Advice Your Mom Would Give if She Thought You Were Listening

Some things should be scary

Some things should be scary

on Apr 17, 2016

Don’t worry, no one is getting hurt. But moms everywhere understand why I had to resort to cheap laundry scare tactics. When my youngest daughter graduated from high school, I released my first book, Do Your Laundry or You’ll Die Alone: Advice Your Mom Would Give if She Thought You...

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3 Ways to Get Out of Doing Laundry

3 Ways to Get Out of Doing Laundry

on Apr 7, 2016

I raised children who would do anything to get out of doing laundry. I know they don’t come out of the womb this way, so I take some responsibility. And I have spent the last few years desperately trying to correct my bad parenting. With my daughters now 20 and...

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10 Messages All Sports Should Leave With Us

10 Messages All Sports Should Leave With Us

on Nov 1, 2015

. by Becky Blades My hometown baseball team, the Kansas City Royals, surprised everyone last year when after decades of disappointing seasons, they made it all the way to the 7th game of the World Series. It was the kind of Cinderella story we love talking about with our kids...

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College Applications: 3 Top Things to Remember

College Applications: 3 Top Things to Remember

on Oct 19, 2015

College application season is upon us, and students across the country are listing their extracurricular activities, trying to show ‘demonstrated interest,’ studying like crazy for standardized tests, and trying to get a handle on the dreaded application essay. It's a balancing act for both parents and students.

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Note to Self: Keep Believing

Note to Self: Keep Believing

on Oct 12, 2015

Even though they are now 20 and 22, I encourage my little girls to believe in the Tooth Fairy, and anything else that makes their lives more magical. I’m not worried about it messing with their grasp on reality. Life will dish out enough reality. But life, particularly in the...

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How to make cash the perfect graduation gift

How to NOT talk money with nearly grown kids

on Aug 30, 2015

My kids hate talking about money. Or maybe they just hate talking about it with me. And I hate talking with them when money is a problem. (And isn’t it always with young people?) Mostly, I hate any conversation that has actual numbers in it. But I love my kids,...

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Taking the Terror Out of College Laundry

Taking the Terror Out of College Laundry

on Aug 17, 2015

It’s happening. All over the country, young people are headed back to college after holiday break. Tens of thousands of bright-eyed co-eds are leaving homes with suitcases of freshly folded laundry, and some new garments with new care instructions to ignore. No matter how many laundry baskets and quarters you...

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25 Things To Tell Teens in August

25 Things To Tell Teens in August

on Aug 11, 2015

Summers turn on us. Over twenty years of raising children, the waning days of summer have come to create in me an irritating state of mind, a free-floating anxiety and guilt. That back-to-school, so-much-to-do, what-am-I-forgetting switch flips on in August. It was about this time every summer when my daughters...

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