Making Life Transitions Easier
I think my most difficult major life change was dealing with an empty nest. I knew the time when my youngest of two boys would be leaving home to start college was fast approaching. But in reality, it didn’t sink in until after it had happened. The emotional feeling caught me off guard. Suddenly, there… [Continue Reading]
It’s impossible to overlook the physical changes of pregnancy. But, as dramatic as those changes may be, the invisible transformations you experience en route to motherhood are every bit as far-reaching. The months before birth represent an opportunity for tremendous personal growth and development—an opportunity for you to become more in-tune with your body, to… [Continue Reading]
“Having a child is one of the best things that ever happened to me…and it almost ruined my marriage.” ~ Jessica, married six years To say that parenting is both a blessing and an enormous undertaking of epic proportions is clearly an understatement. Despite the planning and desire to become parents, couples are often unprepared… [Continue Reading]
“The empty nester.” I’m talking with a client whose youngest child, in her 20’s, is about to move far away. My organizing client is excited, yet feeling the loss, deeply. The last years have focused on her daughter, getting her ready to leave home, working through college, and then making career choices. My client has… [Continue Reading]
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For many children and families their first real experience with loss happens when a pet dies. When a well loved pet dies, children need consolation, love, support and affection more than complicated medical explanations. They need to have their feelings understood and supported. Your child’s reaction will depend on their age and stage of maturity, but… [Continue Reading]
As parents, we often glide through a multitude of changes without so much as batting an eye. After all, it comes with the territory. Lauren wakes up with a fever so you adjust your schedule, make a couple of calls and work from home that day. Evan surprises you with a notice about baseball practice… [Continue Reading]
Every day is a new beginning when you’re a parent. Your child is changing and growing. And so are you. Each day you wake up with more wisdom and insights than you had the day before. (It may not feel like that some days, but it’s true. Being a parent offers ongoing opportunities for learning,… [Continue Reading]
Five and a half years ago, I became a stepmom. I had two young adult children from my first marriage and my husband gifted me with three wonderful, young adult bonus children and one very angry fourteen year old boy, Junior. Four months into our marriage, my rose colored glasses came off and my delusions… [Continue Reading]
Handling change is one of life’s greatest challenges and is a very important element in my work with parents. My passion is to empower parents and help them handle change positively and with clarity, direction and confidence. Change is inevitable and although it’s perfectly natural to resist the changes in your life and feel overwhelmed… [Continue Reading]
It’s the most wonderful time of the year, unless…. …You’re newly pregnant and exhausted. The number one item on your holiday wish list this year? Finding the energy to deck the halls before the relatives arrive. …Your baby is teething. Committing to anything more gourmet than slice-and-bake for the office cookie exchange seems like total… [Continue Reading]
Christmas, although a time of great joy and celebration, can also be the most stressful of times for even the best of parents, with the family home chaotic and often besieged by visitors. Throw into the mix, over-excited children who have weeks to sit around at home and the situation can quickly spiral out of… [Continue Reading]
The mind, body, stress connection has gained much attention. We now know that stress is not only detrimental to adults, but also greatly affects our children and teenagers. Unmanaged stress can present itself physically, socially, and emotionally. Holidays bring additional stress to everyone. Keeping an eye out for signs of stress will empower you to… [Continue Reading]
After months of anticipation, your baby is finally here. She’s healthy and she’s gorgeous (just like her mama) and she definitely knows what she’s doing when it comes to bonding with you. She’s been staring at you, wide-eyed, since the moment she arrived on the planet. And that was over an hour ago…. As you’ve… [Continue Reading]
Co-parenting is a term you become familiar with when you get divorced. As a re-single, it is important to not only learn this word, but realize how it is going to work for you and your now ex-spouse. But, what makes it so difficult to parent together while living apart when you were able to… [Continue Reading]
The pregnancy test just came back positive. You still feel the same—it’s too soon for most early-pregnancy symptoms to start kicking in—but you are already beginning to anticipate the changes that your body will begin to experience during the amazing months ahead. Pregnancy is a much more joyful experience if you allow yourself to accept… [Continue Reading]
Sibling rivalry can apply to any child living in the same family, from step brothers and sisters to blood related brothers and sisters, and it refers to the jealousy, competition, teasing and fighting that goes on between them. Siblings fight for a number of reasons: • They want your parental attention. • They are jealous:… [Continue Reading]
