Growing up in a house where one or both parents suffer from a substance abuse disorder can be incredibly challenging. I know this because both of my parents were alcoholics for as long as I can remember. There was uncertainty, shame, embarrassing moments, and isolation my entire childhood. At the time, I did not realize…
Parenting teens is HARD. One thing that makes it even harder is when your teens are exhausted from lack of sleep. If there is one thing that is epidemic with teens, it is overstress and lack of sleep and it is clearly affecting their mental health at a time in life when they are struggling to…
Learning how to use money responsibly teaches kids to be responsible in all aspects of life. If they know and understand the value of money, they’ll become responsible adults. If you teach your kids about money early, you develop their confidence and they learn to analyze situations, particularly those that deal with money. Early financial…
How can you tell if your teen is being cyber bullied? Does your teen become upset during or after using their device? Do they spend a lot of time online? Do they withdraw often or show obvious signs of change in their behaviour? Those could all be signs of cyber bullying. Feeling powerless to protect…
Helping teens navigate a divorce situation is something I’ve been wanting to write about for a long time, but it’s an area where I had zero experience. My parents were married until they died and my husband and I have been married for 35 years. So I reached out to an expert for a guest…
Parents understand that teenagers can get a bit hard to deal with. They’re in a stage in their lives where they want to explore their independence, which can come off in the wrong way. And if we’re doing a big life transition like moving with teenagers, this can be difficult for them to adjust to….
With three grown sons, a husband and two grandsons, I have a whole houseful of guys to buy gifts for all year ’round. So I am always on the lookout for any ridiculously useful gifts for men. In so many ways, I think guys are a lot harder to buy for than women, so I…
Now that it’s been a few years since our sons Eagle Project, I can look back with a bit more perspective. I can see some of the things we did well and a few areas where we pretty much crashed and burned. One thing I can tell you is that these Eagle Projects are HARD….
At My House Kids Chores Aren’t FAIR And I’m totally OK with that. As they say, there’s a method to my madness and I’m doing it for a very specific reason. Well, actually a couple of reasons. For one thing, I assign household chores more or less permanently. The reason I do that is for…
Cell phone addiction is a real thing, and I can prove it to you! Just take a ride on any freeway. Within 10 minutes you’ll find 3 to 5 people using their cell phones while driving ON THE FREEWAY. Yesterday, I spotted a motorcyclist in the fast lane, driving with one hand, while messing with his…
If you have kids, one of the main worries you have is how you’re going to be paying for college for them. College costs have been increasing wildly. So many kids are starting out their lives with huge student loans dragging them down. Or worse, many parents are putting their home or retirement savings at…
Here is the 4th post in our New Year’s Motivation series. For most people, parenting is a big part of our lives and all of us want to be a better parent to our children. As the mother of two sons and stepmother to a third, I think I have a bit of experience in…
This is the second post in our New Year’s Motivation series. After weight loss, I think people’s #2 resolution is to recover from their holiday debt, and learn how to manage your money. I feel it certainly is a worthy goal. To me, managing your money is less about getting rich and more about ensuring…
Here’s the final installment in my organizing kids series. This one is about taking back your mornings. With school-aged kids, it can be a real headache to get them out of bed, pulled together and fed, and somehow off to school on time every morning of the week. As the mom of two ADHD boys,…
Is there anything more pesky and annoying than trying to get your kids to do their chores? Unless you were born with that magically organized child (I never had THAT kid!), you are going to be fighting this fight for at least 18 years. According to my favorite behavioral psychologist Brian Wansink, the best way…
It occurred to me that in this New Year’s motivational series, I had not included any posts about parenting. So, I am starting a 3-part series here about both parenting and organization – double win! This first one is about helping your kids organize their homework. In the next post we will talk about kids…