Want to get your kid off the couch and into a sport? Here's an idea you probably haven't tried: buy them a video game. Well, not just any video game. A sports video game.

Oh come on, stop rolling your eyes! Even science agrees that playing sports video games can totally improve your kid's skill on the field.

When you marry a video gamer, you realize you will probably raise video gaming kids. It's inevitable. What you don't realize?

One day you will realize that those video game consoles taking up space underneath your TV are the best friends you can always count on. Learn to use them wisely, and those gadgets and gizmos can make you a saner,  nicer, kinder parent. Seriously. Just look at the evidence:

Are your kids getting excited for the Easter Bunny yet? I know my little guy is. He wakes up pretty much every day and asks me what kind of treats I think he will find in his basket.

And while we still have a couple of weeks to go before Easter Sunday arrives, now is the perfect time to do some fun crafts with your kids to get them ready for the holiday and excited for spring.

I've said before that I'll never be a 'Free Range' kind of mom. The world is just filled with too many sickos and perverts to make me let my son go into the men's room alone and things like that. When it comes to encouraging my kids to take worthwhile risks, however, to push their own physical limits and face their fears, I think it's one of the most important things we can do as parents. The fourth grade skier in this video, Zia Terry, is a perfect example of why.

There she is at the top of huge ski jump in Park City Utah. She's clearly terrified, but wants to do it. “I’ll be fine. I’ll do it,” she tells herself. So with a camera strapped to her helmet to record the feat, she musters up her courage, and offers up final, "Here goes something, I guess."

Then she goes. 

If your family is like mine, most weekday mornings are a frenzy of activities as lunches are packed, homework is searched for, and socks are hunted down. While we always manage to get breakfast on the table, it's usually about how quickly we can get it there. Let's just say my toaster oven and microwave see most of the action during the week.

The weekends, however, are another story. Things slow down; we lounge in pajamas, and I have the luxury of serving up something a little more substantial that everyone loves. In my house that means pancakes. I love having one day designated to a fun breakfast that everyone looks forward to. But as wonderful as it is, it's also great to change things up. That doesn't mean parting with the pancakes, it just means pepping up the tradition a bit. Here are five ways to do just that on those slower Saturday mornings.

When you have a child, people tell you that becoming a parent will change you. I'd always thought they meant I'd become more tired and cranky. (Mission accomplished!) But what took me by surprise is how many things I used to hate -- or at least dislike -- that I came to love. Like kids' music and robots and pirates.

Forget about shaping your child. Your child shapes you. Goodbye, grown-up vacations in foreign cities, touring museums and lingering in cafes. Now we're chasing manta rays and sharks in Florida -- a place I had absolutely ZERO interest in before I became a parent. I'm adding that to the list of things I used to dislike but learned to love in 2011.

There are a lot of reasons not to act like a crazy person at your children's sporting events and activities. Little ones like the fact that you may embarrass them and yourself, and that people will be scared of you. Then there's the big one -- someone might film you and post it on YouTube for the entire world's amusement.

That's just what happened to this woman when someone who goes by HogAlleyHogs captured her ... uh, enthusiastic cheering for her daughter at a cheer and dance competition last week. I would try to describe her actions to you, but it's hard to find words. Watch for yourself and see.

While sports are great for exercise and keeping kids active, more than anything I want my children to play them because of the lessons they learn in doing so. Lessons like working together as a team, pushing yourself beyond what you think you are capable, and always doing your best. That's why a case out of Arkansas in which an 11-year-old boy is being benched for doing his best has me so riled up.

Demias Jimerson, 11, plays running back for his team at Wilson Intermediate School, and he's good. Really good. "He is going to score almost every time he touches the ball," his principal, Terri Bryant, told Fox. Which should be great, but instead of celebrating his unique talent, the league has limited his scoring and invoked a rule, known as the Madre Hill Rule, in which he's only allowed to score three touchdowns per game if his team has a 14-point lead over the opponents.