Tag: children
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How Do You Handle Your Emotions When Your Child Is Benched?
As a parent, it’s painful watching your child suffer when you are powerless to help. This poem, titled “Benched,” captures one of those moments for me.
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Parenting Rule #1: Stop looking the “gift horse” in the mouth
I had always wanted children. I simply had no idea that raising them — or parenting them once their decisions were all theirs — could feel so hard.
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Let the empty nest begin…
I have entered that period so many lament: the empty nest. My five children have left me one by one. But rather than lament it, I say…
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The goal of parenting…
I hadn’t realized until it happened that having one of my children host the holiday meal was a goal of parenting.
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Stream of cold consciousness writing…
My husband has saved me from curfew worry much of the time. He simply awakens me to let me know our child is home, and I am lulled, comforted, back to sleep. Except when the child isn’t at home by curfew.
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The end of the twin era…
I always wanted twins until I got four children at one time. When I was young, I played with my dolls — which included Raggedy Ann and Andy, two redheaded twins named George and Georgette, and Velvet and Crissy, two dolls who could have short hair in the morning and long hair in the afternoon.…
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Humbled by love…
The day my husband and I became grandparents our children began to parent us. It was quite humbling. It began as any other day when you are driving hundreds of miles away from your daughter, who is about to give birth, toward your oldest son, who is about to get married. Timing is everything. In a…
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When it all points to God…
Twenty years ago today, I wrapped myself in satin, lace, and bows and made myself a birthday present — a bride for Steve Dagen on his birthday. With that “I do,” I changed my status from widow to wife and childless to child-full. I became an instant mother of four children, 9, 8, 5, and 3. I…
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Packing it all in…
This week, my son played what could be his final baseball game. Certainly, he played his final game of high school, and (I’m fairly certain) graduation is soon to follow. The end of life as he knows it is near. Actually, the end of life as I know it is near too. For years — I would say the…
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When your youngest turns 18…
“Let me see. If Adam is turning 18 today, and I was X when he was born. Then X + 18 = my age now.” “Really? I’m only X + 18?” (Foolishly, I had been adding a year to that since my birthday in August. I’m not as old as I thought? … I better double…
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A mere nineteen years ago…
Most people call me a saint. Nineteen years ago I married a widow and his four children. At the time, people who knew just me thought it a perfect arrangement, as I had been widowed myself and always had desired to have a bunch of children. An instant family was a perfect solution. People who…
All Things Work Together 