Proud is an understatement for how I felt about my daughter’s adjustment to college life. Happy doesn’t do justice to how I felt when I hung up on our Facetime calls, during which she shared with me details about her day, her professor, or a classmate who smiled at her. After 18 years of life […]
About 14 years ago, I sat in a church service with my husband and tiny daughter. My mind settled on the family in front of us. Two parents and three teenagers. I have thought about this family so often over the years and even more recently. It was the early service. The teenagers were awake
Parenting Teens: A New Perspective on the Challenges Read More »
Family movie nights are practically an American tradition–everyone piled into the living room with big bowls of popcorn. Many of us enjoyed a lot of movie nights last spring when schools were closed, and our kids came home from college. Now, with an extended fall break coming up, we can look forward to many more
Revised Title: “Seven Family Activities to Do Apart from Movie Night” Read More »
“College is one of the most expensive purchases a family will make in their lifetimes,” according to Jeff Levy, a Certified Educational Planner with 16 years of experience as an educational consultant. Levy shares the mistakes families make that can seriously affect their teen’s ability to maximize merit and financial aid. Here are expensive mistakes
It was the third week of our twin sons’ freshman year when I got the text from one of them: “I don’t think I’m going to be happy here.” The words were a knee to my stomach, doom, and gloom that, once put out there, could never be taken back. Immediately, we were on the
My Experience with Both Sons Transferring College After Freshman Year: What I Learned Read More »
This, my friends, is a cautionary tale. I share it with the intent of helping others survive circumstances that I swore some days would be my undoing. I suffered in silence for the better part of a year because, you see, I let my son take charge of the entire college application process. And it
My Son’s Solo College Application Journey: A Lesson in Independence Read More »
To the parent of a high school senior, Let me start by saying that I am not the parent of a high school senior, nor have I been the parent of a high school senior. I am the parent of a 10-year-old son and a five-year-old daughter. But, I have been a teacher of high
Revised Title: “What I See as a Teacher: Insights for Parents of High School Seniors” Read More »
There I was, sitting on a bench in the fitting room, watching my daughter and her best friend twirl in front of the mirror. They were trying on dresses for homecoming—*HOCO*, as they call it now—and the laughter bouncing off the walls was pure, joyful, and carefree. The dresses were covered in sequins, the hemlines
The journey of self-discovery through homecoming dress shopping with sequins Read More »
Cougar. Hag. Empty-nester. Blue hair. Frump. Oldie Locks. Biddy. Old Lady. Bag. Old Gal. Menopausal Mama (OK, I made that one up). The names we use to describe women over 50 are not terrifically uplifting. We’re all aware of the perils of aging. But there are some awesome things about being my age, which happens to
Top 10 Amazing Benefits of Being Over 50 Read More »
Remember when your heart broke on a grade school afternoon drive home-when your kid shares, through tears, that some tragedy happened on the playground at lunch? And by tragedy, I mean someone beat them in tetherball. Or maybe they spilled their pretzels on the floor. Or maybe even something harder-they had a tough day with
When my son is sad, I can’t be happy. What should I do? Read More »