Many of our millennial children are smack dab in the era of student loans, expensive tuition and relatively low entry-level salaries. As a result, millennials like my daughter, Paige, rely on their parents to help support them between college and the years they actually start their lives. It seems like …
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Not a Movement Too Soon
There’s a new teachable moment we have to confront as parents and it’s one that is long overdue. As the #MeToo movement was taking off, it hit home for me with the memory of an encounter my daughter experienced as a 24-year-old summer law associate. Although I knew her strength and character …
Read More »Learning to Give Is a Gift for Our Kids
Do our kids really need all of those gifts? These days, it seems like the gifts that go on for, well, days and days. My 9-year-old niece gets so many gifts during Christmas that they cover the floor of an entire room. But I have been guilty of that kind …
Read More »An Electronic Challenge
I was thinking that maybe this Thanksgiving we could all give up our smartphones for a day. You can only answer your phone if the caller is a late dinner guest or one who needs directions. Or if there’s an emergency. Better yet, tell people to use your home phone …
Read More »The Best Cure for First-Day Jitters
The first day of school has so many challenges and joys, whether it’s the start of daycare, kindergarten, middle school, high school, college or just starting the next grade. Many parents talk about tears when sending their little ones off to school for the first time and having a deep …
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The pressure is on to get your family in shape for going back to school. One of the best things you can do now is to secure your village. Raising a child requires one, for sure. One of the hardest questions I had to fill out on all of those …
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I’m now a dad to a teenage daughter and a son who just turned 11. Far from being a helicopter parent, I’ve tried to instill in my kids a bias toward self-sufficiency. Not exactly the throw-‘em-in-the-deep-end teachable moments that may serve as harsh reminders of youth for some, but appropriate …
Read More »Building in My Son a Strong Sense of Self that has Nothing to Do with Size
Tasked with writing about health and well-being for this month’s column, I wanted nothing more than to avoid talking about my own screwed up relationship with food. But, the truth is, I struggle more with how to parent my kiddo without passing on my disordered eating than almost …
Read More »When Birds and Bees Start Buzzing Around
Talking about the “birds and the bees” with our children is tricky, uncomfortable and, in many ways, a parent’s nightmare. But it’s a part of life. We have to do it. My oldest daughter Paige was 8 when we sat down to talk. The girls at school were talking about …
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This January there will be no female president moving into the White House, despite the hopes of so many. On election day, I ran into a woman and her young daughter at the polls. The child said, “We voted for the first girl.” Many people, men and women, were hoping that putting Hillary Clinton …
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