What to do when your teens are rude?
With six kids, I’ve heard my share of rudeness! Some phrases that got under my skin the most were those dismissive comments like, “Mom, stop” in a snarky tone. Or, “Bye, Mom” when I’m being dismissed from their room. What to do? Here’s something to experiment with: If you don’t like how you typically respond […]
Teen Rejection will Challenge our Parenting Skills
I hate to admit it, but when my kids were little, it was the first time I really felt popular. All the “mommy do it” felt great. It was sort of exhausting, but it was also so sweet and there was so much love from my boys. I also hate to admit how as they […]
Teens and tweens can be so many things
Since the emergence oTweens, teens and twenty somethings can be so many things. Some of those “things” can drive us nuts. But one of those “things” they can be is: FUN! FULL OF LIFE! They can be happy and vibrant and full of life and enthusiasm. Their laughter and happiness can be contagious. Last week […]
What to Do if Your Kid Leaves Dirty Dishes Laying Around
There are times when a parent has no clue what to do. This especially happens when our innocent babies and precious toddlers become willful and defiant ‘tweens and teens. Kids capable of making choices out of laziness and disregard for their parents. So, what do you do when your kid leaves dirty dishes lying around? […]
The sun is shining, and the chaos is beginning
The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, the school year is wrapped up, and the chaos is beginning… can you guess what season is here? 😆 We know summer can be overwhelming as a parent. And we also know there are seasons when life feels busy or family time feels hard. While this video […]
Finding our ‘why’ at The Connected Family
I recently worked with a mom and her high school son who were struggling with their relationship. The mom was fed up with her son’s messes, his weed use, how he treated his little sister, and his disrespect. The son was fed up with his mom blowing up, her forcing him to have conversations when […]
I caught my teen drinking. Now what?
Parenting teens is terrifying sometimes. It can make us long for the days when our kids were little and we actually had some control over keeping them safe. Teenage drinking is one of those areas we wish we could make the decisions for our kids, but we can’t. As a family therapist and parent coach, […]
Things I’ve learned while raising 5 boys
Today is about boys. Living with five of them has taught me to see the world differently than this girlie-girl of a boy mom would have seen the world before living in boy-land. For fun, I’m sharing some random things I’ve learned from raising my particular boys. Sometimes it has felt like raising wolves. Sometimes […]
Reclaiming Myself to Bring out the Best in Your Kids
“Losing myself” and “reclaiming myself.” These are the four words I jotted in my journal recently while pondering my 10,000th day of mothering. I remembered a journal entry from one frustrating morning when my oldest two sons were one and four: “I’ve lost an important part of myself. I love my little boys with all […]
An Open Letter to My Son About Marriage
This will be a week I remember forever. My middle son and his fiancee’ will be surrounded by their loved ones in the Colorado Rockies as they marry each other. Five years ago when I first looked her up on Facebook after he told me her name, I did not know if she would be a […]