There’s a lot more Mama Drama rolled into this story, but I’ll give you the short version: 

16yo daughter screwed up, I gave her a 2nd chance – with very clear stipulations attached. 
16yo daughter plowed through stipulations and blew it again, I grounded her for 2 weeks.
Too bad, so sad.  The end.  Or was it?

Now, if this had been maybe even [...]

For those who have mentioned the excitement of my daughter turning 16 today, my reaction has probably seemed confusing (I’m referring to the low mumbling and the rolling of the eyes).  I, too, am excited for my daughter and this time of her life, but there is naturally a little part of me that finds it [...]

Last night my 13yo daughter suffered a freak “crush injury,” and I don’t mean the cute boy at school snubbed her in the hallway.
My husband and 15yo and 13yo daughters were coming home with dinner from the store.  My husband had told my 13yo he wanted her to pull the trash can up from the [...]

I got so many sweet, encouraging comments on yesterday’s post, I felt I should share how the night with my 11yo daughter ended.
When I picked up my daughters from school, my 11yo was happy and chatty, full of stories about her day.  Things were busy as soon as we got home, and I couldn’t immediately [...]

I wondered to myself this morning if I’m the only mom I know who calls my kids out on their…well, you know…”stuff.”  When my teen or pre-teen daughters are being hard-headed or rude or just plain dumb about something, more often than not I call them out on it.  When they were younger and acted [...]

This daughter of mine, she astounds me.
Three years ago for the 4th grade talent show, she chose to sing not Britney Spears or Hannah Montana, but Weird Al Yancovik’s “The Saga Begins”.  I was terrified for her – what would her peers think?  would she remember all the words?  would the audience “get” all the [...]

As my children have gotten older, I’ve been surprised at how difficult it is for me to follow one of the golden rules of parenting:  don’t do for them what they can do for themselves.
It’s not that I don’t want them to learn responsibility, I just have the hardest time letting them deal with the [...]

Kajeet’s slogan, “the cell phone service made 4 kids ™,” is an answer to my prayers.  My 15yo daughter has endured the embarrasment of being the only teenager she knows without a cell phone, and I can’t say she’s endured it well.  Still, I needed to find something that allowed me to give her the freedom [...]

Do you think she’s been watching me stress out lately?
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So, the April edition of the online parenting magazine Root & Sprout is now live.
You really should go read the ENTIRE edition, but if – by chance – you’d like to jump to my submissions, they are:
Teaching Tweens and Teens How To Be Self-Sufficient
and
Review:  Cool Sets Sleepwear
Please go check it out!
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