Few things make hearts grow bigger and emotions rise than looking down at the face of a newborn who depends on you. Parenting is a major life choice and it leads individuals into enriching and challenging moments…some that are both at the same time. But it’s important to realize what love is and what it’s […]
We are a nation of individuals who are very defined by our choices. We’re fiercely protective of our rights and our freedoms. We argue these in the legislature and in the press. We demand freedom of choice…but we have a hard time allowing the same to our children. Parents are tremendously important in children’s lives. […]
John writes that his “Daughter is sixteen [and] clueless about how much her mother does for her. [My wife] drives her to lessons and the mall. Our daughter only does chores when asked.” But John has a bigger problem. His wife is “…set off by almost anything and deals with most issues by getting angry.” […]
A reader says, “Our oldest daughter just turned 17 in October. She has a lot of typical teenage attitudes, but some of this is getting scary. She acts like the entire world owes her everything and she launches into her “Exorcist” mode if she doesn’t get whatever she wants. She yells, swears at us, screams […]
There’s a time in the parenting experience when it’s better not to know exactly what they’re doing. As your children get older, you have less input into their choices. You don’t get to choose who they’re dating, what career they’re pursuing or how they parent their own children. You’re best not knowing the details of […]
Therapists who work with the kids in the foster system try to help these children realize they’ve done nothing to deserve being there–they aren’t foster children because they’re bad or because they’ve done bad things. They’ve just had incredibly bad luck. In an age when couples spend tens of thousands of dollars to conceive or […]
A frustrated husband and father writes “We have been married for about 18 months and had our first daughter six months back in June…. For the two years my wife and I dated as well as the first year of our marriage, the four of us(my parents and us) got along incredibly well…. When we […]
It is a sad fact that relationships end. Sometimes with no obvious warning and sometimes with lots of break-up/get-back-together phases. Losing an individual who’s been very important in your life can be tremendously painful. If you’ve struggled through long, hard relationship battles, the end to it all can almost be a relief, but even then, […]
In the last century, parents routinely hid the fact of children being adopted and did everything they could to avoid discovery of this. The reasons for this well-meant deception aren’t obvious, but if there was then a stigma attached to the adopted situation, there isn’t now. There is, however, a sad reality that not all […]
It’s not enough that they gave you stretch marks before birth and heart attacks every time your kids ran for the street, they’re still troubling your sleep now. And they’re all grown up. It may not seem like your adult child–over the age of eighteen–is acting very mature, but you have to come to accept […]