It was a stare down between me and my 13 year old son. I was right and he knew it, but he wanted to be right so badly he was willing to stand eye to eye with me(because he is as tall as I am), giving me his “I think I am smarter than you” glare. Have you been there? I am no stranger to this. I have been there 3 times before with his older brothers. The early teen years for a boy can be brutal on parents and for the boy. So much is going on in the …
Solution Revolution
“You’re not doing the same things,” my husband said when I was working with my second son when he was 2, 3 and 4. “Yes, I am,” I remember answering, somewhat frustrated. “The same things aren’t working.” Regardless of the age, sometimes “the same things” don’t work. Developing children requires a diverse strategy arsenal. For academic development, we used alphabet puzzles, flash cards, animal alphabet cards, Bob Books, Now I’m Reading Books. One learned to spell his name first in sign language. Another chose Garfield over classics – our home library is stuffed with Garfield, Snoopy, the classics, World War …
Mean Girls
The words on Facebook glared back at her. “You are so ugly! You are fat, annoying and I hate you!” Lindsay just sat there, staring at the screen, baffled. “What did I say? What did I do?” Maybe this has happened to one of your children, or in some way they’ve faced this same type of painful rejection. Maybe you have felt it yourself. I recently spotted a t-shirt at the mall that read “You’re no one until someone talks about you.” What a sad state of affairs. Growing up in a world where “Mean Girls” and “Gossip Girl” are movie …
I Just Want You! – 5 Tips for Parenting Teens
Being a teen is tough. It’s that limbo place between being a child and being a young adult, and it’s hard to figure out where you belong. You want to be treated as if you’re all grown up, yet you still need a parent’s wisdom. Hormones are changing as quickly as your life and you struggle with finding your way. Being a parent of a teen might just be harder than being a teen. It’s hard for a mom to really know what to do during those pivotal years when they seem so independent but they don’t process life like …
Parenting Teens thru Spring Break
What will your teen do over Spring Break? Maybe you’re in the sippy cup years, looking ahead with fear and trembling to the Facebook years. How can we watch out for our teens in today’s world? Last night I feel asleep to the sound of laughter drifting upstairs from young women in our basement. Two are on the threshold of college; two others are are signed up for the ACT. All are counting the days ’til spring break. If the teen years are such a vibrant time of life, why do we dread parenting through it? You can prepare yourself …