An Escape Plan For Teens
What would your kid do if, while at a friend’s house, someone offered them a beer? What would your kid do if a friend started playing an inappropriate YouTube video and expected them to watch, too? We all want our kids to make good decisions in the face of peer...
How to Share Authority in Blended Parenting
Blended Parenting is about Shared Authority. It’s the balance of saying, “I know she was in charge, but now he is too.” It’s the careful dance of listening and learning, of stepping boldly around and sometimes into the landmines of parenting. It is the difference...
When Your Kids Push You Away
What Do You Want Your Kids to Remember Most About Easter?
We moved into a new house about six months ago, which means we’ve been unpacking boxes for oh … about six months. The unmarked boxes are my favorite because it’s like Christmas wondering what will be inside when we open them. Now that we’re finally feeling more...
Single Parenting and Knowing When to Ask for Help
For the past six years I’ve found myself in a highly important role that I never wanted to play: Single Mom. Don’t get my wrong; being a mom is the greatest thing to ever happen to me. I love my children with all my heart. But when I gave birth to each of them, I...
How to Embrace Mystery
When I was a kid, I wanted to be Joe Hardy from The Hardy Boys. Well, to be perfectly honest, I wanted to be Shaun Cassidy portraying Joe Hardy. There’s an awkward photo of me in a jacket with the sleeves pulled up, shorts and high white socks to prove it. I’m...
Getting Practical: Are My Kids On Track
This is Part 2 of my Book Review for “Are My Kids on Track? The 12 Emotional, Social and Spiritual Milestones Your Child Needs to Reach” written by experienced counselors: Sissy Goff, David Thomas and Melissa Trevathan. Why This Book Matters It’s not just teenagers...
Parenting Through Transition: Confession Of A Recovering Control Freak
I started back to fulltime, in-office work this week, for the first time in over three years. To be honest, my emotions over this transition have swung back and forth like a pendulum: Anxiety. Excitement. Guilt. Pride. Eagerness. Dread. (What? Your pendulum is a...
Get Over It
I am what they call a true middle child. I am the second of three kids with an older sister and a younger brother. If you aren’t a middle child, let me give you some insight into what it’s like. When my family dropped off my sister to begin her freshman year of...
You Are Enough
The thing about having a baby is that no one, no one, can prepare you for the full experience. People will give you advice—mostly unsolicited—but until you take your sweet baby home . . . there just aren’t words to convey the joy, pain, responsibility, honor, anxiety,...
Reviewing: Are Your Kids On Track?
As soon as a child is born, we start measuring, don’t we? The number of fingers and toes. Height and weight. Number of wet diapers. Weeks and months. And my personal favorite, number of hours slept in a row. As they get older, that kind of counting doesn’t stop, it...
Are You Finishing Well?
I thought I raised my children well. They seemed like good kids. But then, a few months ago, my oldest son did the unthinkable. The most thoughtless, unimaginable thing he’s ever done. He moved out. I probably should have been expecting it. After all, he’s 21. But I’d...