PARENTING IN REAL LIFE

College is a drastic, exciting and nerve-wracking change of life for freshman. As our kids get ready to go off on their own we want to set them up for a successful year. We need to help them with their emotions--and ours. We need to handle drop-off day with aplomb as well as the right tools, and we need to make sure they have a good handle on some general life strategies. We also need to give them some well-thought-out advice about college. Here are a few reminders for them

​It’s almost Summertime, and that usually means school is out, and graduations and summer internships or jobs are in. Unfortunately, we all know that that is not the case this year. Spring is here and Summer is coming...but graduations, internships and jobs....not so much. Change Is Coming Some kids have been lucky enough to get jobs or internships and will be out of the house some this summer. A lot won't. And if you have a student leaving for college who doesn't know if the

Everything feels both chaotic and tentative at the same time right now. Schools are out, but still teaching. Proms are postponed or canceled. Senior week and pranks no longer brighten graduation week, and graduation week doesn't even exist. The health of our country--and world--far surpasses these daily changes, but that doesn't change the fact that kids, especially seniors are really getting the short end of the stick. Seniors in high school and especially college are missin

Spring is here and with it the time honored mother/daughter outing to find the perfect prom dress. An entire day of bonding. what could be better? Before you get too excited, try to keep in mind that it can also be overwhelming and you don't want to make this into too big of a deal. For her to have fun, and for you to survive with her, it can’t feel like more pressure. They have more thanenough of that, our high school kids. Shopping for a Prom dress can be exciting, frustra

College applications are pretty much finished and submitted. Now the waiting starts--the agonizing waiting to hear did your teen get in or not? Did she get into her top pick? Was any merit or scholarship offered? There’s a lot to do, the stakes are high, the deadlines are strict, and you’re being asked to make major decisions about your future. How could our kids not be stressed?! So what can we do to help our kids take a breath, to work off some of this stress? Luckily ther

May first is rapidly approaching and seniors need to choose which college or university they are going to attend. It’s exciting and scary and a bit overwhelming. You’re armed with your college acceptance letters but now how do you choose which one is for you? There are so many different factors that are important: curriculum, size, location, cost, sports, and activities; the list goes on and on. Obviously, people choose to weigh it out differently and some need to choose base

Many college students come home for Thanksgiving, and while you're all looking forward to it, it can be an adjustment. You are excited about having her home, but you may also be nervous about what to anticipate. It's often the first extended time at home since they left for college in the summer, and the first semester at college may have been their first glimpse of "freedom". So they may be wondering if it is possible to come home and still maintain their newfound independ

​In many ways we humans are always striving to do things on our own, right from the start. Babies insist on holding a bottle or picking up food themselves. Toddlers emphatically announce, "Me do it." The preschool years are a time of burgeoning growth as children gain the intellectual, verbal, and social-emotional skills to tackle more tasks on their own. But how do you balance your child's desire for independence with his need for safety and limits? This issue is one that do

It’s Summertime and that means school is out--or almost out. It means proms and graduations and summer internships or jobs. For those of you with graduating high schoolers that means a lot of change is coming --for them and for you. It may only be June, but if your kid is headed to college then it’s high time to make sure they are ready to go. How do WE know they are prepared, and what can we do to ensure they are? Though it is sometimes easier to do everything for them, it

You submitted your college applications, scores, essays and all. What a relief—for a few days, then you realize you are just hanging in limbo as you settle in to wait. Now, for the three or four months you’ve been waiting to hear from colleges and scholarships your anxiety builds as each day ends without an email reply. What can you do to ease the stress? And as parents, we know that extreme pressure has not let up. Youth and adults alike pack a lot into their schedules. Bu