“Why don’t we decorate for Halloween, like we do for Christmas?” my then nine-year-old Peanut asked. I thoroughly deck the halls the day after Thanksgiving, and wait as long as I possibly can to tear down the tree. I love the lights, the twinkle, the pure spirit that is the holiday, and if I could, I’d celebrate with some ornamentation … Read More
Raging Hormones and Controlling Boyfriends
Every two or three days, for the past four months, a Google search with the words Daughter, Controlling, and Boyfriend, lead to this post on my site. I find this equally discomforting and comforting. Discomforting that parents are finding their daughters in controlling situations. Comforting that these same parents not only recognize a pattern of behavior, they are reaching out … Read More
My Daughter’s Boyfriend Has a Controlling Family
My daughter is involved in a controlling relationship with her boyfriend’s family. And sometimes it really bothers me. Like now. Like when they secretly met with her during our family vacation. Yeah. Honestly, though, it’s not quite as surreptitious as that makes it sound, but it’s bad enough. In the winter we told our daughter she could bring a friend … Read More
Talking About Sex, Teens, Bedrooms (and Raising Sexual Beings)
My college kid’s girlfriend recently came to visit. “That’s fine,” I said, “We’d love to meet her.” “But there’s one stipulation: You can’t share a bedroom.” Now, I’m not naïve. I know many young adults have sex, and these two will soon be twenty-one. Hey, I was once young myself. But I have two teenagers still at home. And one … Read More
The High Road
I knew some people would be unhappy when I resigned as co-chair from our school’s Project Graduation committee. After all, I was the lead person keeping it all together, and my leaving would mean more work for remaining members. I knew a few of them would grumble amongst themselves, and talk about me in a poor light. I didn’t begrudge … Read More
Connecting Dots
I’ve been in a deep funk these past few weeks. I’ve been trying to make a post for five days now. My frustrations have mounted as I haven’t been able to log in with the new version of Blogger. I keep getting a “Runtime…ie8” error message. Anyway, I finally tried logging in through IE today, instead of going through my … Read More
Training Sleep
Two nights ago, I trudged up to bed about half-past midnight. Normally, I fluff my pillow beneath my head, lie back, and proceed to fall asleep. Instantly. On this night, however, I couldn’t turn my mind off of from a few unnerving thoughts. One teenager is half-way across the country, “just doing his thing,” with a female friend whom he … Read More
Grateful on October 19, 2010
Well, life has tossed many lemons onto my path this past week, some were downright sour, too. So, since I don’t have an onion to cut open (though I managed to have myself a good cry today, without one!) I think I’ll spend some time focusing on something positive. So, here goes: I am grateful for: 1. A husband who … Read More
The Making of a Happy Liver
Today, my job has brought me to a maximum security men’s prison in upstate New York. I was one of six adults enlisted to transport seven at-risk students to the prison for an awareness program. Five inmates, including three murderers, participate in an intensive training program before going on to teach delinquent students, to try to reach them, to encourage … Read More
Family Minus One
In my last post, I spoke about recent concerns with my college-aged son. He’s not very happy with me right now. As such, he hasn’t called home in over a week. He didn’t return my “Just calling to say ‘hi,’ and to tell you I love you,” call. Only a brief, all-you-need-to-know response to a question I texted him. I … Read More
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