Many parenting practices I discuss with families are contextual. Often, what I suggest a parent do depends on a family’s particular circumstances, their resources, the ages of their children, the temperaments of both kids and parents, their schedules. And as a...
Some days ago, in my office, I began crying at my desk. It caught me off guard. I had been down, sure, but mostly mopey and whiny, and I didn’t think it was much deeper than that. But then a thought sent me tumbling over the edge, and there I was crying. I fumbled...
Throughout the course of our lives, we will inevitably experience loss, and naturally, grief is a part of the process. Both loss and grief are not only predictable, but likely to occur repeatedly throughout the course of the lives of all individuals. The loss of a...
I rarely take the stance that emotions are something to be side-stepped or disregarded. Most of the time, I write about how we need to acknowledge and accept our emotional reality, and how we can’t move forward without making peace with our emotional truths. This...
Don’t get defensive is something we say all the time. Defensiveness is our natural and reflexive position when confronted with the idea that we’ve done something wrong or disappointed someone, particularly those we care about. Becoming defensive is easy, and...
I don’t like my cat. It’s a relief to say it. I don’t allow myself to think about it very often, and saying it out loud (so to speak) is a bit scary, but also sort of like letting out a breath after holding it in for a long time. A good deal of my friends and family...