Is there anything better than a kid fresh off of a mission experience? They're so full of gratitude and introspection and deep spiritual thoughts. It's wonderful... ...until it wears off. Which [...]
I assume I’m not the only one who is aware of my parental failings on a daily basis. Like there’s this vague sense of guilt. I watch too much Netflix, fall into the Facebook-rabbit-hole, [...]
It starts like an ordinary day. The morning routine is met with the usual resistance. (We do this Every Morning. Why are the kids always so surprised?) Milk is spilled on the counter. Somebody [...]
“You're grounded from all electronics for the entire summer!” This is the punishment I blurted out recently after my child had done something for the umpteenth time that I told him over [...]
Note: The following is a real excerpt from my 4th-grade diary. Wednesday, 2-21-90 Dear Diary: Today Sarah, Megan, Mandy and Kathleen were being real jerks. They were making fun of me all [...]
It feels exhilarating. Entertaining. Our imaginations take over and we’re intoxicated by the rush. It’s no big deal. Just harmless fun. They deserve it! We shrug it off and steal it from them. [...]
Confession: I enjoy setting resolutions more than I like keeping them. Some years I get rather elaborate with my schemes. If you're picturing a March Madness-like flow chart, you're not that far [...]
I didn't want to say it. I'd been down this road so many times, and I knew that it usually stalled at a dead end. But I could feel the words on the tip of my tongue, scrambling to get out of the [...]
Dear parent of a pre-teen or teen—the competition has started. Whether you can recognize it yet or not, you've started to compete with another voice influencing your teen. It's not the voice of [...]
If Pinterest were in charge of back to school, here's what it would look like: 1 /2 /3 /4 /5 /6 /7 And here's what I have to say: No Pinterest. I will not measure my success as a mom by your [...]