Mary Novaria

                                                                                                                   Fotolia I get why teenagers want to go out on New Year's Eve, I really do. It's because they want to make us crazy. The reason I know this is because I was 17 once. There were few things worse than being home on New Year's Eve. It was worse than missing Prom, worse than not going to Florida for Spring Break, worse than flunking your driver's test. Dear old Dad always called New Year's Eve "amateur night"--a night fraught with beginning binge drinkers making asses of themselves, generally wreaking havoc, and possibly jeopardizing life and limb. Going out on this auspicious occasion w...

This piece first appeared in the Huffington Post on December 22, 2014 My mother's boots were on the wrong feet. The family was gathering at our house on Christmas Eve and my mom had yet to arrive. In the past year she'd begun showing up uncharacteristically late for things: Mother's Day brunch, dental appointments and, most recently, picking up her grandson from school. It was snowing hard and she didn't answer her cell phone. I pictured her Mazda in a ditch -- much the same as I did when my teenager wasn't home by curfew. My mother finally stumbled through the front door, stomping fresh snow from her feet, and I gave her a big hug of relief. But when she plopped down on the steps in the hall to pull off her puffy, black winter boots, my sister-in-law and I locked eyes in shared disbelief. OMG! Her boots are on the wrong feet! Suddenly the "mild cognitive impairment" the doctor had casually identified the previous spring didn't seem s...

As seen at The Good Men Project There's Dr. Ken -- Ken Jeong-- front and center, along with cast members Kate Simses (front right) and Dave Foley (fourth from left) after taping at Sony Pictures Studios.  We went for Dr. Ken and got the bonus of a little post-Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell romance… It was our very first sitcom taping so my husband and I had no idea what to expect. I was surprised that so much of the action actually took place, not on the set, but in the audience, highlighted by a charmingly unexpected feat of matchmaking involving two bachelor members of the U.S. Air Force.  Get the whole story here! 

As seen on Huffington Post I once made an 8-year-old cry at a soccer match when I pointed at her and shouted, "Handball! You've gotta be kidding me!" Not my finest moment in years of youth sports that have taken our family to basketball courts, soccer fields, baseball diamonds and golf courses. With two athletic kids and a house in the suburbs, competition is a way of life. We rationalize about the benefits of developing skills, confidence and good sportsmanship, but how much of that is wiped out by over-involved parents who behave badly? Just like kindergartners, when it comes to sports, adults act out in many ways. Here are the 10 worst. Continue reading here... Follow me on Twitter.