Lisa Endlich's Blog, page 413
January 24, 2017
Dear Son: Puberty Is Not An Excuse To Be a Jerk
Dear Teenage Son,
I know you are going through a lot of changes that you don’t have any control over. I realize your days of running around with your hair on fire telling me about every detail of your life (including your bowel movements) are long gone. And I also know how annoying it is when I tell you how much I miss those days: the snuggling, the requests for me to play with you, the times you would sit on my lap and ask me to read story after story after story.
I know you don’t want to h...
January 22, 2017
What This College Student With Chronic Pain Has Learned
When you’re throwing your life into two suitcases and moving across the country, nothing seems permanent. You pluck things from midair: pieces of your home, mementos from childhood, clothes you hope won’t inhibit the acquisition of friends. I was seventeen, diagnosed with a disorder* resulting in lifelong, chronic pain, and had absolutely no understanding of how seriously I should approach my burden. There were more pressing demands.
Turns Out, I’m the One Making Junior Year More Difficult Than it Has To Be
“Seriously, Mom, all we’ve done this week is fight! I don’t want to fight with you!” She might be right. My high school junior and I have disagreed a lot this week, and it’s been really unpleasant.
But she has to learn to budget her money/not leave dirty dishes in the sink overnight for me to find in the morning/tell me where she’s going before she gets there/keep her wet towels off the floor/fill-in-the-blank-with-any-other-life-skill-she-will-need-for-college. My mind retorts sarcastically....
January 21, 2017
My Daughter Turned 13 – This is What I See When I Look at Her
My daughter turned 13 this weekend. She spent Saturday with her friends at the movies and then I dropped them off in front of Bath & Body Works to shop by themselves while I roamed the aisles at the nearby Barnes and Noble. More than once, I caught myself checking my phone for a missed text asking me to meet them at Claire’s or Ulta. There were no texts.
It’s a weird thing, being a parent to a teenager. I was a teenager once. I was such a teenager. I had a poster of Michael Jackson on my clo...
January 19, 2017
Why I Stopped Worrying If My College Daughter Was Lonely
“Don’t,” Itell myself as my eyes well. Let your face reveal that this is right, that your daughter will be fine in college. My biggest worry besides rapists and shootings and drugged solo cups is she’ll be lonely. Tina is a little shy, an introvert, not one to reach out to people.
And so for months before she left I gave her my long list of ambivalent reassurances, my usual stark truth-telling balanced by optimism. “You’re going to like college, but probably not right away. It’s this new str...
Nine Things My Daughters Need to Learn About Life
As the mother of two girls, I don’t speak boy at all. Never have. Not a word. Aside from being with my husband for the last thirty-plus years, I’ve got no idea what the hell goes on in a boy’s head. But, because I’m obviously girl, and I happen to have two of them as kids, I speak fluent Sheila.
And thanks to a lifetime’s worth of exposure to the girl mind—over forty-five years as one myself and almost twenty as a girl mom—I get how we’re all wired. Especially the emotional challenges most of...
How Do I Appeal A Financial Aid Offer? The Five Step Process
Merit aid? Financial aid? Loans? Grants? Work Study? Can you appeal a financial aid offer (need based or merit) if it is not enough? Can you tell a college that another schooloffered your student more financial aid? When do you do that and what do you say? Is this the student’s responsibility or the parent’s?
Paying for college is one of the biggest economic challenges and sources of confusion that parents face. Once a college-bound high school senior receives a college acceptance (yeah!) and...
Valentine’s Day Gift Guide: For Teens and College Kids You Love
Want to use February 14 as an excuse to send your college kid a care package or surprise your teen with something trendy and fun? We found these presents that we bet your grown kid would love to get as a Valentine’s Day gift.
Valentine’s Day Gift Guide for Teens, College Kids, and Young AdultsMini Table Top Foosball – Comes with Everything You Need 1[image error]– our big kids love toys and this table-top soccer game is exactly that, a fun toy.
Cell Phone Clip Holder[image error]– watch Netflix on a phone, hands fre...
January 18, 2017
We Asked Hundreds Of Moms How To Be a Good Parent: Here Is What They Told Us
I am a member of a number of online parenting communities. The other day, a mom on one of them commented that it breaks her heart to read about relationships between parents and kids that do not live up to expectations. She asked that those who posted about idyllic relationships share one piece of advice they had relied on in raising wonderful adult children.
As I culled through people’s responses, I noticed that while there were many nods to the fact that there is no perfect recipe for raisi...
What This Mom Learned the Hard Way About College Applications
I have survived the college applications and acceptance process three times now! My three kids are completely different students/individuals/goals and all chose different schools.I can honestly say each and every process was as different as each child, HOWEVER, there are enough common denominators that I can share what I have learned and hope it helps others!
According to the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce, 11.5 million of the 11.6 million new jobs created since the 2007-20...
