With the Fall semester starting up, more parents are moving their little darlings out of the family nest and into dorm rooms in different towns, states, and even countries. For many, this is trauma on a platter. The kids are fine with it, but Mom and Dad? Tears and fears and a general quaking in the mommy boots has reduced more than one of us to quivering globs of breast milk mousse who spend most of every day of September, October, November and half of December waiting for the blasted phone to ring and checking email every two minutes.

As... more

Way back when I first started writing on this blog I wrote a post about how children perceive adults as basically the same in terms of age. Sure, there are exceptions but generally speaking, it seems like kids with the cognitive capacity to make comparisons lump most grown-ups into two categories: old and really old. While it may seem counterinuitive, we older parents should take heart in this. It just doesn't make a lot of sense to work yourself up into a frenzy trying to convince yourself or your child that you're as "young as you feel." Why? Because no matter how young you feel your child will think that you are old. Heck, no matter how young you actually are, your child will... more

Yesterday, my granddaughter had her fifth birthday.

Today my oldest child is thirty-seven.

My brain frizzes and my fingers go all twitchy just typing those words - my ... oldest ... child ... is ... thirty-seven.

THIRTY-SEVEN.

Seventeen when I figured out I was pregnant, I spent a lot of the first trimester throwing up, and wondering what in the heck I was going to do. Thankfully, gestation takes a while, and by the time the full nine months passed, I had prepared myself as well as a pregnant teen can prepare for anything.

My... more

A nice little tradition has been developing in our area lately: Friday Family Fest at Anchor Cafe.

This beachside restaurant is owned and run by the Berke family, and family is the theme from the menu to the casual atmosphere.

Keith Berke is one of the few other Americans on the island ... he's from Burbank ... and has been here for years, having come initially to work at the US Air Force satellite tracking station that kept an eye on Soviet shenanigans from the top of one of Mahe's mountains for more than thirty years.

Maryvonne... more

In writing recently about kids who may be a bit spoiled by parents a bit too grateful for their little darlings for anyones' good, I neglected to acknowledge pressures to indulge that so many are subjected to every day.

Fortuitous timing, however, has NPR broaching the subject of advertising, and the almost impossible task moms and dads have in fighting against... more

One thing many of us older adoptive parents can have a bit too much of is gratitude. (Okay ... wrinkles, liver spots and gray hairs, too, but tomorrow's my birthday and I'm not dealing with those today ... )

Working as hard as we do to get our kids, overcoming sometime vociferous objections from friends and family, rising above the nerve-shattering anxiety that plagues us over every possible thing than can go wrong ... or be wrong with our child ... enduring often impossible waiting, all lead us to such a feeling of relief mixing with our joy at the... more

Continuing from my last posts where I've been sharing some of the experience I gathered while parenting my first set of kids, now in their 30s, on sex and teens ...

At some point, our children's bodies and what they do with them are no longer our domain. Sure, we can and must set boundaries and let them know what our expectations are, but sooner or later they'll be making decisions we might disagree with ... if we knew. They need to be prepared.

Here are some... more

Yesterday I talked about teen girls and sex. Not that this will come as a news flash to anyone, but boys are different.

It was all well and good for me to tell my daughter to, "let the boys practice on someone else if they must" to help her decide not to become a sexually active teen, but that line of thought was not going to do anything to discourage my son at the same age. After all, most teenage boys are happy with the thought of getting all the 'practice' they can.

The pressures on teens too take a dip in the pond of illicit sex are strong and plentiful. An ... more

Continuing the story of our journey to Cj ...

In addition to debating the sex of our second child, we also had some thinking to do on birth country. Ethiopia looked good to us, being close geographically and with children looking much like the kids here in Seychelles. We looked into Madagascar, and contacted friends in Ghana, Morocco, South Africa and Mauritius and had them check out the situation in those countries.

In the end, however, we went back... more

The continuing saga of our journey to Cj ...

As often happens when birth moms are under the pressures that can come with a crisis pregnancy, decisions are made; then made again. The girl carrying the baby we'd been letting ourselves get excited about decided to parent.

And that was fine.

I'm a big believer in things happening how and when they're suppose to, and felt comfortable ... although more than a bit disappointed ... in the change in situation.

Shifting... more