Tips for Successful Co-Parenting Parenting is a joy, and something we do simply because we love our children. In a perfect world, it would also be easy. Unfortunately, things can get complicated – especially when we are co-parenting our children with an ex we don’ get along with. There are, however, many tips you can put to use that will … Read More
How to Help Your Children Create Strong Sibling Bonds
Tips for an Established Family or Step Family Siblings are one of the greatest gifts that life can bring our children. The relationship between siblings is one of the deepest relationships they will ever experience. Through fighting and teamwork, they will build a complex and amazing bond that lasts longer than most other relationships throughout their life. What can you … Read More
Allow Your Children to “Grieve” After Divorce
Allow Your Children to “Grieve” After Divorce Divorce is hard on everyone involved. When children are involved, we need to give them the time and space to grieve the loss of the biological parent that leaves the home. To “grieve” may sound harsh, but it is exactly what the children do. They have lost someone very special to them, even … Read More
When the Marriage Gets Tough – Stay Put!
Pick up the newspaper or go online and read the headlines and you will see that there are always celebrity couples that are fighting, separating or getting a divorce. The problem with this is that they make it look so glamorous. There is nothing glamorous about getting a divorce. There is nothing sensational about someone hurling hurtful words and downing … Read More
Bullying Has to STOP
I found this excellent article that I wanted to share. The original article can be found here. Unfortunately, teasing is often part of growing up — almost every child experiences it. But it isn’t always as innocuous as it seems. Words can cause pain. Teasing becomes bullying when it is repetitive or when there is a conscious intent to hurt another child. … Read More
Talk to Your Teenager
As a young person, those nights leading up to turning thirteen and becoming a teenager can be exhausting. For years, he was a kid, your child. Your new teen now wants to know if he is supposed to automatically look or feel different, and your teen will wonder if he will enter the cool set of teens in the neighborhood—the … Read More
Why The 4-1-1 Books Matter
In a recent interview I was asked why I’m writing the 4-1-1 books. Although I did answer the question with “to help those that may not be able to completely help themselves,” I’ve taken time since then to reflect on this question. The 4-1-1 on Life Skills is a book about the basic life skills needed by adults of all … Read More
Abuse isn’t Discipline – There is a Difference
After reading this article at http://www.nbc-2.com/story/23764243/three-charged-in-barbaric-case-of-child-abuse#.Umkoovl1woo, I was both saddened and outraged. There are ways to discipline a child without physically abusing them. There are many questions that also come up when you read something like this. Such as: 1) Why was a child left in the care of someone who had already been charged with abuse in the … Read More
Positive Parenting
Wanted to share a small piece of my new book Parenting with an Edge: It all starts with a stick…those two minutes you have to wait are the longest two minutes of your life…then you get the “+” sign. You are pregnant! You will be someone’s parent. You spend the next nine months preparing for your baby. You realize that … Read More
It’s Not Just The VMA’s – It’s Our Entire World
The internet was a buzz this week from the recent VMA’s. Some performances were great to see, some not so great, and some just raunchy. We definitely live in a free world by what’s on TV, in movies, and on the internet. I’m no prude. I love to dance like everyone else. I love to watch other people dance. I … Read More