Lisa Endlich's Blog, page 294

Teens Are Not Getting Enough Private Time With Health Care Providers

How much one-on-one time does your tween or teen get with their health care provider? Do you usually stay in the room for their well-visits? Do you wait outside while the doctor enters the room accompanied by a nurse or other support staff? Do you know if the doctor is at any point offering to meet privately with your child?

A recent study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health has revealed that many teens and young adults rarely or never meet privately with their health care providers...

“The Big Bang Theory” Is Ending And We Are Going To Miss Sheldon

For a long time, I didn’t get the television show “The Big Bang Theory.” My husband was really into it—so much so in fact I found it annoying. On numerous occasions he watched it when we traveled (oddly, he only watched it on planes). I was a little embarrassed when he didn’t seem to realize how loudly he was laughing because his headphones were on and I wanted to pretend I didn’t know him.

But this past fall, he started watching the endless reruns at home and I started paying more attention....

Are Community College Transfers Getting Shafted By Elite Schools?

My daughter graduated from community college at the same time she graduated from high school last year, thanks to a dual enrollment program in our state. With her associate’s degree in hand, she chose to transfer to a state college nearby so she could live at home and save on room and board. She’s a bright kid who graduated with honors from community college at 17. She undoubtedly could have done well at an elite school if she’d pursued that path—and if it were available to her.

According to...

No One Wins At The Game of Competitive Parenting (Trust Me, I Know)

It’s not like a gymnastics competition where the judges hold up scores at the end of a floor routine. It’s not like you can “stick the landing” either. It’s not like the announcement comes over the PA system: “A perfect 10! She’s achieved the perfect 10!”  No, a mother doesn’t stand on a podium, beaming at the end of the day, while the grand maternal order of the universe hangs a gold medal from her neck, declaring her the best of all time.

The sooner you come to understand there is no winnin...

Son Shares Mom’s Painting On Reddit, What Happens Next Is So Sweet

Who among us has not gone to a paint and sip event where we’ve produced, if not a Picasso, then certainly a piece of art of which we can be proud? I recently participated in such an art event and my “piece” is hanging proudly in my kitchen where all who enter can throw shade at it, and they do, routinely.

One school teacher, Cyndi Decker took an art class and painted an egret, (which for those of you not in the know is a big white bird). Her teenage son, Mathew decided to share her artwork on...

What Was True About Friendship In The 80’s Is Still True Today

Between my three teens there’s a lot going on in the friend department. This includes but is not limited to drama, changing friends, having a house full of kids who eat all the food, misunderstandings, hurt feelings and borrowing clothes. My kids occasionally (very occasionally) want my advice on the topic of friendship. I love when they do because I consider myself an expert in the friend department (I cared about friends and my social life way more than I cared about the academic part of sc...

Use These Five Unusual Tricks To Get Your Teen To Communicate

It’s an age old trope: teens, by nature, don’t communicate and it’s impossible to get them to open up once they turn 13. You hear rumors from other moms that raising a teen means accepting that he or she will clam up for the entirety their teenage years.  When my kids approached their teen years, I braced myself for having to talk to them through closed doors and learning to decipher eye rolling code.

Thankfully, I am happy to report that my teens, for the most part, are pretty good about com...

Your Last Child Is Leaving The Nest. So What Else Is New?

For generations, parents have been saying goodbye to the last of their children when they graduate high school. They go off to college, the armed forces, a gap year or otherwise move away. What more can be written that hasn’t already? What else is new that we haven’t heard before?

For anyone, like me, who is preparing to send their last (or only) child off into the world, there  is something new and different. That is, it’s happening to  us . This exact experience is personal and ours alone.

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CampusReel: Best New Way to Visit Campus Without Setting Foot on the Quad

As soon as our kids begin to look at colleges, everyone wants to share their own experience. When our teens name a college they are visiting, every relative and family friend who went attended 30 years ago wants to regale them with dorm life stories, all hopelessly out of date. Recent grads can provide much more valuable information, but colleges change quickly and information about admissions and life on campus quickly becomes out of date.  The only real solution to exploring if a college is...

Top 20 Signs That You Live With A Teen (Hint: You Might Not Be Cool)

Every parent has their own, authentic experiences with their teens—some good, some bad. But of course, there are also many incidents with teenagers that are universal for all parents.

Here are 20 signs that you live with teenagers. (oneinchpunch/ Shutterstock)

Here are the top 20 signs you live with a teenager:

Every day you find out you are just not cool.

Even though you are not cool at all, your shoes, bags and skin care products are always missing.

You can no longer help them with their ma...