Archives for Parenting
How to Be a Good Mommy When You’re Sick: A Guide to Motherhood with Chronic Illness
Motherhood is tough enough when you’re healthy. How do moms with chronic illness manage the daily tasks of caring for themselves and their loved ones? That is the basic question Emily...
Book Review: Working with Parents of Anxious Children
As a therapist working in an inpatient facility, I see many young clients with anxiety. I probably see it more often than any other diagnosis. In fact, according to...
Gift-giving: ‘Tis the Season to Be Sensitive
The first Christmas after I was married, my new mother-in-law gave me a steam iron for Christmas. “Now you can do a better job ironing my son’s shirts,” she...
Cutting the Soul: A journey into the mental illness of a teenager through the eyes of her mother
It is late on a Friday night in the emergency department as I lead the mother into a small family room off the hallway. She is here with her...
OCD, Social Anxiety Disorder, and Treatment
Recently, I’ve been reading some articles on social anxiety, and it struck me how many of the situations and symptoms reminded me of my son Dan when he was...
Brainstorm: The Power & Purpose of the Teenage Brain
As any parent knows, raising a child during their teenage years can be daunting, intimidating, and frustrating. Teens display a wide variety of emotions, and we tend to see...
Preparing Children for Halloween
From ghoulies and ghosties And long-leggedy beasties And things that go bump in the night, Good Lord, deliver us! ~ Traditional prayer Here comes Halloween. If you’re a parent,...
8 Keys To Parenting Children With ADHD
With rates of ADHD reaching unprecedented numbers and treatment options heavily slanted toward medication, Cindy Goldrich’s new book, 8 Keys To Parenting Children With ADHD, is a welcome resource...
OCD and Medication
The topic of medication for obsessive-compulsive disorder is discussed a lot in articles and blogs and it always seems to incite lively conversation. There is talk of the stigma...
Four Fundamentals for Raising Competent Kids
My four adult kids joke that the reason we had a large family was to ensure that we had free labor around the house. They goodnaturedly complain that by...
Clearing the Haze: Helping Families Face Teen Addiction
I once read that the national cost of addiction and all of its related effects is second only to the money we spend on national defense. With this in...
When a Loved One Becomes Disabled
When my friend’s 25-year-old son suffered a head injury in a major car accident, death seemed like a certain outcome. Instead, he recovered. But medications caused him to gain...
Book Review: When Kids Call the Shots
How did it happen? Your child went from occasionally talking back to you to bullying you. When did you become terrified of interacting with your own child, and what...
Guidelines for Managing Kids’ Screen Time
“I don’t know what to do about my kids’ use of screens.” The mother who was talking to me was clearly worried. When asked to be more specific, she...
Should Our Children Listen to Us?
“Clean your room.” “Finish your broccoli.” “Brush your teeth.” … the never-ending things we tell our children to do. Will our child wither away if they don’t finish their...
Back to School, Back to Routines
For many families, summertime means a relaxation of routines. Working parents may maintain the same rhythm as the rest of the year, but for many families, the holiday from...
Child & Adolescent Mental Health: A Practical, All-in-One Guide
About twenty percent of children and adolescents in the United States — that’s roughly fifteen million kids — have a diagnosable mental health condition. Odds are, you know one,...
The Balance Myth: Rethinking Work-Life Success
As a grad student I was part of a group focused on women in science and medicine. In addition to getting camaraderie and support, we had the opportunity to bring in...
Home for Dinner: Mixing Food, Fun & Conversation for a Happier Family
Dinnertime can become a distracted conversation while folks check their phones, or a heated conflict that ends in anger and unfinished food. Home for Dinner: Mixing Food, Fun, and Conversation for a Happier...
8 Keys to Old-School Parenting For Modern-Day Families
In our effort to leave behind the harsh parenting tactics that generations before us suffered through, we may have swung a little too far in the other direction. Now, we tend to...
6 Essentials to Pack for Freshman Year
When I went off to college in the mid 60s, I had one suitcase of clothes and toiletries, a box of bedding, a few pens and a couple of...
Back to School with OCD
It’s that time of year again! I’ve previously written about taking obsessive-compulsive disorder to college, where I focused on establishing a good support system for OCD sufferers who are...
Selfish, Shallow & Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids
Not so very long ago, hardly anyone seemed to think deeply about whether to have kids. It was just what people did. Now, all that has changed. By 2004,...
OCD and Insight
Before my son Dan was diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder, I had little to no experience dealing with people who suffered from brain disorders. My preconceived belief was that those...
Surefire Ways to Alienate Your Adult Children (and Other People)
Parents who find that their adult children seem angry or avoid them for no apparent reason may be confusing having good intentions with not being on to themselves. Hidden...