Two of the most powerful words happen to be WHAT IF? When we ask the world, or ourselves, “WHAT IF?” we have the power to answer our own question with a positive outcome or a negative outcome. Unfortunately, we are experts at filling in the blanks with negative anxiety causing outcomes. Children are even more… [Continue Reading]
A staggering five million children’s lunchboxes are prepared in British homes every weekday, yet a Food Standards Agency survey discovered that three out of four of these were likely to contain foods that were too high in saturated fat, salt or sugar and almost half failed to include any fruit. Most of them included… [Continue Reading]
How to feel confident—or at least a little less uncertain—as you assume the job of being someone’s mom or dad. Congratulations on your new position: you’ve just become someone’s Mom or Dad. Whether you’ve been working toward this promotion for many years or you are a recent recruit to the parenting business, you’re likely to… [Continue Reading]
Some people create bucket lists as a way to identify all the things they’d like to see happen in their lifetime. I, however, took a different approach to shaping the course of my life. By the time I reached my early twenties, I had constructed a fairly well developed list of all the things I… [Continue Reading]
The hurdles that career-minded women must overcome to penetrate the boardroom are well-documented, combine this with the difficulties that many of us face whilst trying to raise a happy, well-balanced family, and it’s easy to see that life as a successful woman in business is no stroll in the park. In order not to lose… [Continue Reading]
It’s the summer when I first become a mother. I’m nursing my newborn on the couch, savoring each whisper of air that pass over the two of us. That’s what passes for a breeze during this summer of record-breaking high temperatures. My husband settles down on the couch beside us with a glass of something… [Continue Reading]
There is a big difference between being a married parent and being a single parent, and with those differences, comes a big change in responsibility. This change is equal opportunity and affects both the mother and father, no matter what your custody situation is. Being a parent is hard, but being a single parent is… [Continue Reading]
In an ideal world, as a couple with children you work together to juggle the day-to-day needs of your kids. Getting homework done, monitoring how long they surf the web, shuffling them to appointments and football practices, all the while making sure they’re loved, fed, bathed and relatively safe. That’s the stuff parenting is made… [Continue Reading]
It wasn’t that long ago that parents were encouraged to put their newborns on four-hour schedules and to start sleep-training their babies by six weeks of age. Putting a baby on a schedule would be good for the parents and the baby, or so the experts of the day claimed. Baby would be comforted by… [Continue Reading]
It’s one thing to want to have a baby. It’s quite another thing to become a parent. I learned that lesson the hard way within weeks of giving birth to my first child. Julie was everything I had dreamed of and so much more: a picture-perfect newborn who also happened to be colicky. I would… [Continue Reading]
If you’re a stepparent, have you ever wondered what your stepkids might be feeling as they transition between two homes? Have you ever wondered what they’re going through as they navigate the change from having two parents in one home to having to split their time in two homes because their parents’ relationship ended? With… [Continue Reading]
I’ll be back. Those were the words that I uttered to my divorce attorney at the courthouse when I went before the judge to have her stamp my divorce decree that announced me a single parent. I didn’t know when I would be back, but I knew I would be back. My attorney looked at… [Continue Reading]
Change the Diaper and It Will Please Me Remember these song lyrics by Billy Joel, “Don’t go changing to try and please me. I love you just the way you are?” Well, we may not have to purposely change for the ones that truly love us but change in our lives is inevitable. It’s a… [Continue Reading]
I was one stressed out kid. I had a supportive family, great friends and teachers, I wasn’t bullied or picked on and yet every morning before elementary school I got a stomach ache. I don’t remember exactly when it started, but it happened sometime after my family moved from Wisconsin to Virginia. The remedy that… [Continue Reading]
Being pregnant is a huge life change for many women. One mom I talked with during her pregnancy, asked me about what she could do to support her baby mentally and emotionally during pregnancy. I told her that being happy, healthy, feeling positive about the baby and having good feelings about your partner are great ways to… [Continue Reading]
How are the choices you’re making affecting your life and relationships? Are they sound, healthy, … Continue Reading
I think my most difficult major life change was dealing with an empty nest. I knew the time when my … Continue Reading
It’s impossible to overlook the physical changes of pregnancy. But, as dramatic as those changes … Continue Reading
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Recent Comments
Theresa Froehlich on How An Empty Nest Can Allow for Life Enrichment
Being an empty nest parent does open up a lot of possibilities just because of having more time and freedom....Lisa Wilder on How An Empty Nest Can Allow for Life Enrichment
"...shift the focus away from the negative aspects." YES! Such empowering advice, Ann. When my boys left home I very...Ann Anderson on Your Home, Your Haven
This is wonderful Wendy! So many timely tips and inspirational ideas. I love it!