I like to think that my family is a democracy. But my friend Kathy Buckworth says that that is not the best way to run a family: she says that a family should be run like a business. Kathy is a well-known author and writer whose new book I Am So The Boss of You: An 8-step guide to giving your family the "business" is out and has some great tips to gain control of your kids, without losing the love. The book is filled with "a-ha" moments that could help any CEO, or parent. But don't read it while your partner is sleeping because your laughter may wake them. I, obviously, have a lot to learn from Kathy, so I asked her to guest post:

Guest Post: If You Were Really the CEO of Your Family, Would You Get Fired?

Many moms believe themselves to be CEOs of their families. I support this belief 100%, as there are many benefits to running your family like a corporation. The problem is, many Mom CEOs are not really in charge of their families in the same way as a corporate CEO would be in charge of their organization. In fact, it seems to me that a lot of “junior employees” (i.e. children) are in fact setting the direction and overall tone for the family.  And that tone is often a whiny one, resulting in a lack of strategic direction.

I love Honest Toddler so much that sometimes I go to her Twitter page just to read over her tweets for the day. Her passive-aggressive outbursts make me laugh, and squirm with recognition that toddlers have feelings too. 

If Honest Toddler was in a movie, it would be Baby Geniuses where the two-year-olds know the meaning of life until they "cross over". They pity us grown-ups with our minutiae and focus on unimportant parts of our day, you know like limiting juice and wearing pants.

The voice behind the hilarious and popular Honest Toddler Twitter feed and blog has been a mystery...until now.

[Spoiler Alert!]

We have a problem. Not a big one, but an annoying one.

Our kids have forgotten how to sit at the dinner table. Or maybe they never knew how to begin with. 

It started with our middle child. He isn't that interested in food, so he fills up fast and then is on the run to a nearby chair. My daughter may follow with a marker in hand. My eldest starts to feel the pull of the Xbox and then my husband and I are left looking at each other and yelling, "Get back here!" Or, we enjoy the silence.

What parent hasn't turned to bribing in a moment of desperation? Who hasn't added on an incentive trip to the ice cream store? Or handed over an extra cookie, or even a pack of Pokemon cards?

Show me a parent who hasn't resorted to bribing, and I will show you a parent who has never spent five minutes with a stubborn child outside of a dentist's office. Right this minute I am in the middle of the biggest bribe of my life; my son is studying for his Bar Mitzvah because he wants to have a party. (Before you shake your head, this is the tradition.)

Dara-Lynn Weiss, who infamously outlined putting her 7-year-old daughter on a diet in the pages of Vogue, is promoting her new book The Heavy: a mother, a daughter, a diet, without her daughter at her side. 

Just like potty accidents and a bag of spilled Goldfish crackers, bad playdates happen. Kids don't get along, toys break and worst of all, parents disagree.

Whether or not we want to admit it, our kids, and more likely we parents, are the cause of many bad playdates. 

The upside is that there is nothing as satisfying as doing a debrief with a like-minded mom about a bad playdate. Just like the post-mortem after bad dates, picking apart the threads of what happened can be hilarious and a needed ego boost.

When 13-year-old Gregory opened his brand new iPhone, it came with a contract -- not just from the provider -- but from his mother. And it is a long one.

Janell Burley Hofmann wrote up the 18-point contract covering everything from privacy to porn to music to reminding him to look out the window. The mother of five's post on the contract has over 1,000 comments on the Huffington Post, and has been labelled "the first viral sensation of 2013." The contract's popularity shows our deep-seated fear of our teens' love of technology.

Some highlights of the contract:

Now that the gifts have been doled out, the Christmas movies have been watched and the fatigue has set in: It's time for the fighting!

Let's be honest; the few days after the holidays can be tough and loud. Kids start to gaze over at their siblings toys and start to wander who got the better deal. And then the yelling begins. Which begets more yelling from you, as you start to hate yourself for raising such ungrateful children. So how do you handle the hotbed of sibling rivalry?

Tony Hawk is a skateboarding legend. He can do things while standing on a board that I can't do standing on my feet. He would obviously be the coolest dad in the world. 

But even legends hit speedbumps and Hawk came under fire this week after posting a photo on Instagram. He is seen swinging his shoeless four-year-old daughter while riding his skateboard in his backyard skateboard park. Problem is, neither of them are wearing helmets.

We are having a little trouble around here with the truth. I ask my daughter, "Did you see my iPad?"

"No," she answers. Then I find it in her room. 

"Did you brush your teeth?"

"No."

The lies are ones that can be easily found out. And yet, I never call her a liar, or tell her she is lying. I am afraid of those words because lying is one trait that I truly despise. And I do not want to label her and have her self-define herself as a liar - it'll only breed more lies. 

So I just do work-arounds so that she knows I know. I assume this is a phase, not a defining character trait. 

Here is what the experts say: