day women are too busy chasing the almighty dollar in order to keep up with the Joneses and are just unwilling to make the financial sacrifices necessary to stay home with our children.

In other words, you ought to be ashamed, you money-grubbing materialistic mom, you.