According to the National Retail Federation, Americans will spend $17.6 billion for Valentine’s Day. While there are probably some diamonds in the mix, it’s safe to say the world’s landfills will be clogged with drugstore stuffed gorillas and plastic hearts a few weeks from now. 

My two-year-old recently started her first tumbling class. Since she tends to be on the shy side, her first class was a little, shall we say, “scream-y.” By the second, she was rolling and jumping with the rest of the kids. 

“That’s great,” one acquaintance said to me. “We’ll fix that little introvert yet!” 

You’re no doubt familiar with those family game night commercials – where the kinfolk are gathered around the dining room table playing Sorry! or The Game of Life. Sister makes a pun as she wins the game. Brother does the “Aw, shucks” arm swing. Mom and dad guffaw and give each other the “Isn’t our spawn darling?” eye gaze.

Often the one thing holding our daughters back from achieving their dreams is poor self-esteem.

When reality star Kendra Wilkinson showed off her newborn son in magazines last December, I thought, cute baby, but OMG, check out her nails! They were perfectly manicured! And dark! I can’t remember the last time I wore dark red polish.

As moms, we happily trade vanity for motherhood. We give up manicures so we can spend that extra half an hour playing with our little ones – or catch up on a week’s worth of laundry.

But sometimes, darn it, we just want to look pretty. 

I’m not a huge reality TV fan, but when you’re doing some mind-numbing chore, it’s good background entertainment. One of my favorites has been Oxygen’s Bad Girls Club. Until recently. One Sunday, I was folding laundry, watching the Bad Girls hit some random L.A. club. I didn’t notice my 3-year-old sneak in and catch up on the action herself, which was particularly lovely since there was some major cat fighting going on.