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MayoClinic.com offers the Pregnancy Due Date Calculator, an online tool that predicts your due date by counting 40 weeks from the first day of your last menstrual period, which you simply have to key in. The tool calculates the rest for you.

“Yes, I’m adopted,” Vicky Ras, 28, admits without hesitation. In the same frank, matter-of-fact tone, she says, “I don’t see why I have to be ashamed of that fact. All my friends know about it and I’m fine talking about it even with strangers.”

A self-assured and bubbly marketing communications head for a training and development company, Vicky has chosen to come to terms with her identity by embracing it and letting everyone know the truth about who she is. “Sometimes having no roots to speak of can work to someone’s advantage,” she jokes, adding that it always makes for “a great icebreaker.”

Early Discovery
Though Vicky can make light of the situation now, she admits that it was nonetheless traumatic when she found out that she was adopted.

As a precocious young girl growing up in Bicol, she was quick to pick up on what the people around her were saying. “When I was still in kindergarten,” Vicky recalls, “I accidentally overheard some neighbors talking about me being adopted.”

But, young as she was when she first heard the word “adopted,” Vicky didn’t really know what to make of the information. It wasn’t until she was around 11 when she realized that there were ideed many things that didn’t add up. She reveals: “I finally confirmed that I was adopted when I did the math and it turned out that my mom would’ve already been 52 when she supposedly gave birth to me in 1979. I remember thinking, ‘That’s not possible.’”

Just like that, the truth presented itself to Vicky. Her discovery, though, only opened the floodgates to more questions.

My friends consider me a calm person. When other drivers cut me off without signaling, I just sigh and keep going. When store clerks are surly, I ignore them. So why was I standing at the top of the stairs the other day, waving a Lego block and screaming that if I found one more beneath my bare feet, I’d throw all of them out?

My kids, that’s why. Gus, six, and Teddy, two, have an uncanny ability to pull me into tantrum territory. It’s frustrating. It’s embarrassing. But like many parents, I can only take so much before I go into meltdown.

Experts say that parents are most vulnerable to eruptions when they’re already feeling exhausted, overwhelmed, or angry. Of course, yelling, stomping your feet, or throwing stuff rarely helps, as satisfying as they may feel. Worse, kids don’t learn healthy ways to handle frustration. Fortunately, there are proven ways to short-circuit your temper and still lay down the law, when confronted with the following problems: