Loaning Out Your Brain
It’s not the feelings that are the problem. It’s ok to be angry. It’s ok to be anxious. The key is what happens next.
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Parenting
And now for something completely different
When my son was about two and half I no longer knew how to parent him. He went from toddling baby I knew and adored to a stomping, glaring preschooler I didn’t understand. My tried and true techniques quit working and more than once I carried his screaming self out of the store, the library
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Martyr Moms
Our children need us to matter. They need us to matter so that they get to matter, too, someday when they have children.
Estrangement Runs in My Family
I grew up with estrangement. My mom periodically was not speaking to her mom or to this sibling or that. My grandmother was periodically estranged from family members. And now I am estranged from my mom. Estrangement is not uncommon in families rooted in trauma. There is an “us vs. them” mentality that comes with
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School Decisions in the COVID-19 Era
It has been the topic on most of my clients’ minds these past few weeks. As our central Ohio districts start to roll out preliminary plans, parents are hearing that they will need to make decisions soon — as early as this week for some districts. With little information and lots of concerns, we are
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One Size Fits All Parenting
This is the problem with parenting advice even really good parenting advice. Sure you can give pretty safe general advice if you look at a child’s developmental stage and you can give even better general advice if you also take the child’s temperament into account and then if you have some time to sit down
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Is it all my fault?
It’s the stereotype, right? It’s always your mother’s fault! No wonder then that many of parents feel defensive or feeling guilty. “Did I do something wrong?” they ask. “Did I create these issues? Is it all my fault?” My answer to this is probably going to feel frustrating: I don’t know and what’s more, I don’t
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Living with a Messy Kid
One of my children really liked to make messes when she was small. You take a kid who is curious, who is sensory seeking and who is creative and you get a lot of messes. (Many of you are nodding and sighing and wringing out a sponge ready to clean up your own child’s brand new mess.)
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One Simple Hard Thing
The good news is one of the best things you can do as a parent is really simple: Listen. The bad news is that it’s also really hard because listening doesn’t mean: Giving unasked for advice Sharing unasked for parental wisdom Problem-solving “At leasting“ Parenting is pretty goal oriented. We spend a lot of time trying to help
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When You Don’t Like Your Kids
f you’ve got kids, I bet there have been times when you don’t like them very much. Maybe you feel guilty about that but you know I’m an anti-guilt crusader so I’m here to tell you that I haven’t met a parent yet (and I’ve met a lot of parents) who likes their children 100%
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