Adventures in Parenting

I can relate to Sue Shellenbarger’s post in the Wall Street Journal blog. Speaking of college students who do not know how to do their own laundry, Shellenbarger says:
I too have stressed achievement, adventure and life outside the home with my kids over learning more mundane domestic duties.
I don’t like to clean the toilet and [...]

Walk through the front door of my house and you will see that I am obviously not an organized person.
We have stacks of stuff on every horizontal surface, including the floor…
“Mom, where is my report card from last year?”
“Mom, where is my vaccination record?”
“Mom, when was the last time I had an eye exam?
How I [...]

A friend who doesn’t have kids said today, “I am going to make sure that when I have kids, it’ll be when I am ready and really want them.”
I thought I was ready when I was 29 and had my first child. Yet, being a parent so changed my life beyond what I could’ve imagined.
Do [...]

Is it always bad to feel bad?
This is the second in a series about how negative situations can in fact be good for our children. Read the first one here.

“Come on guys, let’s go to a party.” Sure!
“Come on guys, let’s go to a funeral.” Silence.
Nobody really enjoys funerals. It’s solemn, it’s sad, and everyone [...]

I admit, we live a sheltered life here in the suburbs.
I’m not complaining. We like the relative peace and tranquility of suburbia. On the other hand, we cannot live with our heads in the sand.
In my zeal after reading about the devastating earthquake in China, I went berserk last night and lectured my 12-year-old about [...]

There is a general consensus that teenagers nowadays are materialistic, selfish, and have no worthwhile goals in life.
We don’t want our teenagers to go down that road.

Yes, there is hope!
The Rebelution is a movement started by two teenage boys to challenge other teens to go against the grain of that culture. Their motto is “DO [...]

How many Gen Xers do you know would choose to deny himself of a big house, nice car, vacations, choose to live on $38,000 and give away the rest of his $200k+ a year salary, choose to live in a lower economic neighborhood to share God’s love?
In our culture of excesses and accumulation of toys, [...]

“Hey mom, I cut myself an apple and ate the whole thing.”
My son has never been known to eat more than a slice, a thin slice, of an apple when he was at home.
Now that he is living on his own at college, he is cooking for himself, and cutting up apples for himself.
“You like [...]