Having had four teenagers under one roof at the same time, I know what it was like to literally feel as though every second was accounted for. I took my role as Mom seriously having given up a corporate job when my kids were little. For me, motherhood became a passion, a calling that I […]
Getting to the bottom of our emotional reactions to our kids can be difficult. The heat of the moment can cause us to do things we said we would never do. And it has taken me a long time to understand these reactions even in myself. Years, in fact. If I’m feeling something going on […]
The word validation has been cropping up everywhere I turn for the past two weeks. It’s something that I’ve struggled with for years. I always thought empathy and validation were essentially the same thing. I tended to be pretty good on the empathy front so I assumed that my empathy was in fact validating my […]
The phone had been silent for several days and Shannon began to worry. Silence usually meant something was going on that her daughter didn’t want her to know about. Silence meant whatever was happening was something that her daughter knew she wouldn’t approve of. Silence meant this chasm would widen, the earth would give way, […]
Several years ago I remember a distinct day of listening and trying to walk beside two of my kids in a way that they needed. What I discovered as I interacted with my 20-somethings that they both needed me in different ways. What worked for one didn’t work for the other. I caught myself opening […]
As 24 year old Annie stood at work bored and waiting for the close of her shift at the local mall to end, she thought the next hour couldn’t come soon enough. Snow was supposedly swirling outside with the anticipation of another few inches and all she could think about was curling up at her […]