Lisa Endlich's Blog, page 290
February 26, 2019
Teaching My Kids To Be More Than Just “Good People”
It happened during health class when I was a high school junior. It wasn’t the first time I’d overheard one of the football jocks in the classroom ribbing the kid who occupied the desk in the far back corner.
I’d look over and shake my head in disgust that the trio of football players. It was obvious why they’d chosen those seats. The kid was an easy target. He dressed and styled his hair a little too neatly for some people’s taste. He was funny and likeable and generally gregarious. But, s...
Hootie and The Blowfish Helped Me Grieve The Loss of My Dad
Going to a Hootie and The Blowfish concert helped me to let my grief go. (Eugene Parciasepe/Shutterstock) When I was in college, I fell in love with a guy named Hootie. And yes, back then, country music mega star Darius Rucker was known as Hootie, and yes, I realize that I’m showing my age when I call him Hootie. On any given day in my dorm room circa mid 1990s, the sounds of Cracked Rear View would be emanating from the boom box that sat on my dorm desk shelf.
Whether I was getting ready for...
Therapy Helped Me Let My Teen Son Go So I Could Hold Him Close
Therapy helped me become the parent my teen deserved. (Tereshchenko Dmitry/Shutterstock) “I’m going to ask Stacy to marry me,” said my 22-year-old son, Richard, as we sat in a coffee shop. You know the expression, “my life flashed before my eyes”? Well, right then, my life did; it included a lot of his.
May I have a popsicle?
Going to James’, okay?
Stacy and I are getting serious.
He’d gone from asking my permission to asking my opinion to telling me his decisions. He’d sent me a steady messag...
February 25, 2019
More Sleep, More Exercise, and Less Screen Time. Why Your Teen’s Health Depends on More of Some and Less of Others
Less screen time is crucial for the health of our teens. (junpinzon/Shutterstock)
Nothing would get me angrier than when my teenagers would sleep until 2 p.m. on the weekends. That is, when they didn’t have to be force overachieving and resume building at some sports, work, youth group, or volunteer project. As they snoozed well into the afternoon, I thought, “How can anyone sleep for 18 hours straight?” Turns out every teen parent I know was asking themselves that same question, and while we...
February 22, 2019
I Watched My Teen Son Grow Into A Man In A Split Second
I watched my son become a man in a split second.
Andrew was fifteen years old and, at this point and time, the thing that defined our relationship was snack wrappers. It’s embarrassing to admit how much of our daily interaction revolved around his wrappers discarded around the house, and me telling him to pick them up.
Even when he had been in his bedroom for hours, I always knew the exact position on the living room couch he had been on earlier that day, because the empty wrappers outlined t...
February 21, 2019
We Need To Rethink Encouraging Our Kids To “Follow Your Passion”
Parents need to rethink telling their teens to follow their passions. (Master1305/Shutterstock)
“Follow your passion” seems to be the career buzz phrase of the 21st century. Self-help gurus have given countless talks and written entire books on this advice, which basically boils down to, “Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.”
While following your passion sounds like a nice idea on the surface, like all simplistic adages, important questions lurk beneath it:
– Is the advi...
A Mom’s Practical Dating Advice For Teenage Girls
Here’s the practical advice I want my teen girls to know about dating. (Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock)
Dating and daughters… it’s a delicate subject, especially between moms and our girls. Just the thought of our daughters being in the game can make us feel like throwing up in our mouth. And just the mention of it to our girls can make them feel like slamming doors in our face because they’re sure they know it all.
So it’s a tricky one, this whole relationship thing. Because, as women who have al...
My Daughter Received A Rejection Letter That Motivated Her
My daughter received a rejection letter that motivated her. (taramara78/ Shutterstock)
“And, during finals weeks, the Professors actually cook breakfast for us…at MIDNIGHT!” exclaimed the tour guide.
It was the summer of my daughter’s senior year of high school, and we were touring East Coast stretch universities. She’d just had an interview, and now we were on a tour of one of the Big Ivies (let’s call it XYZ University.) As we stood under a shade tree seeking relief from the sweltering Augu...
February 19, 2019
My Son is Graduating From College and Will Move Forward HIS Way
Four years ago, I was lamenting to anyone who would listen about how it felt like it was just yesterday that I was dropping my son off at preschool, making cupcakes for his class birthday celebration and sending him off to his first sleepover. As his high school graduation approached, I was filled with a mix of emotions—proud of his accomplishments, happy to see him start a new chapter and a little sad that he was doing it without me by his side on a daily basis.
Fast forward four more years...
Six Sleeper Movies You Might Have Missed To Watch With Your Teens
Your teenager is home on a weekend night and you want to watch a movie with actual character development, a movie without animated animals or explosions (including the F-bomb), and without an OSS (obligatory sex scene) that makes you all cringe or dive for the remote.
The plot has to really grab them right from the start, which rules out award winners like Chariots of Fire or A Man for All Seasons; if they can’t relate to it, they’ll pass.
Maybe you also have a twelve-year-old who might decid...
