If we were to write a classified ad for a parent, one of the parts of the job description would be character building. It is a non-negotiable for any conscientious…
Parenting
Savvy School Supply Shopping
Sunday’s newspaper ads startled me into a quickly-approaching reality: school starts in less than a month! I lined up the ads to begin comparing prices from all of the local stores…
My Window Is Closing
Several years ago, when I was going through foster parent training, I attended a class about parenting children in crisis. The speaker described how we each have a window of…
On Being ‘Overprotective’
Being a mom brings out the absolute “protect and preserve” gene in all of us, which can be a great thing. But it can also be a not so great…
Why Apologizing to Your Kid is Important and What it Teaches Them
Although I don’t remember the details too clearly, when I was a kid I got into trouble with my parents. They had come down pretty harshly on me, and I…
Instead of Yelling, Try Helping
Recently, I was frustrated with a few of my children who were dawdling with their room cleaning. As I walked into their still-messy room to reprimand them for being so…
Raising Good Conversationalists
Do you sometimes feel embarrassed in front of your friends because your child won’t talk and simply grumbles a “yes” or “no” to an adult’s questions? Do you have trouble…
He’s Driving Me Nuts!
“Noooo!” This cry reverberates daily from my own lips and is directed at some endeavor of my wily nineteen-month-old. It’s not so much that he’s devious, I’ve discovered, though he…
A Tale of Two Moms
How will you interact with the little lives, and little hearts, in your home when the heat gets turned up this summer? Following are two fictional moms, Carol and Amber,…
10 Ways To Help Out…Single Parents and Their Stuff
Single parent. I wonder where that phrase was first spoken. And what the circumstances were. It is a phrase that continues to define me no matter how much I wish…