Lisa Endlich's Blog, page 314
October 27, 2018
Recommendation Sunday: The Top Picks of the Week G&F Parents Loved
Here’s what everyone in the group loved from last Sunday’s Recommendation Sunday post:
Netflix/ TV – Haunting of Hill House, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, Brain of Fire, Atypical, user Eye, New Amsterdam, A Million Little Things
Books: The Four Agreements, Better Than Before, Educated
Apps – FAFSA, Next Door, Copy Me That
Experiences: Take a walk in the woods, like to this place:
Take your kids to see bands you enjoyed when you were their age, including Garth Brooks.
Food: All Tr...
Rejection, Relationships, and Reaching Out to Your Teenage Daughter
For parents, being rejected by your daughter is an excruciating experience.
But it can really make you mad and doubt your child’s sanity when you’re replaced by a group of girls with all the tact, sense of fairness, and social graces of a pack of hyenas. Most people believe a girl’s task is to get through it, grow up, and put those experiences behind her. But your daughter’s relationships with other girls have deep and far-reaching implications beyond her teen years.
Your daughter’s friendshi...
October 25, 2018
New Study Reports One In Every Five College Students Has Considered Suicide
A recent survey published in Depression and Anxiety, the official journal of Anxiety and Depression Association of America, reveals a terrifying statistic; one in every five college students has considered suicide. The study states that, “The college years represent a period of increased vulnerability for a wide range of mental health (MH) challenges. The onset of common psychiatric conditions occurs during this period of development. Increases in depression, anxiety, and suicidality among U....
No One Knows The Truth: Our Son Is Also A Survivor
I watch him as he lumbers out the doors of his high school. Head phones in, baseball cap tucked down low over his ears, sunglasses hiding his eyes. His walk is slow, deliberate. His shoulders rounded under the weight of his back pack.
When he climbs in I ask, “How was your day?”
I already know the answer. It’s hard for us to have good days.
“It was alright,” he lies. “How was yours? Are you ok?”
“I’m ok,” I answer. He quietly takes my hand and holds it as we drive toward home. My tired, blan...
October 24, 2018
Stop Asking Your Friends, These College Admissions Experts’ Websites Have Many of the Answers You Need
Traveling the college admissions process with our kids can be confusing, frustrating, expensive, overwhelming, yep, all of that. We often turn to our friends for advice and counsel, but they can only help so much. Most have a limited range of experience, their entire sample set is their two or three kids, and they cannot begin to know all of the options open to our teens. And as so many aspects of college admissions change each year, with the best will in the world, our friends are soon out o...
Why This Doctor Thinks We Need to Think About Parenting Teens a Very Different Way
Even before our kids reach adolescence we are inundated with stories of how challenging their teenage years will be. The word “survive” is thrown around, as if these years might be our undoing. Rarely do our fellow parents or even the experts challenge this dogma.
Dr. Ken Ginsburg, a pediatrician in Adolescent Medicine at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, acknowledges that parenting comes with some bumps in...
October 23, 2018
How to Punish (and How Not to Punish) a Teenage Boy
Ugh. You just found out that your son has done something really bad. The kind of bad that makes you want to deny you know him.
Now what?
Sometimes your son will mess up. But it’s a moment in time. Your son isn’t doomed to be a failure or grow up to be a terrible person. All of the reasons you love them are still right there alongside whatever motivated made him do this thing you’re now dealing with.
And just like you, his feelings could be so jumbled together that it’s hard for him to sort th...
Sweet 16 Gifts: 16 Presents That Will Make You Wish it Was YOUR Birthday
When I turned sixteen, I couldn’t wait to take my driver’s test. My mom drove me to the DMV and waited while I sweated though parallel parking and the written test. When I came bounding out of the building, newly licensed and beaming, my mom handed me a small wrapped box as I slipped into the driver’s seat. My heart skipped a beat when I saw two car keys nestled in cotton. “You bought me a car as a sweet 16 gift??” I screamed and I couldn’t believe my good fortune.
My excitement was short-liv...
Why Christmas In The ’80s Was The Best
I remember the Christmas of 1985 like no other– that was the year my sisters and I got Cabbage Patch dolls. Seeing those large rectangle boxes under the tree as we were making our way down the green shag-carpeted stairs was a feeling I’ve tried to create for my kids year after year.
When I think about what the holidays mean to me, I am always transported to Christmas in the ’80s and remember the days of getting chocolate coins in my stocking, unveiling my Barbie Dream House, and sitting on my...
It Seemed Impossible to Get My Son to Spend the Day With Me Until I Tried This
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how I desperately craved time to myself when my kids were little. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my kids at every age, but I also wasn’t very good about creating “me time” (or the more politically-correct term, “self-care”), and I would often feel overwhelmed by the sheer hours and emotional drain of being a caretaker for another human. All. The. Time.
The baby days seem like forever ago. Snuggling my nose into soft tender skin and sniffing delicious baby sm...
