Lisa Endlich's Blog, page 423

When Your Strong-Willed Son Won’t Let You Help

I tried to wiggle the spoon out from my toddler’s grip.

“Let me help you,” I told him.

Spaghetti sauce was in his hair, on his cheeks. There was even a splotch on the ceiling. My son let out a yelp and yanked harder. The spoon was his now. His gaze had never left mine. He wasn’t yet two, but I saw his fierce intensity. His independence.

I let him have the spoon even though, technically, he couldn’t feed himself yet—and his attempts left me with a huge mess. As a first time mom, I wasn’t thin...

An Open Letter to My Daughters About “Locker Room Talk”

Darling Girls,

Please know that you are lovely. You are strong and clever, smart and funny. You deserve nothing less than respect and honor. “Locker room talk” is an assault to your dignity and to the dignity of all women.

Never let a guy speak to you or about you in a demeaning way, and stay far far away from any boy who tries to dismiss vile and sleazy talk about women as just “a guy thing.” Such a boy might be a guy, but he isn’t a real man.

“Locker room talk” as some are calling it, is n...

Off Campus Housing: 6 Things That Students Need to Know

When I started visiting colleges during high school, a lot of people kindly gave advice and suggested questions I should ask while on my tours. While this was very thoughtful, I didn’t really understand what the questions (or answers) about roommates, dining halls, meal plans and housing would actually mean until I became a freshman. While I am extremely happy at my school and, fortunately, things have gone well, off campus housing after freshman year is one subject I wish I had known more ab...

To The Dad With the Little Boy Picking Flowers

I am at my son’s college today for “Parent’s Weekend.” (How I have a kid in college already I do not know, but that’s for another post.)

Anyway, I was outside our hotel this morning when I spotted a young father with his son. They were all dressed up in game day spirit wear, and the little boy, maybe 18 months old, was the spitting image of my college son at that age. It made me stop in my tracks and instantly sent my mind back almost two decades.

The little boy was squatting in front of the...

High School Senior at Home? Why You Need to Dote on Them

Do you have a high school senior at home? This letter is for you.

Dear Mom of a High School Senior,

If you’re feeling the need to spoil your child a little this year—a need to go out of your way to help them and hang out with them and do sweet things for them a little more than usual—I’m here to tell you to go for it. This year will go by quickly, and you will not regret making it all (or at least largely) about your child.

When my oldest child, Jack, was a high school senior a few years ago...

15 Things This High School Teacher Thinks Every Parent Should Know

Every fall I look forward to the start of school with the same anticipation I had as an eight-year-old. Call me weird, but even after being a high school teacher for 25 years, I still find the the smell of chalk dust and freshly sharpened pencils exciting. So when the merchants load their shelves with brightly colored notebooks and boxes of crayons, my mind naturally turns to school and students.

As both an English teacher and parent of three young adults, I know how important the relationsh...

Senior Year: What’s Making This Year ALMOST Bearable

When your kids are little you never think the day will come when they’ll actually leave home. Sure, you joke about it, as in “One day when you’re gone I’m turning your room into a crafting paradise and getting rid of your cat” or you might wistfully imagine a day when there aren’t empty glasses, dirty socks, and various contents of their backpacks littering every surface and room of the house.

You begin mentally counting it down when they’re in about 8th grade: “Only four summers/birthdays l...

7 Totally Lame Things About Working With Teenagers

I admit that I don’t have a lot of experience in the real world. By that I mean the world where people go to work in an office or a store or a job site of some sort. I have no idea what it’s like to work all day with other grown-ups, having grown-up conversations about grown-up things.

I was a stay-at-home mom for 14 years (which believe me is a completely different world), and now I am a high school teacher. I loved being a stay-at-home mom, and I love being a teacher. Both jobs come with a...

Service Learning: What I Saw in the Slums of Nairobi

Summer for a college student can mean any number of things: rest and relaxation, family time or perhaps a busy work schedule. But for me, last summer meant a journey halfway around the world on a service learning trip – where I got to experience a new society and culture and tried to leave a little impact on the people I would meet.

I lived at the edge of Nairobi, Kenya and walked to work in different primary schools in the Kibera slums. Kibera is the biggest slum in East Africa, and the sec...

College Application: What Happens to Your Heart After “Submit”

Our son, Sam, has applied early decision to college. “We” have not applied early decision to college, as I recently heard myself say, like couples who say, “we’re pregnant.”

Samhas applied early decision to college.Wehaven’t. But we’re hoping we get in.

The good thing about the abbreviated, early decision application timeline – a semi-frantic period that squeezes September and swallows Octoberwhole, and requires the early decisionapplicant to gather transcripts, sit for the last SAT, line u...