It’s the journey, not the destination
Palmer here! Recently, while talking with some of my teen coaching clients about school starting, they have shared what “success” looks like for themselves. Most of the time, they start with answers like “great grades,” lots of friends, top of their sports teams, etc. While I hope they can achieve those goals, I encourage much more focus […]
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 […]
Meet Your Kids Where They Are
Palmer here! One of my favorite parts about my work as a youth coach is getting to walk alongside kids as they go through the ‘tween and teen years. I feel like I am constantly learning from each one of them and it brings me so much joy. This incredible work also comes with a […]
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 […]
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? […]
An activity that will transform your family
We’ve got a little family-related riddle for you. Can you guess what activity should go in the blank below? Over three decades of research have shown that __________ offers a wide variety of physical, social-emotional and academic benefits. While some of these benefits can be gained through other activities, __________ is the only single activity that is […]
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 […]