My 13-year old Can’t Stand Me
“Dear Kerry, I am in a really hard corner of parenting – my 13 year old daughter, who I have loved and adored since the day she was born – cannot stand me. Everything I say is met with eye rolls, every request I make is countered with a snarky “Why don’t you do it?” […]
Back to School Blues: Balancing Acts, Emotions, and Coffee Breaks.
How are you feeling this back to school season? It can be such a mix of joy, sadness, gratitude and worry as we send our kids back to school. We love watching them grow and enter into new seasons of life… that’s what we want for them! But it can also be hard to let […]
Lighter fluid and yogurt bowls
It was a calm, normal morning of getting ready for school with Palmer (13) and his little brother (8). All was well. It was a minute or two before we needed to leave. All of a sudden, Palmer could not STAND the way his brother was using that particular spoon to scrape the yogurt out of […]
Swore you’d never yell at your kids?
Before I had kids, I swore I would never yell as a parent. Well… I clearly didn’t realize what parenting teens would actually be like. It’s hard! There would be times I found myself throwing all my parenting skills out the window and yelling at my kids when I was overloaded with frustration. It felt […]
Homebase
Back to school time already? I’m not sure how this happened. What if I’m not ready to send my sweet stepdaughter off to Oregon? What if I don’t want to move my youngest son back to Boulder? Oh, right. Sometimes I forget. Our kids don’t wait for us to be ready. Life keeps marching on. […]
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 […]