Get organized for the school year

 Posted by Tracy on August 25, 2010  General  No Responses »
Aug 252010
 

Can you guess the three words that bring parents so much joy and so much stress at the same time? Back to school. Every parent knows that the start of the school year means their kids won’t be in their hair as much but along with that life becomes much more chaotic. The easy going, free flowing days of summer get replaced with the structured routines of preparing lunches, signing permission slips, making sure homework gets done, parent/teacher meetings and getting to school on time.

What’s the secret to getting through the school year without feeling like you want to run away and join the circus? I think you all know what I’m going to say. Yep. Get Organized. Well my name is Miss Organized after all so of course I would say that.

At this point, it’s probably un-realistic to plan a major overhaul of your home but there are a few organizing strategies you can put into place to make your world feel a little more in control. Let’s start with meal time. Continue reading »

Give Yourself Some Credit by Bill McLeod

 Posted by Bill on August 24, 2010  Balancing Work and Children, General, How to Communicate with Your Kids, Teenagers, The Craziness of Single Parenting  2 Responses »
Aug 242010
 

Over the past few years I have talked about my experiences with raising children as a single dad. People ask me all the time “how do you do it”, to which I respond “I just do it”. Really when you think about it, we all have some sort of experiences from our childhood that we can draw upon. Some of those memories are positive and some of those memories are negative.

Too often I talk to frustrated parents who say “My parents raised me to be what I am today, why can’t I do the same with my kids”. Or “My kids just don’t understand how good they have it”. Allow me to break the news to you folks, life wasn’t always a bundle of roses for you growing up, and I guarantee you that it wasn’t for your parents either. Kids are kids, God bless them. They are here to challenge us, test us, negotiate with us and generally push every button that they can. If you are going to try and compare how you were raised, with raising kids today, you need to wake up and smell reality.

When I was playing high school football we had three plays. Run left, run right and run up the middle. It was a pretty simple game plan. Now days the parenting game plan, just like football game plans, have become more complicated. Whether you are single parent like me, or part of a two parent household, give yourself some credit. Your kids will be just fine. As long as you listen to them, talk to them, are honest with them, and most of all, let them know each and every day that you love them, things will work out. Continue reading »

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Lessons in the Roger Clemens’ Tragedy

 Posted by Patrick on August 23, 2010  General  No Responses »
Aug 232010
 

Lessons in the Roger Clemens’ Tragedy

So, to listen to the radio and sporting news this weekend and hear that Rusty Hardin, the attorney defending Roger Clemens in against his congressional indictment; it seems that an adamant defense is proof of innocence.

Hardin said something to the effect that the sheer tenacity with which Clemens proclaims his innocence, in the face of jail time, should provide enough proof to anyone of his innocence.

I guess OJ’s tag line was “if the glove don’t fit, you must acquit”…. Continue reading »

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My Husband’s Favorite Sweatshirt

 Posted by MicheleN on August 23, 2010  General  2 Responses »
Aug 232010
 

For the first few weeks after Phil’s death anything that had touched his body was sacred. His shoes were sitting where he last left them, his lunchbox remained on top of the refrigerator, and his toothbrush was standing next to mine in the holder. One day I found an eyelash of his and pressed it into a plastic rosary holder for safekeeping. Three days before he died, he was working in our attic and left dirty fingerprints on the top of the door in our bedroom. I was annoyed when I saw the black marks on our white door, and made a mental note to ask him to clean off the prints. Those black marks now hold a place of honor on my otherwise white door.

In those early days I didn’t handle Phil’s things very often—I  was afraid of losing his scent or masking that unique smell with my own. But after a few months, as shock wore off and reality started to press in around me, I became desperate for the comfort of Phil’s arms. One morning I woke up crying (again) and wrapped my own arms around myself trying to imagine that my limbs were his. Rocking back and forth in the middle of my bed I looked up and caught sight of one of his sweatshirts. Even as I literally ached for his touch, I weighed the value of wearing his clothes against the risk of losing even a tiny part of him. With a limited supply of his things their value became immeasurable. But I needed him, so I pulled that sweatshirt over my head. Immediately I felt as if he had wrapped me in a tight hug, and I lay my head on his strong chest and cried my eyes out.

That moment was a milestone for me. I stopped withholding the comfort of wearing his clothes from myself, and just reveled in the warmth of knowing I was wearing a part of him. I slept in his t-shirts, wore his slippers to get the paper, pulled on his raincoat when it poured, and adopted his favorite running shirt as my own. I was layered in Phil, and I loved every minute. Continue reading »

A Dad’s Point-of-View, by Bruce Sallan – Couples Need (Other) Couples

 Posted by Bruce on August 21, 2010  General  No Responses »
Aug 212010
 

While on a recent vacation, my wife and I had a stimulating discussion with friends about friends. We were enjoying a meal with two other couples and one of the men asked the question, “Have you found many couples that you are friends with and, if so, how have you met them?”

What followed was a spirited discussion about friends–same sex friends, friends as couples, and opposite sex friends, when you’re married (or monogamously involved). The conclusion was that it is not simple.

As we were on a trip hosted by Dennis Prager (radio talk-show host, writer, and lecturer), I found myself immediately paraphrasing him because he’s often discussed this issue. He said that for two couples to be friends, a number of relationships have to be in place. Each man must like the other man; each woman must like the other woman, and the same for the opposite gender in each couple. If any one of those relationships doesn’t work, the friendship of the two couples is in jeopardy. Continue reading »

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A Dad’s Point-of-View, by Bruce Sallan – Two Generations Growing Up Together

 Posted by Bruce on August 21, 2010  General  No Responses »
Aug 212010
 

Sometimes, life brings us a lot of lessons at once. In my family, we’ve gotten our share of them recently and they’ve added dimension to our lives and allowed us to each grow in different ways, without necessarily providing a neat and regular narrative for my column. That hasn’t stopped me yet and I think you’ll find they all coalesce into something meaningful.

Let’s begin with my older son growing as a rock ‘n’ roller, a talented drummer, guitarist, and vocalist. His passion carried over to an extraordinary opportunity of a lifetime when he got to jam with his idol, Chris Cornell (Soundgarden and Audioslave) at The Roxy Theatre, on Sunset Blvd., in Hollywood. The full story and video are here, but suffice it to say, I became a sort of “stage dad” along the way.

I was extremely proud of his growth though I wasn’t actually present when he took the initiative to reach out to Chris Cornell by calling out and asking to jam with him. Frankly, the tickets were too expensive for me. But, after the fact, I used my recently acquired social media skills and “relationships” (are they really my “friends?”) to help disseminate the story on various web-sites, my column outlets, distributing the YouTube video, and promoting this opportunity for him. Continue reading »

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Between Two Worlds

 Posted by Lisa on August 20, 2010  General  No Responses »
Aug 202010
 

My boys will be returning from a 2-week stay at their father’s. I am looking forward to seeing them, and I know we will all go through a “re-entry” process, where they transition back to the orbit that is our house. They have been living the bachelor life of late nights and sleeping in. Once I heard them say, “It’s like a whole different world at our dad’s. We’re different people.”

At first I thought, “Oh no, that can’t be true.” But I think it is. To them our worlds are like night and day and the rules–well, they are different, the pace is different. We are different parents.  

That can be fun, but it must be hard for them, too. Continue reading »

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