The Blog
Truth in Parenting
Tearing your hair out over lack of sleep, daycare decisions, homework enforcement, or what to do with the toddler tantrum? Want to feel better about your own tantrum as you try and manage it all? Read my Truth in Parenting blog for evidence-based reassurance (The Art and Science of . . . ), my own True Mom Confessions, and get a sneak peek of what my book offers with Autonomy-Supportive Parenting Diaries. Not sure where to start? Try here.
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Leaving Kindergarten
I think this is why the end of the kindergarten year strikes with such emotion. They are growing up, out, and away from us.
Should I Write About My Children?
My personal weaknesses aside, all of this brings up the bigger parenting question: where does my license to share as a parent end, and my child’s right to decide what images and information are out there, begin?
Elves, Fairies, and Leprechauns: From Fantasy to Reality of Parenting
Holidays is only one lens through which to see ways we may grieve what we though parenthood would be -- who we thought we would be as a mother. It is more lighthearted and fun to talk about fairies and elves than some other ways we feel a sense of loss through our parenting journeys.
Meaning of Motherhood: Redefining Weekends
Since I am either a very slow learner or a stubborn optimist, every Friday I have high hopes for weekends of leisure and making great memories.
Parenting Failure: Girl Scout Cookie Version
My closest connection to the Girl Scouts institution has been eating their cookies. Ironically, that is exactly where I have found my most recent parenting failure.
The Second Baby
You think you will remember. But you don’t. It all becomes hazy, the crisp edges of the present blurring as the present becomes the past, as time moves faster each year.
Kids’ Birthday Parties: Real Talk
Maybe we don’t even know anymore why we do it, year after year. It’s just what we do.
But what if we all worked together to take the bar down a few notches?
“Whatever:” A Reflection on Losing Control
It’s not that I don’t think I should have corrected her behavior, it’s the way I FELT that bothered me: out of control and impulsive.
Food Refusal: “I don’t love that!”
As cute as it is that his new slogan for everything is “I don’t love that,” it’s not cute when he throws a tantrum at the sight of his plate at every dinner.
Moral Distress as a Mom: #familiesbelongtogether
I have felt a double whammy as a child psychologist acutely aware of the real trauma implications for these kids, and as a mom who can’t even bear the thought of forced separation from my children.
The Sick Day Test
The best test of my progress in mindful parenting: “working” at home with a “sick” 3-year-old.
Don't Call Me Lazy
It is an emblem of our modern parenthood that these ways to parent would even elicit the word, “lazy.”
The Ultimate Riddle: A 3-year-old and Sleep
10:07: Turn off my light and go to sleep.
11:22: Wake up to blood-curdling screams from the 3-year-old, who has instantaneously appeared in our room, like a horror film apparition.
The Unicorn: A Sick Day for Mom
As a Mom, the common cold, flu, and stomach bugs take on a whole new meaning. They are totally disruptive to any semblance of routine, ruin any good sleep stretches, can add major work and financial stress, and if we get sick too, we can’t even wallow in it because most of us don’t have our Moms next door to take care of us.
Too Many Toys
In this America, the land of excess, it has insidiously crept up on us with each birthday, holiday, random shopping trip, and vacation. Now we have an attic full of toys, a playroom full of toys, a bedroom full of toys, and a basement full of toys. A life full of toys, and full of mess.
A Mom, Three Kids, and Target
Meanwhile, other shoppers veer around and look at me with annoyed accusations in their stares – condemning me and my unruly children. I kind of want to disappear, and I kind of want to stand my ground and stare back with the message: “Hey! This is hard! We all make mistakes!”
The Universal Mom Cry of “Put On Your Shoes:” Blame the Brain
Do you hear my voice?
Do you hear the words I am saying to you?
In the six years of having at least a 2-year-old in the house to get ready, I have pleaded with these very words in an infinite loop.
The Road Trip: Finding Family
After our first day in Arkansas, my 8-year-old announced she wanted to live there forever. I have a theory it was because of the free desserts at lunch at my grandmother’s assisted living home, but I wonder if there was a deeper sense she had of the family connection that is often missing in our modern world of spread out families.
Mommy Rejection: A Rite of Parenting
When one or many of our children go through the developmentally normal phase of rejecting us, it can hurt. It can rub salt into a wound we may not have realized was so raw and open. Where is the gratitude for what I do for our family? This is where we may have a very human response to what can feel like superhuman expectations as a parent.