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How to Talk to Your Kids about the Economic Crisis

“How can I talk to my kids about the economic crisis?” It is a common question that most parents face today. As prices on consumable goods rise, from food and gas to the cable bill, and families feel themselves pinched, even the youngest children are starting to notice that things around them are changing. Neighbors and friends may be moving away, favorite stores and restaurants may be closing, and everyone seems to have to sacrifice something they enjoy just to get through this time. Parents should see this time in our history as a teaching moment, but the lessons should … Continue reading →

How to Spare Your Child the Pain of Divorce

Norwegian researchers believe they know how to prevent the pains of divorce from being inflicted on innocent children. According to a new study entitled “Equality in the Home,” parents who share housework duties are 50 percent more likely to get divorced than couples where the woman does most of the chores. In other words, the more housework the man does, the higher the divorce rate. A part of me died typing that sentence. The rest of me is trying to swallow the vomit that’s pooled in my mouth. Basically, the study is saying that if you are a stressed out … Continue reading →

How to Tell If Your Plants Are Drought Damaged

After the heat of the summer, you may feel like wilting. Chances are that your plants are feeling the same way. After all, it’s been very hot and very dry. As you move into the fall, you’ll need to take a look at your plants and evaluate them. Have they been permanently damaged by the drought? Is your plant stressed? Some plants go dormant during the summer months. Grass turns yellow or brown. Although it can be tempting to water these it, this is normal and if the fall brings moisture, grass will tend to recover. Plants can suffer from … Continue reading →

Dog Days of Summer: Pets on Vacation

Pet owners face a unique situation when making our summer travel plans: we have to worry about our pets. Do we only go places where we can take our pets, or do we try to find care for them while we’re away? Website Pet Relocation released its third annual Summer Pet Travel Survey. They found that 70% of the people questioned plan to travel with their pets. If you want to take your animals along with you on vacation this summer, there are a few things you have to consider. Make sure you can bring your animal with you where … Continue reading →

Do You Love Your Pediatrician?

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In the last year, I had to switch pediatricians because of moving. I really liked my last pediatrician and was sad about having to make a change. I asked him for a recommendation, and he knew of a pediatrician that “a lot of people seem to like” that was super close to my house. So, I decided to go to him. Little did I know that my baby would have so many complexing issues. I’m kind of a stressed out mama a lot of the time, so his personality fit perfectly with me in that he is very laid back, … Continue reading →

Talking Politics With Your Young Children

I love the car. Ok, I have a serious love-hate relationship with the car. I dislike its gas-guzzling properties, but I love it for talking with my daughter. It’s the perfect conversation starter. Trapped in a confined space, you talk about all sorts of things that wouldn’t normally come up. Today’s discussion was politics. Normally I don’t talk politics much. I grew up in a family where talking about politics was poor dinnertime conversation. I have deeply-held opinions on issues and I don’t keep them quiet either, but I rarely connect them to political parties, at least not in everyday … Continue reading →

Enjoy Your Home During Advent

Advent is my favorite time of the year. It’s not because I am particularly religious. I just like anticipation, coziness, and snow. I’m also a fan of warm food. Having family around is good too. For a few years, I started to dislike advent. Sure, I would plan all year to buy my Christmas gifts before the end of November, since I really don’t like going to stores when it is busy. But that is not why I disliked the season. I disliked it because even though coziness, family, and warm food are supposed to be a part of the … Continue reading →

Is Your Business Running You?

Do you sometimes feel like your home-based business is running you instead of the other way around? Work-life balance is an important issue for just about anyone who works, whether they work at home or outside the home. Home-based workers, however, often have a harder time achieving work-life balance than people who work outside of the home. While anyone can fall into patterns of overwork, and people that work outside of the home can spend too much time at the office, people that work from home have their work and their work area accessible to them at all times so … Continue reading →

Forgiving Your Narcissistic Parent

When I work with a client who is struggling to deal with the pain and the devastation caused by being raised by a narcissist, I never include as part of the agenda of therapy the idea of forgiving their parent. This is because, when a client approaches me for help, they are so distressed in trying to make head or tail of what their relationship with their parent has become, that they are in no position to do anything other than to try to make sense of the relationship as best they can. In many situations, the narcissistic parent has … Continue reading →

Are You Enabling Your Adult Child?

What exactly does it mean to “enable your adult child?” What the act of enabling does is to actively prevent your child from achieving appropriate developmental milestones as they age. Thus continually refusing to make your child/teenager/young adult take responsibility for their omissions and commissions of duty effectively leaves them as underperforming adults. In simpler words, if you do not make your 8-year old carry his or her plate to the kitchen after a meal and dispose of it according to age-appropriate behaviors, you are allowing that child to remain emotionally at that age, in that area of responsibility, longer … Continue reading →