Lisa Endlich's Blog, page 378

Here are 6 Quick Tips to Keep the Peace With Your Teen

Younger moms always want to know how we made it through the sleepless nights, tantrums, and toilet training. Piece of cake? Clearly, not always. However, teens offer their own brand of crazy. The eye rolling, the sarcasm, the moody silence or sudden anger all can take their toll, leaving you wanting to tear your hair out. Or theirs.

Since that’s not really an option, here are a few quick (and legal) ways to settle yourself and your kids down. (Sorry, can’t help on the husband…that’s a whole...

8 Ways Teens Can Learn to Take Care of Their Own Health

From the minute we become parents, we are fierce protectors of our children’s health and well-being. Over the years we teach them such life-long positive behaviors as washing hands, healthy eating, wearing seat belts and safe driving. Our goal is to raise responsible, independent individuals who make good decisions, take care of themselves and navigate their own healthcare.

But when do we really teach them to handle their own healthcare? We schedule the doctor visits and, until they don’t wa...

The Three Crucial Relationships to Get Right at College

In another endless season of rankings and scorecards, I continue to marvel at how often we measure everything except the things that seem to matter most for student learning. Too often, debates about education focus on the components: courses, books, majors, co-curricular activities, and strategic plans. But it would be a mistake to reduce colleges to these parts.

In truth, at their core, colleges are bundles of people. The quality of an education is driven by the relationships that form, (o...

4 Things Your Teen Can Do NOW That Will Help Them on Campus LATER

Imagine you’re a goldfish in a 10-gallon tank. You’re the master of all you survey, from the waving greenery to the faux ancient ruins. One day, you’re moved to an 80-gallon tank with far more room to swim and lots of new fish species and decorations. How would you feel?

Obviously, you’re not a goldfish. But you’re going to experience something similar when you get to college. You’ll be transported to a world quite foreign from high school. So much to explore on campus, so many people to mee...

Selective Service: Here is Everything You Need to Know

Questions about the regulations surrounding registration for the Selective Service are ones that we see frequently in Grown and Flown Parents.  It’s a confusing topic and the rules may seem unclear. So here is everything you need to know about how to help your son register with the Selective Service.

Although there has not been a draft in the United States since 1973, the requirement to register for the Selective Service was reinstated in 1980 and applies to all men born on or after January...

My Daughter Made a Mistake With the College She Chose

I felt the all too familiar pit in my stomach as I saw the face-time call coming from my phone. It was my 18-year-old daughter and, lately, that feeling came on whenever she called. She was calling from college and these calls had not been good. We had moved her in three weeks earlier for her freshman year.

The move-in was difficult, which made for a rocky start. It had been getting progressively worse. She has always suffered from anxiety, so I was fully prepared for homesickness while she...

How do YOU Manage the Quiet in Your Empty Nest?

In the past month my home was sucked dry of everyone in it – except me. In a three-day, monumental, life-altering convergence of departures, my sixteen year old daughter, Talia, went off to a semester school program in Vermont and my husband, Kent, and eighteen year old son, Leo, drove off in our 1999 Subaru wagon on a cross-country drive to California, where Leo was starting college.

 

Kent is staying in California for the semester to take a sabbatical from his job as a university professor...

Is Your Teen Too Old To Trick-or-Treat? Absolutely Not!

We do Halloween and trick-or-treat BIG in my home. I start putting out the flying witches, floating ghosts, and creepy pumpkins as soon as the calendar flips to October 1. It’s seems to be the one holiday that everyone in the family can enjoy and get behind – no matter what their age.

We’ve all watched our toddling toddlers dressed like princesses and superheroes make their way down the street, grasping plastic pumpkins have their size and giddy while running door to door.  Then we get to en...

Does Your Teen Need Therapy? Why I Got Help For My Son

We all know parenting is the hardest job of all: we hear it, we read it, we feel it. With each stage comes another obstacle we must overcome. We try, we fall, we get back up and try something different.

With each age comes a new stage and the teenage years are absolutely no exception. In fact, for me, they’ve been the toughest mountain to climb, but I know I am not alone and my story can help others.

This past month I’ve started my teenage son in therapy;  he used to be such a happy child. H...

A College Care Package Filled With Love. Just Love.

In 2014 Daniel Wetter was an 18 year-old freshman at George Washington University. It was the end of October and campus was abuzz with Halloween excitement and planning. Daniel was having a difficult week, and was on his way to class when he got an email notification from Package Services that there was a package waiting for him. As he sat in class trying to concentrate on what the professor was saying, all he could think about was the package waiting for him. What was it and who was it from?...