Tales from a Mid-Lifer

Tag: Parenting

  • Teenage Privacy…Is it OK to spy on your teens’ texts? Internet history? Surf their social media? Yep!

    Is it okay to look through your kids’ bedroom drawers? Read their texts? Surf their internet history? When my children first began high school, I had more interest and opportunity to do all of those things. They were still figuring out what was acceptable and what wasn’t. I was extremely…

  • My Empty-Bucket List

    Throwback Thursday 5/31/2013 For many years, I’ve conducted an activity with my college students, asking them to create their own version of the famous “Bucket List”.  I warn them that the list should not include professional goals necessarily, but rather focus upon the “really neat”, “exciting”, “extraordinary”, places, events, activities,…

  • Choose My Battles?

    Last week my husband suggested that I more carefully “choose battles” with my twin 16-year olds.  Spending so much time together during the summer apparently had me criticizing them about “stupid things”. While I might have dismissed my husband’s comment ;), I was convicted while reading a statement from Ruth…

  • 10 Things I Believed at 25 That Proved False by 45

    Ahhhh, to be 20-something… Like most during those years, I had very definite impressions about how my life would progress. I would eventually learn, and after serious resistance – accept – that life has a way of detouring, surprising and wearing down a person, leaving a few disappointments along the…

  • My face through my son’s hockey helmet

    Throwback Thursday: 5/23/13 My son’s wide, blue eyes beamed through the cage of his hockey helmet, and I noticed he was really looking at me.  I was standing over him in the Emergency Room, as he lay on a stretcher, still in full uniform from the concussion he suffered an…

  • Nike? No thank you, Dad

    Last summer when my daughter’s sports season got underway, my husband surprised her with a new pair of super-cool field hockey cleats. They were hot pink and this child loves anything bright. I mean, these cleats were a visual delight to any female teen and her friends would have coooed…

  • On the day your first child gets their driver’s license, you’ll want to do something nice for yourself

    I didn’t think the day would really be about “me”, as a celebration lunch was in order for the new driver, followed by a few more stops for extra driving time. Yet, it was a surprisingly sensitive day for me. I quite unexpectedly felt needy, self-conscious… I craved a vacation…

  • Moms of Teen Boys Be Encouraged!

    I got longer than most Moms.  More hugs, more “I love you’s”, more devotion from my son than any other Mom I know.  That was, until he turned 14 years and two months old.  In one overnight sleep from Tuesday to Wednesday, an uneventful week by anyone’s standards, my son…

  • Desensitize My Kids?!

    Throwback Thursday from 5/8/2013 I was participating in a women’s prayer meeting at a church where I was relatively new. Until that day, I regularly offered prayer for others, but rarely requested any for myself. As my children began Middle School, I realized that it would take the proverbial village…

  • Ashley Madison Revealed More Than Real Names

    A few months ago, the Ashley Madison website scandal received considerable media coverage. For those few who are unfamiliar with the website, (like I was), the site’s tag line is: “Life is short, have an affair.” “….the world’s leading married dating service for discreet encounters.” Apparently, Ashley Madison was the…

  • Should “their good” be good enough?

    At his part time job, my son’s work is organized, clean and excellent, leaving the managers counting on him for more important responsibilities than other employees. My son is the teenager at his part time job who does what he is told to the very best of his ability. Maintaining…

  • How Long Can a Mom Monitor Kids’ Media? Is 17 years too long? :)

    My kids had a good laugh while reminiscing recently about how I “previewed” Hannah Montana before letting them watch it many years ago. That show eventually became a family favorite. Lest you label me a helicopter parent, when my kids were 12 and 13 years young, the world’s version of…