Some people would probably think that Suri Cruise is the luckiest girl in the world. In her short life (she turns 3 on April 18), Daddy Tom Cruise and Mommy Katie Holmes have reportedly spent a million dollars for her education. This includes private tutors to teach her Spanish and French, instructors for ballet, tap, and modern dance, gymnastics, art and music. She probably has the coolest playmates in the world – Romeo (6) and Cruz (4) Beckham, sons of David and Victoria Beckham. All for the sake of giving Suri a “well-rounded” education.

Some tabloids are a bit critical of Tom’s devotion for Suri. “You’d think she’s an only child”, apparently referring to Tom’s two adoptive kids with Nicole Kidman. I am not sure whether this accusation of favoritism is justified but indeed Isabella Jane (16) and Connor Antony (14) have remained away from the limelight, compared, for example, to the mixed brood of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt or Madonna.

During the last three years, my husband and I have been agonizing as to what to do with our twins’ education. Private international school or public school? The private schools have the advantage of English being the medium of instruction. The main disadvantage, as you can well guess, are the horrendous school fees. The public schools in the area of Switzerland where we live are free and are taught in German, with English taught as a foreign language at the 2^nd or 3^rd grade. Apparently, we are not the only parents faced with this decision. In every kiddie birthday party or playdate, the subject of conversation among moms are always about the where’s, what’s and how much’s of schools and who is going to which school. One time, my husband got sick of it and asked whether we didn’t have anything else to talk about.

The questions that we ask ourselves are:

• Can we afford private schools?
• Even if we can, should be spend the money on school fees now or save it for college?
• Would private/public schools be a good environment for our kids?

Many parents try to give to their kids what they probably didn’t have during their childhood so I guess it’s the same for Tom and Katie. I am pretty sure though that they don’t have to worry about school fees now or college money later and I envy them for that.

On the other hand, I don’t believe that my kids will have a disadvantaged childhood compared to Suri Cruise. We may not be able to afford private lessons and tutors but we love our kids just as Tom and Katie love their Suri. And that’s the most important thing, isn’t it – love.

I am happy to say, though, that we don’t need tutors to teach our boys foreign languages. They’ve been brought up bilingually (English and German) and are expected to learn French and maybe some Italian in the Swiss public schools. And this is something that Suri doesn’t have!

For once, I think I’m inspired by Christina Aguilera.

Forgoing the over-the-top birthday parties that some celebrities choose for their children (Tom and Katie reportedly spent $100,000 on little Suri’s 2nd bash), Christina and her husband, music executive Jordan Bratman got together with friends to celebrate little Max Liron’s first birthday.

Since Christina gave birth just one day after her good friend Nicole Richie delivered her daughter, Harlow Winter Kate, the ladies decided to celebrate together. Together with their beaus (Richie’s boyfriend is Joel Madden of Good Charlotte), the starlets invited a conservative 40 guests to the party.

Rather than $15K worth of butterflies and flowers (only the best for Suri), Christina decorated her Beverly Hills backyard with pink, green and blue balloons tied to the trees. And they decided to forgo the Wolfgang Puck catering in favor of a more kid-friendly spread (as in, peanut-butter and jelly) by Along Came Mary.

But really, I think my favorite part of the party is that the theme was lifted from one of my favorite childhood books, Where the Wild Things Are. The big surprise came when costumed characters from the book arrived!

Now, to be fair, it would be cool for little boys to have the kind of personalized mini-cars that Brittney Spears had at her boys’ joint party. But I think a book-inspired theme is more my style (and in my price-range). And since I am rushing headlong toward my own baby’s first birthday, maybe I’ll keep that in mind. I might skip on the catering and make the sandwiches myself, though.

Suri Cruise is an adorable little girl. I find myself stopping to read captions about her unbelievable wardrobe, her activities, and recently, her favorite play things, when skimming through magazines or visiting celeb websites.

Each photo I have seen so far has featured her with very classic, non-commercial plush characters in tow. There was one with a large plush giraffe, several of her carrying the British bear, Paddington, a few with Curious George and a few with one of my favorites, Olivia the Pig.

I have seen the Olivia books at my nieces’ house and in bookstores and plan to get them for our baby boy. We do have several Curious George books but I don’t recall ever buying our boys a stuffed Curious George.

It’s interesting to me that I have yet to see Suri with a Barbie (okay, maybe she’s a bit young for them), anything in the Disney princess theme, or any character from popular TV shows or movies, like Dora the Explorer. Upon thinking about this, I started to wonder if this reflects any of the values of Scientology, the religion/philosophy followed by parents Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes.

I heard a bit of a recent Tom Cruise interview, in which he said that they tend to deemphasize the material aspect of Christmas in their home. That’s very nice but please-a two year old dressed in Juicy Couture is not lacking in material things!

Based on her favorite characters, I gather that Suri is not exposed to a lot of television but instead exposed more to books. I like this. I like that she totes around Curious George and Paddington the bear, characters which were around when I was a kid. These characters have withstood the test of time. Our kids read about them, love them and we can relate. I’m on a mission to introduce our new little guy to the classics, including Pooh Bear and the Cat in the Hat.

I’ll be looking out for more of Suri’s favorite tag-along pals and playthings.

