“I need you to get going!” I told my middle schooler. This reminder came at the end of instructions about what-to-do-next in the unstructured day ahead. My pre-teen, more engaged in a podcast than my game plan, didn’t budge. I considered increasing volume, providing more information, or adding in some exasperated sighs for emphasis. Before… Read More →
“How are you feeling about going back to school?” I asked my youngest over breakfast. “I’m excited!” he responded quickly. I was grateful for the enthusiasm but realized that there might be more to the story. Sure enough, the same child was on the verge of emotional collapse five minutes later. He was beside himself… Read More →
“I know that I want to raise an independent kid who eventually goes off into the world,” a parent recently shared. “But I just don’t like this in between part.” “What part?” I asked. “Oh just the part where they wrench themselves away from the family and treat me like an unwanted roommate,” they replied… Read More →
“My seventh grader is begging for a phone. I keep going back and forth about whether I think she’s old enough,” a parent recently shared. “Honestly,” he went on, “I’m not sure I’m ready.” “I love that you are thinking about that second part,” I responded. “What do you mean?” he asked. “Well, we tend… Read More →
“Wow, this is stunning,” my oldest said facetiously, staring into a wall of dense gray clouds. After a couple of hours of hiking in the dense forest, we had finally made it to the big, dramatic view. Except that instead of a sweeping green vista, there were clouds. And we were inside them. “Isn’t it… Read More →
1. Why Forecasting Emotions Can Help Kids Handle Them When we hit a rocky spot, it is certainly tempting as parents to hope that tomorrow will be a better day. Thankfully, we are often right! Sometimes all it takes is a good night’s sleep to increase our kids’ capacity to handle what comes their way.… Read More →
“Hm hmmm?” I said, vaguely attending to my youngest child’s in-depth description of what features he would add to a Minecraft realm if given full coding control. My attention was split between his description (which could go on without end) and scrolling through a headline a friend had texted me. Actually I hadn’t made a… Read More →
We all have well rehearsed parenting phrases that emerge at different stages in our kids’ lives. Usually they pop into our heads or out of our mouths before we’ve even had time to think them through. You aren’t alone if the dominant phrase during middle and high school is, “PUT. THAT. [INSERT TECH DEVICE]. DOWN.”… Read More →
“Wait,” my oldest recently interrupted me. “Aren’t you supposed to be lending me your ears?” “What?” I responded, annoyed at being interrupted but also momentarily distracted by the image of handing over something akin to the fake rubber yoda ears shoved into our costume bin in the basement. In the time it took me to… Read More →
“How was your day, buddy?” I asked my third grader after his first day of school. “Thumbs up, down, or something in between?” I prompted. He put his thumb sideways and kept walking without a word. This kind of ambiguity is challenging for us parents. I managed to respond with a simple, “That makes sense,”… Read More →
