Lisa Endlich's Blog, page 343

This Is Why My Kid Does Not Need A Fancy Internship

When I was in college, I landed a fancy internship working for a prestigious doctor in a VA hospital. I was a psychology major at George Washington University and my job was to do coding and data entry. I hated it – both the long Metro ride out there and the actual work.

My second internship was far more interesting, and much less fancy. It was an outpatient halfway house for mental illness. I recall an experience like it happened yesterday. A patient had walked up to me, staring, but saying...

Parenting Teens Means Life Becomes A Series Of Goodbye Moments

While standing in an airport security line recently, I got to witness firsthand what being the parent of a young adult really means.

A young woman of college age was in the line behind me, her backpack loaded heavily and ear buds hanging around her neck, she was talking to her father who was standing a few feet away.

“Dad, I promise I’ll call as soon as I get to Rome,” she said.

He nodded nervously, and like any dad about to send their little girl across the ocean, desperately wanted reassura...

It’s Hard To Watch My Daughter Leave Her Childhood Toy Behind

There’s a member of our family we don’t see much anymore. His absence isn’t due to illness or long distance or a falling out, but because he became…obsolete. This family member is Lala, the beloved childhood lovey of my daughter and soon-to-be high school graduate, Ellie.

The powder blue elephant/blankie hybrid was originally a baby gift given to our older daughter, Cassie—the small holes in the fabric above his blanket binding are where her name had been embroidered—but she never really warm...

Getting Your Sons to Talk to You is Not as Hard as You Think

I am the unicorn of the parenting world. As elusive as Big Foot and as mysterious as Loch Ness; truly the stuff of motherhood urban legends.

Brace yourselves, for I am the parent of boys who utter more than a grunt when asked questions. I mean, I don’t want to brag, but I get full sentences with adjectives and everything. And just like Chuck Norris unabashedly shares his Bowflex secrets with the world, I too am going to show you how an investment of time, hard work and yes—a little pain—will...

29 Best Ways to Make a Dorm Room Bed Feel Like Home

When you help move your teen into college, you will focus on the dorm room bed, the weirdly elevated, twin XL-length bed. You will do this because, more than anything, you want that bed to be filled with all the good things that remind your child of home. As you add each layer and smooth out all the wrinkles, you will silently hope you are adding a protective coating of love as you transform the industrial-strength bed into your kid’s “home.”

And when you finally pat down the finished, well-m...

Have A Teen Enlisting In The Armed Forces? Here Are 7 Tips For Bootcamp And Beyond

As the school year winds down, parents of seniors all across the country are bracing themselves for the next step their children are choosing to take along their life journey. And perhaps no other step is as vitally important (and noble) as the one a young man or woman takes when they decide to serve their country, as an enlisted member of the armed forces.

If you’re a parent of a child who has decided to head to a community college or four-year university, advice and helpful tips on making t...

Open Letter to My 22 Year Old Self: Anything Is Possible (Yes, Really)

Dear 22-year-old Catherine,

I’ve been thinking about you a lot lately. I just saw the video of your college graduation that someone posted on Facebook. Wait, I forgot—it’s the 1980s and you don’t know about Facebook yet. Ok, so briefly, it’s like the paper freshman face book you have now, the one that has everyone’s pictures and names and where they are from, that you think you’ll keep forever to remind you of your college friends. You won’t, actually. You’ll lose it in one of the many moves...

A Love Letter To My Teenaged Son’s Hoodie

To live with a teenager means you are familiar with the esteem in which they hold their hooded sweatshirts. Just take a walk down any crowded high school hallway and you’ll find that pretty much every teen is wearing some version of a hoodie. In fact, they wear them all day, every day. The fires of Babylon could be raining down fire and brimstone and teens would pull their hoods up to protect themselves from the flames.

Teens love hoodies and my son is no exception.

When he was headed to midd...

Failing As Parents Can Be Our Greatest Triumph and Other Advice From A Psychologist

Over the years I have offered countless lectures, workshops and seminars for parents on the wonders and woes of childrearing.  Invariably, during the Q&A, I will be asked,“If you could leave us with just one piece of advice, the most important takeaway from your presentation, what would it be?”

I used to bristle a bit upon hearing this question. How was I supposed to be able to condense everything that I had so earnestly conveyed into a simple tip or maxim?

Yet over time I began to see the va...

Parents Don’t Freak Out About Snapchat and Other Social Apps

By now many of you have heard about Snapchat’s new adult channel “Cosmo After Dark.” After a week of controversy in both the popular press and among parents online, it was taken down less than a week after being launched. Most of what I saw being shared on social media was designed to freak parents out and get them upset. All the outrage on this is really missing the point and frankly, missing an opportunity.

As someone who’s spent the past 18 months researching and writing a book on social m...