Spring 2024 Edition

I watched out my friend’s window as her 12-year-old chopped wood in the backyard. I wasn’t sure which was more amazing, that he was helping without having been asked or that my friend was allowing her son to use an ax, seemingly with no undue anxiety on her part. He...

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that one in six children ages two to eight in the United States has a diagnosed mental, behavioral, or developmental disorder. In the United Kingdom, we also know that 75% of mental illnesses start before the age of 18. It’s clear that –...

Nelson Mandela once said, “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” We all want our children to be resilient…to have the drive to get back up and tackle the problem a different way after being knocked down, right? Even if it seems “impossible”? Let’s talk about how we, as parents,...

My day job is managing a shelter for domestic violence and sexual assault victims. I am also in the final leg of my journey to obtaining my marriage and family therapy license, hoping to one day bring my passions together and counsel families recovering from trauma. I am also a...

As a child I was jealous of kids who could visit their grandparents after school. Having grandparents close by seemed like it would have been so much fun! Back then even making a long distance phone call to a grandparent was an expensive proposition. These days grandparents have many more...

There’s a lot parents can do to help their teen stay happy – at least most of the time! Here’s what the experts suggest: Involve Them In Extracurricular ActivitiesTeens spend their time and energy worrying about how they look to others, especially friends. But too much introspection doesn’t really make...

Recently, I was preparing a birthday dinner for a family member. I was feeling thankful my family was home. We would soon be sharing a relaxing, delicious meal together. Everything was humming along nicely, until it wasn’t. I realized I had misread the recipe, and my sauce was too thin....

Parents are constantly on the lookout for ways to help their child thrive in school: volunteering in the classroom, providing enrichment classes, teaching study skills, or quizzing them on spelling words. There are countless ways to contribute to your child’s progress in school. But there is an even easier way...

As an instructor of business communication, I teach my students about business meetings. We discuss the important role meetings play in companies, from monitoring progress and projects, to sharing ideas, making plans and decisions and more. In class, we also talk about how to behave professionally in a meeting. Many...

When Sunny Lee’s identical twin boys, Jason and Matthew, were 2 years old, she began teaching them about money by working up to the concept. “If I was folding laundry or sweeping the floor, I would say, ‘Mommy needs your help,’” says Lee, author of Is Your Child a Money...

When my daughter was in the 4th grade, a proud tear sprang to my eye when her teacher,known to be a stern taskmaster, declared: “Rebecca has something that can’t be taught: Motivation.” Rebecca, my shy, eldest child, was a rule follower who always tried her best. Still, was she inherently...