Last week, a mom described what happened after soccer practice. Her 11-year-old son climbed into the car, slammed the door, and burst into tears because she'd parked in a different spot than usual. Like, WHAT?!! "I just stared at him," she told me. "It made absolutely no sense." Except it did. Because once again, it wasn't really about the parking spot. He'd spent the last two hours holding it together. He'd been trying to keep up with the drills, worried he'd made a mistake during scrimmage,...

A few summers ago, my daughter came home from college. I remember waking up around one in the morning and realizing she wasn't home yet. I looked at the clock, then at my phone. I found myself caught in that familiar internal debate many parents face. Do I text her? Do I leave it alone? Am I worrying unnecessarily, or is it reasonable to want to know where my child is in the middle of the night? What struck me was that I genuinely wasn't sure what the expectation was anymore. She wasn't a...

It can feel confusing. One moment, your teen wants nothing to do with you. Short answers. Closed doors. Eye rolls. "I'm fine." The next moment, they need something. A ride. Advice. Help with something they didn't plan for. And you're left wondering: Do they want me involved or not? Am I supposed to step in or back off? Why does it feel like I can't get it right? It's really hard to know if we are helping or making things worse. And if your teen has ADHD or anxiety layered on top of all of...