Lisa Endlich's Blog, page 364

This is Why I Talk to My Kids About Money

My son went to the grocery store with me yesterday because he wanted to pick out some food for his new diet– he’s recently gotten into lifting weights, has given up sugar, and eats lots of protein and healthy fat.

At 14, his appetite is something I find impossible to keep up with, and regardless of what he puts in his body, the grocery bill is expensive. While I’m excited for this big change in his diet, this is quite the investment. I do think it’s worth it as it’s made remarkable changes to...

How to Help Your Teen After a Bad Breakup

Last night I got a phone call from my college freshman daughter – the kind you don’t want. “Mom,” she sobbed, catching her breath. “He said he doesn’t love me anymore. He doesn’t want this relationship anymore. That he doesn’t see a future for us.” Her boyfriend, her first love and THE ONE she was sure, ended their relationship and shattered her heart into a million pieces. She had no idea this was coming and it caught her completely off guard. She had just visited him at his college last w...

How Parents Can Help Prevent Drug And Alcohol Problems in College

I’ll never forget the first few days of my son’s freshman year of college. While he attended his orientation, the parents attended theirs, and were given some alarming facts about drug and alcohol problems in college. We learned that the local police are on the look-out for under-age drinkers during the first few weeks of school and that students who have been caught with drugs in the dorms have been asked to leave school.

Would my son make the right choices? Would I get call in the middle of...

I Am Done With My Teen’s Bad Attitude

For a long time if one of my kids looked at me with disdain, snapped at me, or rolled his eyes, my blood would boil. How could they? I would wonder. I do everything for these kids and this is how they treat me?!? 

It wasn’t until recently that I realized most of the time their bad attitude has nothing to do with me; I’m just a safe target for my boys’ frustrations. Is it fair? No way. But at least it’s not because they don’t love me or appreciate me it’s because they trust me that they lash o...

6 Things My Daughter Needs To Know About High School Friendships

My daughter has a tight group of friends at school. While this changes from time to time, and I notice some new names every now and again, as well as some girls who seemed to have moved on and find a different tribe, I talk to her about her relationships with these girls, a lot, since high school friendships will be such an important part of her life.

There have been tears and lots of hurt feelings along the way. As her mother, I want to tell her some of the things I learned from my high scho...

I Need to Stop Explaining My Daughter’s College Choice

Let me tell you about my daughter, Maggie. She was an excellent student in high school, was on the cross-country and track team, volunteered, and had a part-time job. She’s prime parent bragging material.

As a high school senior, she applied to a number of schools, and was accepted to all of them, including several competitive, prestigious schools in interesting far-away places. She also applied to the local state school, a safety school, the next town over. They accepted her and offered her...

Isn’t it Time for My Grown Kids to Be Grown?

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t you the one who wanted all these kids?” my friend Laura responded when I uttered the words that many a mother has thought, but perhaps opted not to say aloud.

“My greatest fear is that this time next year, I could have all three of my children living at home again.”

I was about to have them descend upon me in full-force for one full month, which meant double doses of Xanax, triple shots of bourbon and quadrupled fears of what the far future could possibly,...

Adult Friendships: 8 Ways to Reach Out and Reconnect

I’ve heard it said that we make friends for a reason, a season or a lifetime. Then I suppose it makes sense that the friends we made for the season of raising our kids are going their own way now and perhaps leaving us feeling isolated. In high irony, although we seem more connected than we ever have with our phones, tablets and computers we are, in fact, lonelier than ever. AARP estimated that, “42.6 million Americans over the age of 45 suffer from chronic loneliness, which significantly rai...

Why “This is US” is THE Show for US

We love This Is US because, well, it is US. Warning if you are not caught up: Spoilers.

Those of US in the MIDDLE, often called the sandwich generation who are in the middle of:

Raising Kids Launching Our Kids Balancing Careers Changing Careers Aging Parents Aging Ourselves

… LIFE

We love This Is US because, well, it is US. It unfolds US in the layers of every stage of life. US as children, as our parents may have been but we don’t remember, as teens, as parents as sons and daughters and si...

When Your College Student Suffers From Anxiety and Depression

With all of the talk of students suffering from anxiety and depression, I would like to share my son’s story in the hope it can help someone else and perhaps give some perspective to the stress that so many of our kids feel.

My son had a good freshman year of college with the usual stressors but, overall, he acclimated well.

Fall of sophomore year was difficult. He’s an athlete and he was injured (nothing that affected his school work but he was unable to train at full strength), he was takin...