According to a study by Hallmark, 95 percent believe money is an appropriate gift for graduation from high school or college
Read MoreDon’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...
Read MoreI 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...
Read MoreScorekeeping has its place. And yes, the numbers they are chasing are important now. But we know they won’t be forever.
Read More. 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...
Read MoreCollege 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.
Read MoreEven 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...
Read MoreMy 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,...
Read MoreIt’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...
Read MoreSummers 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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