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Dear Reader: New Year, New Community

It's time for change and it's starts here

Alayne Sulkin
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Published on: December 28, 2018

Friends celebrate the new year with sparklers

We love kicking off the New Year with an issue chock-full of useful and (hopefully) inspiring content for parents of children of all ages and stages. Our new feature, Parent Day Jobs, will introduce you to a diverse community of moms and pops who navigate the delights and trials of parenthood — and also make a difference in the lives of other families every day; we begin with a mindful mama, pediatrician Dr. Tiffany Spanier.

Monthly print and daily digital content flows your way thanks to our dedicated team of editors who seamlessly weave together a puzzle arcing content from the free, fun, get-out-of-the-house-now variety (the popcorn!) to the most fascinating brain and health research (what we like to call the broccoli).

As parents, a paramount concern is our kids’ mental health. You don’t need the stats from recent studies to know that “our kids are so stressed; they literally cannot stop worrying.” You can have an impact! Get serious in 2019 about your family destressing together with a commitment to a family fitness routine, whether you define your home team as gregarious geocaching types or yoga devotees. Go find your family’s “moving and grooving” motion, and stick to it! Everyone will be in a superior state of mind.

Maya Sulkin, with mentor, dance instructor Shannon Adams
Maya Sulkin, with mentor, dance instructor Shannon Adams

Superior is the benefit provided to any kid lucky enough to land a devoted mentor. Our 5'10" daughter spent 11 years, both buoyant and struggling, as a devoted ballerina. She had extraordinary mentors who helped guide her to develop her poise in ways I never could. The endless gift she received was far beyond expert instruction; she had a safe refuge to freely emote about her frustrations and goals without the judgement a parent often brings.

Judgement often leads us to a place of intolerance and hatred of others. In 2019, ParentMap will explore and action a year-long, multi-channel campaign on “teaching tolerance.” Throughout the year, we will confront the staggering fact that Seattle ranks no. 3 for hate crimes in the United States. Respect, acceptance and appreciation of the diversity of our community’s cultures, religious expression and ways of being human in our schools and other third places is sorely lacking. Parents (as their children’s first and best teachers) and educators cannot be complacent — hate, division and ignorance must not be the accepted norm. We will ask you to help us move our community from inertia to harmony, and we hope that as we explore these issues and ideas together that we gain a glimpse at what lies beyond “mere” tolerance.

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