Search Results for: blog parenting when you just dont feel well

Cold, Cold Go Away!

I’m getting that dreaded winter cold that’s going around. Inevitably this always seems to come the week before finals. Why this is happening? I don’t really know. The only conclusion I have been able to come up with is that the universe is combining against me to make finals week as miserable as possible! In all seriousness though, having a cold while trying to take care of a four year old on your own is a pretty tough job in and of itself, with or without finals. Poor Logan has been suffering from the same cold for several weeks now. … Continue reading →

Detoxing your Life

The other day, I was on the phone with my best friend. We were complaining about aches and pains and how we didn’t think it could be stress because we just didn’t feel stressed. Then, we proceeded to complain about different things in our lives for the next 30 minutes. She laughed and said, “But, we aren’t stressed about anything!” Stress can affect our health – both mental and physical. But how can we detox ourselves of poisonous stress? First, ask yourself some honest questions. Do you get irritated easily? Do you always feel like you are rushing from place … Continue reading →

Enduring to the End

As single parents people often pass judgments and say unkind things about us. While I think this happens to everybody, we become more acutely aware of it as single parents. Our character is often called into question by people who don’t even know us and for no other reason than the fact that we are single. Our parenting is questioned, our lifestyle examined, and our decisions criticized by both people who know us and people who don’t time and time again. Over the last couple of months I have felt the heat of these judgments from people who once knew … Continue reading →

Those Rocky Moments

A friend recently reminded me to not take things my teen says personally. It was good advice but hard to receive. You can never really be prepared for those sometimes rocky moments that happen between a parent and a teenager. They can come out of nowhere, leaving you to wonder what just happened. In the midst of the chaos however, as a parent there are some things we need to remember. In addition to the advice of not taking things personally, we should also remember these things… Teens sometimes say things they don’t really mean Teens sometimes speak out of … Continue reading →

Planning a Graduation Party – Part 1

I’m not normally a procrastinator. In fact, I am a planner and organizer at heart. But as of last week I had already received three graduation party invites, yet hadn’t even started planning one for my son. This just wasn’t like me. But I eventually realized there were a couple of things going on. The first is that the idea of planning a large party was stressful. And the second is that a part of me was trying to deny the reality of what is ahead. It is one thing to plan and prepare for your child’s high school graduation. … Continue reading →

Family and Community- Create Your Own

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We all try our best to be good at parenting and when you are a single parent it seems like there is even more pressure to get it right. You don’t have another influence on your child, it’s just you so you better be doing a good job. No one says that but that’s how you feel. Every day I think, how can I be a better mother? I think the best thing I can do for my child is give her a family and a community of support. Her family may not be the one she is born into … Continue reading →

10 Ways to Push Your Teen Away: Dismiss Their Hurts (Part 8)

In part 8 of my series on “10 Ways to Push Your Teen Away,” we are going to be talking about how dismissing their hurts can be detrimental to your relationship. In fact, this is probably one of the biggest ways we can push our teens away. One of the things we have to remember as parents of teens is that what we may consider to be “nothing” can be everything to them. Just because we can’t understand why they feel so strongly about something doesn’t mean it’s invalid. Sometimes we make statements like… “Oh, you’ll get over it.” “Just … Continue reading →

10 Ways to Push Your Teen Away: Use Sarcasm to Get Your Point Across (Part 6)

Maybe this isn’t a problem for you but it is definitely one for me, sarcasm. I believe it was inherited from my father. In fact, I remember as a teenager really not liking it when he was sarcastic. So I have to really work on that when it comes to my teens. Today in the “10 Ways to Push Your Teen Away,” we are going to look at what can be a common problem for parents who are trying to get their point across, the use of sarcasm. I had always considered it to be a “funny” way of expressing … Continue reading →

Be Careful What You Wish For

Its funny how as a parent something you wish for can end up coming back to bite you. As any regular reader of mine knows, my 17-year-old son is going through the process of enlisting in the Air Force. It has been a journey that has taken me up and brought me down. There are so many emotions involved. My latest hope was that my son would do well on his ASVAB test. That stands for “Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery.” The higher you score on this test, the more opportunities that are available. So as most parents hope for, … Continue reading →

Extra Space as the Birdies Leave the Nest

As I have been blogging about my son joining the Air Force, I have been expressing my mother heart. That part of me feeling pained about the idea of him leaving and just the uncertainty of enlisting in the military. However, there is another side of this that I almost feel guilty about. It’s the planning we have already been doing with the extra room we will have. As the little birdies begin to leave the nest, it opens up more space. And although I chastised my youngest for his first question being, “Can I get Daniel’s room?” I couldn’t … Continue reading →