Lisa Endlich's Blog, page 370

For This Mom, It’s All About Her Kids’ Empty Beds

As parents we all mark our college kids’ absences differently. There are many little things in our daily lives that occur that remind us (not that we have forgotten) that our birds have flown the nest. For some, it is grocery store grieving or feeling a sharp pang upon finding a lone sock stuck in the sofa, or the suddenly empty foyer that used to overflow with boots and backpacks. For me, though, it is all about the beds.

When you think about it, where else are we more vulnerable and yet fe...

15 Million Children and Teens are Struggling. Can’t We do More?

Depression and anxiety are never easy things to come to terms with. It doesn’t matter if you are fourteen or forty-one, you will struggle if you are affected with feelings of helplessness. You try to find your way on your own before reaching out for help, and when and if you do find the words, it can feel incredibly scary.

Depression and anxiety affect so many and yet there is still a stigma attached to it. I know when I like I’m in a dark place, it’s extremely hard to ask for help simply be...

I Still Call My Kids When I See Something Amazing

Standing at the kitchen sink washing my hands, I glanced, absent-mindedly, out the window toward a solitary orange tree that sits against our garden wall. A majestic, yellow and brown Monarch, its wing span at least four inches, fluttered from branch to branch in a butterfly ballet.

I turned, instinctively, to call to the kids, Hey guys, come see the butterfly, but the turning of my head pulled me to the present. Katie was twenty-three years old and two states away teaching fourth grade, and...

Stocking Stuffers for Teens and College Kids That Will Make Them Smile

When your older kid lumbers into the family room on Christmas morning, takes their stocking down from the mantle and looks inside, they begin to resemble their little kid self. Here are our favorite new and traditional stocking stuffers for teens, college kids and young adults.

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NEW! See all of Grown and Flown top pics for holiday and grad gifts in on...

What My Parents Made Me Do When I Wanted to Quit the Team

When I was a freshman in high school, my basketball team was small. In fact, it was so small that we didn’t have a freshmen or JV team. My coach was tough. He had high expectations and conducted physically and mentally demanding practices. I suited varsity, but only got in the last-minute or two (if we were winning by enough). Essentially, I only had the opportunity to play in practice. However, I battled, knowing that next year could be my year.

The beginning of my sophomore year was differ...

I’m Down to the Last Kid in My House

Last night my 15-year-old and I took our positions in the family room – him, spread out on the couch and me, folded into a nearby chair – armed with a tin of Trader Joe’s Jingle Jangle and a remote control. A few minutes earlier, he had yelled for me to hurry up – he thought I was taking too long cleaning the kitchen after dinner – and by the time I joined him, my son had already turned off all the lights in the room and queued the movie we’d agreed to watch on Amazon.

He pressed play on the...

The Holiday Spirit Cure: The Junk Drawer

In a pre-holiday purge this week, I dumped out my junk drawer. It’s the little one in the kitchen by the stove where I put things that don’t belong anywhere in particular. I only open this drawer to put things in it for later. For what is this mighty later? From the story the contents of this drawer told me, the later lives despite these parts and pieces of our past. And this past shrapnel just collects like lint until every single bit of what has been tumbled out of our lives becomes a throw...

Senior Year is a Time for Celebrating Firsts

Last May, while my oldest daughter Cameron was still a junior in high school, was the first time I felt viscerally, the reality of her imminent graduation and subsequent moving out for college.

Up until then, this event had been something remote, distant, and “years” away.

But in May, I had a front row seat to many of my daughter’s friend’s graduations, as well as my own friend’s children’s graduations. I started to feel an empathetic ache in my own heart as I watched these kids move through...

I Admit it, I Was Ready for My Son to Return to College!

I looked forward to Thanksgiving since the day we dropped my son Jorden off. As we drove away the only consolation I could offer myself was that Thanksgiving wasn’t so far away and I would see him very soon.

Every lonely night I rehearsed over and over the schedule of things we would do while he was here and I immediately began to plan the four-day menu. Breakfast, lunch, dinner and even snacks were very well planned and I made sure to have every single ingredient and went over the list cons...

My Daughter Died From an Overdose: 4 Things I Want Parents to Know

“She’s so bright. Once she gets to college, she’ll make new friends and have a change in environment and will focus on her academics. The experimentation she did in high school will fall behind her.”

If only…

Ten years ago, my husband and I were wondering whether we should be looking for colleges or rehabs for our daughter. Note the wording: she was not taking a particularly active role in the college search. But the culture of our family, and her school, made college the ineluctable choice....