Do Not Ask About Prom

There should be different words in the English language for young teenagers (ages 13-15) and older teenagers (ages 16-19). Calling them all “teenagers” gives parents the false expectation that our experiences with them will be similar throughout all those years. I found the early teenage years pretty manageable, but I was totally unprepared for the

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It’s 10 pm. Do you know where your children are?

My daughter hadn’t even spent the night yet at her dorm and I was texting my friends, “I should probably just go get her. She’s tried college and it went well. Now it’s time to get the family back together.” To be clear, my daughter wasn’t texting me with pleas to come get her. She

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“No More Change”

My son was practically crowing in the doctor’s office. Caleb is officially over six feet tall.   I wasn’t celebrating with him. In fact, I wasn’t even believing the very clear data that I had just witnessed with my own eyes. When the nurse left, I said, “Maybe we should have her re-measure you. I just

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Fear doesn’t get to be the boss of me…

I love calendars and goal setting and the hope of a brand new year. A few days ago, my husband Bryan and I sat down and looked over the goals we’d set for 2018. As I looked back over the year, I noticed that some things that had been priorities just disappeared. We’d had to

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Our kids need to hear about sexuality from us

I couldn’t help but overhear the woman talking loudly in the restaurant about panties. I was out to dinner with my family when I heard a woman say, “Pops, we have big news! We’re wearing panties!!” I leaned to look around the corner, hoping her use of the “royal we” involved a young child. Sure

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Don’t you trust me??

  It’s prom season, which means it’s time for parents to stay up late worrying. It’s also time, apparently, for teenagers to attempt to renegotiate rules and expectations. Prom time scares me. My whole hope for prom night was that my kids or their friends wouldn’t end up in the local news for any reason.

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Why I still send my children to school…

  After the horrific shootings in Florida, it didn’t occur to me to keep my kids home from school. By the middle of the week, though, I was hearing talk from parents explaining why they weren’t sending their kids to school this week. There were several online discussion groups citing concerns about school safety in

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Raising strong girls isn’t for the faint of heart

  I must confess that I sometimes wonder if being a feminist makes my job of raising girls harder. Sometimes, the idea of girls who smile and nod and do what they are told without ever questioning sounds pretty dreamy. Being a Women’s Studies minor in college prepared me to fight for women’s rights; it

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Boys to Men (and the moms who love them)

I was terrified about my daughter entering adolescence. I’d heard so many horror stories about the dramatic changes that happen to teenage girls; I was braced for her to turn into a monster. She honestly didn’t change that much. Caroline is still herself—just stretched out a little. She’s still lovely. I should have been more

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