Tag: parent

One of the biggest fears that parents deal with this time of year is that their back-to-school child will once again prove to be nothing more than average. Average in math, average in reading, average in science, average in language. Just hopelessly, utterly, completely average.

So average it can’t be explained away by a medical condition like ADD or ADHD or dyslexia or OCD or emotional disturbance. They don’t have a condition a doctor can cure, a pill can change or that society will comfort them for. Their child has reached their full potential and their full potential is average.

It’s not easy to be the parent of a teen…forgiving them for a mistake can be harder than it seems.

Just when you think you’ve seen it all, your kid goes and screws up in a way you never even imagined possible. Even though you expected the teenage years to be difficult, you just never imagined this.

While it is completely normal for a teen to make a mistake or two (or many) along the way, I experience more and more parents who are struggling to let go of their teen’s slip-ups, whether big or small.

Parent: "How was your day?"
Teen: "Good."

"What did you do today?"
"Nothing."

Does that sound like a recent conversation you had with your teen? Parents desperately want to communicate with their kids, but few know how to get a tight-lipped teen to open up. The result is a dead-end "chat" that leaves both parent and child feeling disconnected.

You’re looking forward to your new bundle of joy, but perhaps a little stressed about how you will manage your new arrival along with your job?  Wondering if you will be able to take time off to be with your baby, but unsure if your job will be open to you when you return?  Don’t fret—both the federal law and many state laws provide parents protected time off for the birth of, and bonding with, his/her newborn.

Under the federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act, employers are prohibited from discriminating against or treating a woman applicant for employment or employee unfavorably because of her pregnancy or due to childbirth

When you first find out that your child has been involved in a cyberbullying incident as the perpetrator, your emotions can be overwhelming. You might feel shock, denial, embarrassment and anger towards your child, and though these feelings are normal, they need to be put to the side, as your first responsibility as a parent is helping your child learn from their mistake. You will be successful at doing just that by holding your child accountable for their actions and making sure they understand the consequences to those actions.

Do you or you spouse ever feel this journey of parenthood is not exactly what you thought it would be? In many entertainment magazines and tabloids, parenthood has been a cause de célèbre, especially when movie stars make being a parent the new "in" thing. You see pictures of celebrities taking their young children to the park or on other outings looking blissful and beautiful. You wonder why these stars look so happy and you are not, right?

The truth is parenthood is the most challenging yet rewarding "job" we will ever have.