It's no easy ride. A site for parenting teens.
Is it just me, or do others hold themselves to very high standards? I’m always surprised when I come to realise that I’ve been holding myself to an unrealistic subconscious rule. One I recently became aware of was: When starting something new, it is important to start well. (Well meaning: in perfect health of body…
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Have you ever received a gift you didn’t particularly like? I think most of us can recall such an item. As a teenager I once received a particularly memorable pair of pants. They were hot pink with white polka dots, ankle length and billowed around my legs like clown pants… they didn’t scream vogue! I…
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I’ve been treating myself of late to watching previous seasons of The Crown (a Netflix drama) in anticipation for the new series about to air. In one episode, the Queen was bemoaning to her mother, the fact that she felt ill-equipped to converse with the many educated people she was required to meet. She acknowledged…
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Recently a controversial cartoon by Michael Leunig was published in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. It depicted a mother so fixated on Instagram that she failed to see her baby had fallen out of its pram. This depiction of modern motherhood sparked outrage online as it unkindly suggested that the mother loved her…
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Let me introduce Alison. She is a mother of four adult children and five grandchildren. She has faithfully lived out her role as a stay-at-home mother with much gentleness and kindness; tirelessly giving her time to her family, her church and the community in which she’s been planted. She fashioned her home and garden to…
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Last week I attended a seminar entitled “Surviving the Rollercoaster of Adolescence”; the speaker was Chris Hudson from of Understanding Teenagers. While I can truthfully say that I have already encountered and survived the steep climb and the initial stomach-lurching plunge of the rollercoaster that is likened to living with teens, and have definitely encountered…
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In an attempt to return to a more helpful headspace, I was recently encouraged to think about what my core values are. I have engaged with this question before and found it a beneficial exercise; seeing how my life choices reflect what I truely value and then how these choices impact my day to day…
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I have always been conscious, that in a family of more than one child, there is always the challenge of splitting your time and attention between them all equally. It is true that some kids are easier to connect with, and some kids demand more of you, and it’s possible there will be one child…
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I like the image of a long hiking adventure, to describe how I see life’s journey. The view of a mountain range can take your breath away and to walk its course a privilege. However when you actually begin to travel the path, you quickly find there are a lot of variables that can make…
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Let me introduce Ruth. She is the mother of four adult children, grandmother to 16 children and great-grandmother to 24 children. She became a mother in the 1950’s (what I like to call the ‘golden era’ of stay-at-home mothers) and raised teenagers through the 1960’s and 70’s – in a period when for most mothers their…
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