Lisa Endlich's Blog, page 397

When Your College Student Reaches Out to You, Finally

College. It’s out there. Looming. A big, fat, scary uncharted world. A world with soooo many unknowns. As many for us as for our kids. The biggest unknown, though, has got be whether or not we’re ever gonna hear from our kids again once they leave for school in the fall.

At this point in the school year, our kids have done most of the heavy lifting they’re going to do, so they’re just coasting to graduation day. For them, spring is a time to finally exhale. This is their endgame, when they c...

Jobs for New Grads: How to Help (or Hinder) Your Kid’s Search

Parents are increasingly concerned about their student’s employment during and after college. As a result, they have become more involved in their grown children’s search for jobs and summer internships. The involvement is understandable… competition for these positions grow with yet another 1.8 million students graduating this May. Parents are anxious to get a return on their investment in four (or more) years of tuition, as well as getting their child financially independent as soon as poss...

Mother’s Day: How to Pick Your Favorite Child

Soon it will be Mother’s Day, that glorious day when my family works together to show me just how much they love me and how grateful they are for my innumerable, selfless acts of motherly kindness and devotion!

This is basically how Mother’s Day will go down at my house (or at lest in my imagination). First my husband will treat me to a simple, yet tasty, breakfast of chocolate-filled croissants, mimosas, and a $500 Target gift card. After that my children will shower me with gifts and hail...

Roommate Game: Is This Now a “Thing” for All Freshmen?

The bio for his prospective roommate read, “I’m chill AF”, and suddenly a new wave of anxiety crept to the surface.

Between juggling college application deadlines, agonizing over the anticipation of acceptance letters, studying for AP exams and the endless array of activities that go along with senior year, the stresses of my son’s last year of high school are quickly fading away as he heads into the home stretch towards graduation.

The excitement of going away to college is bubbling over at...

Here Are 13 Reasons Why You Are NOT Who You Think You Are

After watching the newest teen Netflix show, 13 Reasons Why, I have come up with 13 reasons why you, my teenage daughters, are not who you think you are. Also, 13 reasons why you are NOT supposed to have it all together, and 13 ways you can be helped until you have this life thing figured out.

13 Reasons Why and Why Not 13 Reasons why you are NOT who you think you are:

Who you are is not…

1.  how drunk you got last night.
2. how many likes you got on your social media post.
3. what your body...

The Perfect Score: Why Eleventh Grade Is So Difficult

It’s that time of year. We’d been warned since the twins were in middle school (maybe earlier) that eleventh grade sucked. Pardon my language, but not my candor.

It’s true. Eleventh grade sucks like a colonoscopy. The preparation, the build-up, the competition—only our boys don’t have the pleasure of a narcotic to get them through the most important test of their young life. There we were, coasting along, everything seemingly fine, and then wham, it hit like a fast-moving truck, leaving a tra...

If It’s Not One Thing It’s Your Mother

If it’s not one thing, it’s your mother.

My relationship with my mother is complicated. Of course it is. She is a product of her childhood, as we all are, and hers really sucked. Big time. She spent her formative years in the Tarnopol ghetto with a front row seat to starvation, cruelty and death. She and her mother escaped from the ghetto right before it was made Judenrein (Jew free) and were hidden on the attic of a barn for a year before being liberated by Russian soldiers. Upon liberation...

College Graduation: What it Feels Like to Be Along for the Ride

“Mom!”

I take in the oh-so familiar tone, pitch, and volume of the voice of my daughter’s voice on the other end of the phone. I feel my body tense, wondering if the call will resemble the recent ones—the ones during which the angst of my soon-to-be college graduate grappling with all sorts of uncomfortable unknowns and what-ifs often triggers my reactive anxiety, leading me to say the exact “wrong” things in my responses to her.

“Mom?!” She says again, as I take a deep breath. “Will there be...

Family Vacation: This is the Trip Every Family Needs to Take

There is a very fine line between a family vacation with children and hell on earth. Not only is it a lot of work to plan the vacation, but it costs a small fortune and is often not at all relaxing for us moms. Just click on Facebook the week of Spring Break and you will see that kids these days are pretty well-travelled, vacationing in all kinds of exotic locations. It seems that parents are expected to take their kids on an elaborate, out of this world, trip of a lifetime for Spring Break o...

Goodbye to High School and Hello to Nostalgia

“Just think, in two months school will be over, forever,” I enthuse as I drop off my high school senior son at the school gates. I’m trying to cheer him up after listening to more grumbles about exam stress, withering motivation and students infected with senioritis.

“Yes, but I’m pretty sure I’m going to miss it” he blurts, in one of those no-eye-contact revelations that tend to happen in the front of my car.

“Miss school? I thought you’d be rejoicing after twelve years” I reply, realizing...