Hey, Empty Nesters! This one’s for you. Now that your kids are off on their own, how are you doing?
We get so many messages about how we should feel when the kids leave home that leave us full of guilt and confusion.
If you’re sad and find yourself melting down into a puddle, friends may tell you to get over it.
Parenting gets very real for parents of high school kids in the spring. I’ve been talking to moms and dads who are trying not to freak out about their kids heading off into the world on their own. Are they ready? Are you? Here’s a crash course in what you’ll want your kids to know before they leave the nest.
Graduation and prom season is here, along with parties to celebrate the important milestones. This is the time of year when parents face a perennial challenge: whether to serve alcohol to underage partiers. An avoidable drinking and driving tragedy stuck my hometown when I was in college, and had a huge impact on my parenting.
Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide” is one of my favorite songs about life and embracing change. For me, it’s about evolution, courage, and growth. Depending on my mood, the lyrics feel nostalgic, happy, hopeful, and sometimes bittersweet.
Change is inevitable. It’s often scary, paralyzing or frightening. Yet it can also be exhilarating, freeing and liberating.
Once upon a time, I missed the parenting memo.
The one that said kids know what they want. Until the moment that they don’t. The one that explains the fine nuances of raising children, and how sometimes parents need to stop struggling and start being flexible to create win/win situations.
When my kids were little, they were going to be cows for Halloween one year. That is, until Halloween morning arrived.
“Good morning! Forgot your homework? That permission slip was due yesterday? Where’s your backpack? Hurry up, catch that bus! Never mind, I’ll drive. Where are my keys?”…Does this sound like your home? I bet you probably started off with great plans to stay on top of the paperwork, assignments, and get everybody off to school on time. How are you doing so far? Do you find yourself fishing out leftover lunches and forgotten school papers, or racing over to school to drop off forgotten reports and lunches? There is a simpler way.
Kids are pressured to grow up too quickly. Summer is the perfect time to let them be little for just awhile longer. Last week was my nephew’s Farewell to First Grade. Do you know the song Let Them Be Little? Yup, that song got me totally choked up! Raising children is about the quiet moments, shared memories, and traditions we create at every age.
In my nephew's first grade room, I remembered how quickly my own children have grown up.
