My memories of my 80s summers are near and dear to my heart. When I think about my childhood, summer days are what stand out the most. Whether my sisters and I were trying to build forts in the woods, or eating homemade popsicles on a blanket in the front yard, we were making precious memories even though I'm pretty sure we thought we were going to die of boredom. This summer, I’m throwing it back to the 80s with my teens. I want to share with them some of the things I did as a girl growing ... View the Post
My 80s Summers: 10 Things I’m Sharing With My Teens
Parenting My Teens Has Been The Loneliest I’ve Ever Felt As A Mom
One thing I've realized as a mother to teens is that, back in our younger days, talking about some of the problems or hard times you experienced while you were a mother to younger kids, was a bonding ritual between moms. You were so relieved to see another mother sitting on the park bench sporting a messy bun, and barely holding her s*it together, you took it as an opportunity to make a new friend. Talking about the sleepless nights, tantrums, picky eaters, and the fact your child liked to ... View the Post
15 Honest And True Realities of Turning Forty (Spoiler: It’s Not All Fabulous)
“But it's there. It's just sitting there, like some big dead end.” With this now famous line, Meg Ryan lamented her inevitable 40th birthday in a scene from When Harry Met Sally. Forty is the literal fork in the road of aging. If you are anything like me (weak and delusional) the denial path calls to you like the chocolate in your kid’s Halloween stash. As a coping mechanism, I devised an aging system to ensure I never left my 20’s. When I turned 30, I was merely 20/10 which was ... View the Post
16 Things I Hope My Daughter Knows Before She Leaves Home
Thirteen years ago, a doctor handed me a pink bundle and said, “She’s yours." And while it wasn’t said out loud, I’m pretty sure the “Don’t screw her up” was implied. I could swear I heard it, though. Since the day that pink bundle was resting on my C section scar, the weight and enormity of raising a confident, plucky, strong girl has never been far from my mind. These days, with social media, celebrities who weigh approximately 46 pounds, mean girls, and Kim Kardashian, parents of ... View the Post
She Lost the CBS News “Note to Self” Contest But Won Something Much Better
A couple of months ago I entered a submission to CBS This Morning’s Note To Self contest. Two producers reached out to me about my submission. Though my entry wasn’t the final one chosen, those conversations led to CBS asking my son and me if we would be willing to do an interview and talk about our journey with depression, a story that I wrote about on Grown and Flown here. CBS This Morning will broadcast Our Journey With Depression during the week of June 18. Stay tuned for more ... View the Post
Grown and Flown Summer Style: 8 Dresses with Flower Power
For those of you who follow us at G&F, you might think we object to color. And while there is strong evidence of that in our last few posts, it’s not quite the truth. Note: Grown & Flown may receive compensation from the links in this post but the opinions are our own. Our entire adult lives, we have heard the "age rules” - women past a certain age should stick with neutrals, colors are aging, patterns are too youthful, blah, blah, blah. We are here to tell you to defy those ... View the Post