Category: family_parenting

by Allison

What You Need To Know About ’13 Reasons Why’

13 reasons why

What You Need To Know About ‘13 Reasons Why‘ WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS CONTENT THAT MAY BE TRIGGERING FOR SUICIDE AND DEPRESSION If you or someone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255. You can also take a suicidal person to any Emergency Room to be treated immediately. ‘13 Reasons Why‘, a Netflix original series, came into my periphery a few weeks ago during a conversation with my teenage daughter.  My daughter…
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by Allison

Finding Just the Right Car For My Family

the right car for my family

My family has been in need of a new car for awhile now, but I’ve been in denial. We have lived in and loved our car so well I’m genuinely having a hard time letting it go.  I talked about this a few weeks ago, this feeling of losing a family member who is a central character in our family history. Do you feel this way about your car, or have you ever?  I don’t want to say goodbye, I…
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by Allison

Tasty Gluten-Free Snack Treats To Buy

snacks

Gluten-Free goodnessknows Snack Squares I don’t know about you, but I try to eat as gluten-free as possible in my day-to-day life.  I don’t have Celiac disease, but I just feel better when there’s less gluten in my life.  Do you know what I mean? I have friends who do this as well.  They don’t eat 100% gluten-free, but when it’s a possibility to eat that way, whether at a restaurant or buying food at the grocery store, they do. …
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by Allison

Best Parenting Advice I Will Ever Give

parenting advice

Parenting advice is usually like any other advice you get: totally unsolicited by strangers and family alike. But I promise you, if you listen to this one piece of parenting advice, (I know, I know) both you and your children will be happier because of it.   Here’s the thing about parenting: it makes so much sense in retrospect.  Once you’ve traveled down that broken road, you can see all the mistakes you made and what you’d do differently if…
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by Allison

Why Character And Kindness Matter Most

childhood friends

Character And Kindness A few months ago, near the end of my son’s 5th grade school year, he came home with an invitation to a birthday party in his backpack.  I read the name on the invitation and asked my son who the boy was, because I’d never my son mention this friend when we talked about school. “Oh, he’s a friend of mine.  He’s kind of awkward and weird, and he doesn’t have a lot of friends so I…
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by Allison

Back To School + Hoorays All Around

Back To School + Hoorays All Around

  Back to school is the most glorious time of year. The end. Just kidding!  It isn’t the end.  It’s the beginning of an entire school year, of magic. FOR ME. I used to cry when my kids left to go back to school on the first day in the fall.  I spent the whole first day back wandering around my house, tearfully picking tiny t-shirts and toys off the floor, heartbroken without my little noisy companions.  Wallowing in the…
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by Allison

Stay Off The Field – Parents Staying Out Of Sports

staying out of sports

Sports are in my blood:  I grew up playing sports.  Every kind of sport popular in America: basketball, softball, swimming, volleyball, soccer.  You name it, I played it, whether it was on my parents front lawn or the high school soccer field.  I can count on one hand the number of my games my parents attended, and there wasn’t a single time my parents talked to one of my coaches, on or off the field, about their goals for my…
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by Allison

When Homework Is Too Much To Handle Alone

high school homework

// This post is sponsored by Chegg Tutors.  All the grumpy opinions about homework, and uncharitable comments about math in particular, belong to me.  So do the frustrated children.  Thank you as always, for being kind to the sponsors that help maintain Petit Elefant. // Homework is universally loathed, isn’t it?  The word itself is rough enough, but when you add the actual implications of a load of very real school work to do at home, homework can be just…
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by Allison

A Word About Raising Teenagers

parenting teenagers

I read this great article last week about parenting teenagers and part of what’s so hard about it, and it totally resonated with me.  You should go read it right now, whether you’re the parent of a teenager or are even remotely close to the edge of this particular minefield of parenting.  It’s a great piece.  And it’s part of a greater whole of the conversation I seem to be having with everyone I know, and plenty of people I…
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