Hollywood star Tom Cruise is full of surprises. According to recent reports online, he said that he would love to have seven more kids with wife Katie Holmes. It’s not clear if he has shared this information with his wife as yet. The 46-year old said in an interview “I want ten children. I love kids. I feel really fortunate to have the teenagers and a two and a half-year-old. It’s a great dynamic.”

Tom and his ex-wife Nicole Kidman have two adopted children, Isabella, 16, and Connor, 13. Suri, his biological daughter with current wife Katie Holmes was born on April 18, 2006. In the interview he said of his youngest, “She’s so charming, she’s so beautiful, she’s just great.” If Tom has his way, Suri will be having lots of company.

Tom also recently revealed that a big part of what drives him as a father is the strained relationship he had with his own father. His parents divorced in 1974 when Tom was 11, and he admits that he never saw his father much after that. This is an all too common story, but often the affected children grow up determined to break the cycle.

If Tom’s own words are any indication he has remained true to his convictions. “I’m a great parent. I want to be with my kids, and they get to do all the stuff that I wanted to do when I was growing up. My own father wasn’t there much for me and I want to be a different dad to my kids. My family is the most important thing in my life.”

Tom and his ex-wife Nicole have also done their best to ensure that they continued to have a strong bond with Connor and Isabella. “Nic and I are very committed and successful in sharing the parenting,” he said. I know he has received a lot of negative press lately, but I certainly admire his stance.

It’s clear that, like so many of us, parenting has helped Tom Cruise grow as a person. With all the ups and downs, and everything that parenthood can throw at you, it can really help you to find out who you are. Best of luck to Tom with his baby plans, and if he hasn’t let Katie in on them yet, well now would be a good time.

By the way, here’s a nice bit of Tom trivia for fans who didn’t know, his birth name is  actually, Thomas Cruise Mapother IV.

I’m sure that many moms, especially first timers find the very idea laughable, that a mom can over-bond with her baby. But that seems to be the opinion of Nicole Kidman’s mother. According to reports, the actress was quoted as saying, “My mum thinks I’ve over-bonded with my baby, but I don’t care.” Yes, most women experiencing motherhood for the first time wouldn’t much care either.

Kidman also said in an interview, “I can’t bear to be separate from my baby; I’m totally devoted to her.” Well that certainly sounds like new mom euphoria to me. Perhaps her mom just has a different parenting style. Thankfully Kidman still seems to be doing her own thing. It’s tough sometimes to raise and nurture your child with all the advice you’re bombarded with.

Interestingly, a quick search on Google for the term ‘over bonding‘ revealed results that only had to do with animals. Well, on the first page at any rate. So does it even exist, or is it just something Kidman’s mom coined to get her point across? Is it even possible for a mom to over-bond with her baby? And what does that entail really?

I guess this raises the age old issue of parents disagreeing with the parenting methods of their children. After all, if they brought them this far, surely they must have done a great job right? Maybe Kidman’s mom is just angling for a little more time with precious Sunday Rose. For that we can hardly blame her.

New moms are understandably protective of their babies, and spending every possible moment with them seems like the most natural thing in the world. How would you react if someone suggested that you might have over-bonded with your baby?

Incidentally, Kidman’s character in the new film Australia, can’t have children of her own. This seemed to be the case with Kidman, who eventually adopted after suffering miscarriages while married to Tom Cruise.

She went on to reveal that no less than seven babies were conceived during the filming of the movie. “There is definitely something up there in that Kununurra water. We all went swimming in the waterfalls, so we call it the fertility waters now,” Kidman said. Maybe that will be a new selling point for the country’s tourism.

Actress Gywneth Paltrow reveals in an interview for the May issue of Vogue magazine that she suffered from post partum depression following the birth of her second child. Two year old Moses was born in March 2006. The 35-year old multi award-winning actress said she didn?t know what was happening at the time and only realized she was suffering from the condition after she recovered.

According to the interview, Paltrow said “I felt really out of my body. I felt really disconnected. I felt really down? I felt pessimistic.” She believes she suffered from the condition because she stopped getting acupuncture when she was pregnant with Moses.

She and her husband, musician Chris Martin are also parents to four year old Apple, who was born on May 14, 2004. She did not reveal if she suffered any bouts of post partum depression following Apple?s birth.

The actress said in an article online that she has no immediate plans to add to her family right now because it?s hard being a mother. She also said that for her, pregnancy was also hard, especially because she was sick from start to finish.

Other celebrity moms who suffered from Post Partum

Actress Brook Shields? battle with post partum depression is well documented. Interestingly, talking about her condition and the treatment she received led to major arguments between Shields and actor Tom Cruise. Shield said she had to turn to medication, the anti-depressant, Paxil to overcome the condition. Cruise on the other hand strongly criticized her for using drugs.

Courtney Cox Arquette also suffered from post partum depression after giving birth to daughter Coco in 2005. Cox was treated with progesterone and credits that plus the support of friends for getting through. In a USA Today interview, the actress said that six months after giving birth she went through a stage where she couldn?t sleep and was really depressed.

During the early stages of her troubles, pop princess Britney Spears said that she was suffering from post partum depression.

Post partum depression can occur at any time during the first year after giving birth and not right after as some persons believe. A French study released earlier this year in the Journal of Clinical Nursing states that there is a link between the gender of the baby and developing post partum depression. In fact, the authors said that mothers who had boys were more likely to suffer from severe depression. The exception was in countries like China where having boys was preferred, hence a higher rate of post partum among women who had girls.