Lydia Seabol Avant
tuscaloosanews
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Past articles by Lydia:
THE MOM STOP: We survived the April 27 tornado and became stronger
I went to work that day one person, and came home someone else, as the shock of the destruction of my neighborhood and community started to sink in. → Read More
Rethinking holiday shopping traditions during pandemic
Stores are having more sales online and they are lasting longer. But however or whenever you buy the presents, hiding them in a good spot is a must. → Read More
Mom Stop: A friendly face helps brighten the day
Some people rarely get noticed – until we miss them. → Read More
The Mom Stop: Dreaming of a good night's sleep
Although we can't control what we dream about, there are some steps we can take to try to gain better sleep. → Read More
THE MOM STOP: ’Tis the season to want it all
It’s always around this time of year that our kids, specifically our 4-year-old daughter, are stricken with what we call “I-want-itis. → Read More
THE MOM STOP: Teach kids to see the good
It was on a daylong fourth-grade field trip with my daughter and her class last week that we visited Alabama’s capital, Montgomery.We toured the Capitol building, where Alabama voted to secede from the Union and where Jefferson Davis was sworn in as president of the Confederate States in 1861. We walked in front of Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.… → Read More
THE MOM STOP: Wounds heal as time passes
Oct. 15 is not usually a date I forget.For many moms or parents who have experienced miscarriages or infant loss, there are dates that are forever etched → Read More
THE MOM STOP: School is no place for paddles
When we were cleaning through my grandfather’s meticulously kept workshop after his death in 2011, there was the expected: the rows of tools in → Read More
THE MOM STOP: Don't punish good manners
It’s not uncommon in Alabama to hear the words “ma’am” or “sir” being uttered by a child still toddling around in diapers.Like “please” or “thank you”, to many Southern parents, saying “ma’am” or “sir” is part of raising your children right, a way to show respect, part of common manners. If it’s not said, some believe, then it reflects badly not only on the child, but the parents, → Read More
THE MOM STOP: Family story shaped by tornado
It was around 7 a.m. when a harsh buzzing alarm woke reverberated against the walls of our Orlando hotel room over spring break. Still, after walking 23, → Read More
THE MOM STOP: Flu bug bites at worst time
My 6-year-old’s cheeks were flushed with an abnormal shade of pink as he curled up on our playroom sofa early one morning, a few days before Christmas. I had been busy making the beds and packing suitcases, getting ready for our annual trek to my north Alabama hometown for Christmas at my mother’s house. I hadn’t paid much attention to my son just yet — but his lack of movement was unusual,… → Read More
THE MOM STOP: Free speech and football
During the first college football game of the season this fall, I had to nudge my 6-year-old son to take off his hat during the national anthem.As we stood with the rest of the crowd, he begrudgingly took off his Georgia Southern ball cap and placed his hand over his heart, giving me an inquisitive look of “Why?”It’s not often my boy wears ball caps. It’s also not often that we go places where… → Read More
THE MOM STOP: No need for play dates
Some would say that children today are plagued by helicopter parents who over-schedule their offspring with soccer practice and piano lessons, art classes → Read More
THE MOM STOP: The power of positve parenting
All parents want their child to behave.You love your kids, teach them manners, values and instill morals. You teach them the difference between right and → Read More
THE MOM STOP: Growing up in Tide country
My three kids were born in Tuscaloosa and are growing up within walking distance of the University of Alabama campus. We can hear the crowds roar at Bryant-Denny Stadium from our front yard, both my husband and I work at UA, I have two degrees from Alabama and two of our three kids have attended preschool on campus.When you are a Tuscaloosa native, being an Alabama fan is kind of a given.Now, we… → Read More
THE MOM STOP: It's our time to give back
I'll never forget a group of people — some of them homeless veterans — who were staying at the Salvation Army shelter when an EF4 tornado hit Tuscaloosa on April 27, 2011. They crawled from the wreckage of the badly damaged shelter and ran down the street to help pull people from other buildings that had been obliterated, digging victims from piles of bricks, cinder-blocks and collapsed… → Read More
THE MOM STOP: We won't let bigotry prevail
I relished weekends at my dad’s house when I was a kid. It meant working on craft projects, building things with my dad; it meant taking trips to the gas station for candy and putting pennies on the railroad tracks; it meant riding our bikes around his historic neighborhood in Athens, Alabama, and going downtown to get ice cream cones at the local pharmacy on the square. On one weekend visit,… → Read More
THE MOM STOP: Weighing the risks of repeating
When we found out we were expecting a baby boy due in August 2011, family members and friends started asking us before he was even born — "Will you hold him back in school?" and "Will you redshirt him?"We had hardly decided on a name yet, hardly even decorated our nursery before people began questioning our education plans. School seemed like eons away from that particular moment.In some areas… → Read More
THE MOM STOP: A change for the better
You could say that we timed the birth of our three children well: We’ve never had more than one child in diapers at a time.While there is an upside → Read More
THE MOM STOP: Pay the price for safety
My daughter was in first grade the first time she boarded a bus to school.I’ll admit, it was a bit of a foreign concept to me, a childhood → Read More