Lisa Endlich's Blog, page 68

Controlling What I Ate Was How I Tried to Control The Messiness of Midlife Parenting

My lifelong obsession, and earliest memories, are attached to food.  The smell of an onion sizzling in the pan reminds me of being small with the Saturday Night Fever album thumping on my parent’s speakers. Hearing the low pops of pasta boiling soothes me, reminding me of my Italian Grandmother’s “gravy” and her Philadelphia row home kitchen. …

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‘It. Goes. So. Fast.: The Year of No Do-Overs’ by Mary Louise Kelly

How do you balance a high-powered journalism career that takes you all over the globe, with family life with children and then later teens? We all know the answer to this, not easily. But few of us have the exciting and often confounding experience (your teen’s soccer games are at the exact moment as the…

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Life Experiences That Bring Us to Our Knees, Like Raising Kids, Are the Most Important Ones

I sat on the steps in front of our house, the cold bleeding through two layers of running tights, and gingerly peeled off my gloves. Slowly, carefully, I squeezed my hands into fists, willing the feeling back into my fingers. I rubbed my hands together; the aching and frigid numbness made me shutter.  The key…

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Their Shoes: Realizing Our Teens Really Are Right Where I Want Them

When my eldest son’s friends began to hang out at our house regularly, I felt compelled to match up the disheveled heap of shoes I’d find at the door and line them up along the foyer baseboard by pairs. That’s a me thing. I like the house to be neat and organized, but after a…

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50 Things to Do Once Your Teen Has Left Home

It often felt like too much. The chaos and noise of a house full of teens left us wishing for a break, for some time alone or with a friend or partner. Now we have that time, the loooooong quiet evenings that are life after the teens have moved out. And in an unexpected twist,…

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Preparing My Teens for Independence: A Parent Report Card

As my oldest child comes to the end of her sophomore year of college, I am finally able to come up for air and assess the damages (as well as the wins) of my pre-college/college parenting thus far. Though my husband and I both went to college, sending our first born off to school was…

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A Terrible Relationship With My Mom Taught Me to be a Better Parent

My mother and I don’t have a good relationship. We haven’t since I was a teenager, and atforty-eight, I’m well aware that isn’t going to change. I could go on about all the reasons why: She didn’t protect from someone when I was a child like she should have, she only asks me questions about…

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When a Blurry, Awkward Selfie Is Picture Perfect

Let’s get real for a moment. Raising a teenager has been the most difficult and unpleasant season of motherhood I’ve experienced yet. The days are filled with fluctuating moods, rejection, criticism, judgement, and quite honestly, a lot of grief, loneliness, and doubt. As my son grows up he is doing what he needs to while…

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What (I Hope) Taylor Swift Taught My Daughter in a 44 Song Set

Last weekend I found myself thinking about all the ways Taylor Swift is a positive role model during the three and a half hours that my 18-year-old daughter, Sophia, and I stood in Gillette Stadium watching her exhilarating show. Swift’s favorite person is her mom, so there’s that. But at nearly every turn since her…

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The 23 Best Memorial Day Sales on College Dorm Supplies

Memorial Day marks the beginning of summer, but for the parents of soon-to-be college students, we’re already thinking about getting them to the dorm room — and all the things they’ll need. Dorm supplies can be expensive, but luckily there are a few ways to save on these essentials, including shopping Memorial Day sales. You…

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