If you’re over the age of 40, I would bet my entire vintage collection of Baby-Sitters Club books that you spent nearly every weekend night of your early teen years babysitting someone else’s kids. And as much as you’d like to never admit it, I also bet you loved every second of it. (And the quick, easy cash in your pocket you made doing so you promptly be spent on jelly shoes and Wham! cassette tapes). Sadly, when teens these days want money for music downloads and new shoes, they go ... View the Post
Here’s What Parents Need To Know Right Now About Juuling
Vaping, the inhaling of warmed up nicotine turned vapor through a device, is out of control. It has taken over the tobacco industry in ways nobody could have ever imagined. Somehow, today’s youth have made traditional combustible cigarette smoking dirty and taboo, while simultaneously becoming addicted to nicotine in the most fashionable and technocratic of ways. In a twist nobody saw coming, today’s teens are no longer frantically puffing on Marlboro Lights in high school parking lots before ... View the Post
Parents of Teens, It’s Time To Stop Saving Them From Failure
We’ve long known from educators and parenting experts how important it is to let your kids fail. The idea that everyone gets a trophy and nobody needs to come in second (or third, or last) place has produced a cohort of young adults unable to deal with many types of rejection and failure. If you’ve been saved from falling on your butt your whole life, you will continue to look to be saved each and every time thereafter when you’re about to bust it. And well meaning parents - only wanting ... View the Post
Moms of Teenagers, Here is the Open Letter You’ve Been Starving For
Scroll through Facebook and you probably can’t go five minutes without reading a heartfelt shout out to tired and overwhelmed mothers of babies and toddlers. They're letters written by moms for moms, and typically start out with lines like, “I see you tired mama, as you sit exhausted in your rocker soothing your baby for the 100th time today. I see you tired mama, as you wrangle a cranky toddler to change their diaper, then wipe down another sticky counter, another sticky face, and a sticky ... View the Post
Duke Has One Goal In Mind With New Roommate Policy
In a bold move that seeks to encourage incoming freshman to get out of their comfort zone, Duke University has informed the new class of 2022 that they will no longer be allowed to choose their first year roommate. Instead, under the new roommate policy, it will be done for them - courtesy of the university. Suffice it to say, in one fell swoop Duke has made one of the most anxiety ridden experiences about going away to college even more nerve-wracking. And all I can say about their ... View the Post
25 “Are you Kidding Me?” Thoughts Every High School Senior Mom is Having Right Now
I’ve officially hit the high school wall, and if are a high school senior mom, I bet you’re right there with me. As I head into the homestretch of my kid’s childhood education, I find myself more fried than an egg on an Arizona highway in July. Everyday seems to bring with it a new set of school events, monies needed for those events, and ridiculous and petty arguments between my kid and me - as we begin to forge a very new and different type of parent/child dynamic: One that is now becoming ... View the Post