Lisa Endlich's Blog, page 453
August 31, 2015
No Phone Calls, No Emails, No Texts
Turns out getting all wound up about my kids’ compulsive phone use was actually a cover for my own incessant communication addiction. I’m as bad as they are.
It hit me this summer when my 14-year-old son took a two-week backpacking trip in the Wyoming wilderness. Apparently the National Outdoor Leadership School doesn’t buy the benefits of unimpeded parent-child communications. “No news is good news,” they told me.
Huh?
No phone calls, no emails, no texts. No communication whatsoever, not eve...
The Unexpected College Road Trip
This past year, my younger son and I toured a few of the colleges on his wish list. After visiting schools two years ago with his older brother, I knew these college tours were going to be as exciting as waiting in line for 26 hours to get a driver’s license, but I was looking forward to spending one-on-one time with my over-scheduled son.
A few of the schools were farther than seven hours away, so we flew to each one. Even if the schools had been only two hours away (which my son wouldn’t ha...
August 29, 2015
Kitchen Essentials for a First Apartment
So, your kid has his or her own first real kitchen. Maybe it’s at college, maybe they are in their first apartment, but aside from the sample sized bottle of dishwashing liquid, there’s not much there. Where to start? Here are the 10 kitchen essentials I would buy for a beginner cook. Are these the cheapest items on the market? Nope. But they will last and last. Are these the only 10 items you need? Nope. But with these 10 items, you can make dinner.
August 26, 2015
This Sorority Girl Was Okay With Her Daughter Not Rushing
When I think back to my college days, almost every memory that I have is tied to my sorority. From the crazy-themed casual exchanges to the excitement of formals; from the late-night meetings to the meaningful impact of initiation; from the long-lasting bond of sisterhood to the reason I haven’t been able to drink tequila for the past 28 years, sorority life and the myriad of experiences it gave me are far and away the most memorable part of my time at Arizona State University.
As the first...
August 25, 2015
Letter of Recommendation: What Teens Need to Know
Senior year means a lot of stress for twelfth graders. These stressors all revolve around the college application, of course, or the application to a gap year program, or for a job or internship. All of these options require at least two recommendations from teachers. One of the problems with this process, however, is that a teacher’s letter of recommendation is based on your past performance, and not your present status. Therefore, you really have to start thinking about this as a junior.
T...
After August: Learning To Parent A Young Adult
A while back, our two oldest children left for college one week apart. Jarring, yes. And yet, I remember thinking, I’m not upset enough. It reminded me of when I was child and wanted to cry at the funeral of a distant relative because everyone else was.
July rolled into August. Suitcases filled, rooms emptied of posters and books and CDs, and while I found myself looking longer and harder at my children, I was still not weepy. Nor was I second-hand weepy around the mothers who couldn’t get th...
August 24, 2015
25 Ways to Help Your Teen Drive Safely Back to College
This is a sponsored post by Liberty Mutual Insurance, but opinions expressed are our own.
Saying goodbye to our college daughter on the steps of her freshman dorm last fall was a moment marked with a long hug, a few tears and a dollop of heartache. This fall, she will have a car at college and my anguish will begin when we say our goodbyes and not diminish until we get the text from her with that beautiful 4-letter word, “here.”
Is your teen driving herself to college for the first time this...
August 22, 2015
Wimpy Mom’s Guide to Letting Go of College Bound Children
“I have berated myself for being a wimpy mom, the parent who cannot walk away without tears, the mother who misses her kids every day. I have given myself the stern talk about being overly attached to my sons and told myself a hundred times that it is not about me but about them. I decided that there must be something wrong with/missing from me or my life if saying good-bye was this hard. I have wondered, endlessly, why it hurts so much when they go.” Knowing My Sons a Little Less byGrown and...
August 19, 2015
A Wish to Get Senior Year Right; Lessons from Iceland
Skaftafell, Iceland — With her whole life ahead of her, our daughter will likely forget this moment in our family’s history, but I won’t.
I am sitting at a little wooden table in the tiny log cabin that is ours for the night here on a faraway coast in Iceland. The rain is coming down in sheets, blown diagonally by huge gusts of wind over an endless stretch of bright green fields. In the distance, I see towering black mountains made of lava, all laced in a thick, swirling white fog.
All week,...
August 16, 2015
College Drop Off After Freshman Year
I have seen three sons off to college and each time my heart broke and I beat myself up for feeling this way. As each college drop offapproached I listened to the chorus of those who reminded me that this was college, a good thing, a great thing, and that my pride in my son’s next step should minimize the pain I was feeling.
I told myself that grieving was selfish, I should be happy for my kid and even happy for myself. I reminded myself that wallowing in sadness was self-indulgent, the prero...
