Middle School

I am a thirty-something year old “Older Millennial” mom. I have a side part and wear skinny jeans. My youth was (thankfully) not documented across social media. I don’t know the latest Tik Tok dance trend. I was still using my original aol.com email address until a few years ago. Unlike my childhood, my children will grow up surrounded by digital technology. My tween daughter was telling a story at the dinner table a few nights ago. At one point, I looked over at my husband and it was clear that neither of us understood the majority of her slang. The world is a vastly different place today than it was during my childhood. As my daughter gets older, she will...

I’ve always been the type of person that had absolutely no idea what to do or say when a loved one was hurting. I’ve always felt absolutely useless in these situations and as if I needed to step aside and let an adult handle it. Here are some things that stuck with me during a time I needed help: Don’t try to fill the silence. My best friend once said, “There’s not anything you can say to make it better, but there’s a lot you can say to make it worse.” Just let her be sad, hurt, angry, etc. It’s kind of selfish to fill silence just because you’re uncomfortable anyway, right? Buy a houseplant. Even if a mom thinks she has...

Everyone knows that having friends is important and that it makes us happier. It is kind of commonplace and it stands for every period of life. But there are stages when it is more important to make friends and belong to certain circles, and one of the first that comes to our mind is teenagehood. In this period, friendships are more important than ever, as they are giving young people the sensation of acceptance and belonging. Additionally, the ability to connect with peers encourages the development of empathy, compassion, etc., in adolescents. Besides, through these friendships, young people form an identity that is not, in any way, related to their families. However, not all teens manage to make friends easily....

It has begun. The annoyed sighs and eye-rolling. The huffing and puffing (Big Bad Wolf style!). The “Ugh, Mom, I know” and “Fine, Mom.” I really thought I had a few years before the sassiness would rear its ugly head. I thought that would be teenage behavior. WRONG! My formerly respectful and sweet ten-year-old daughter has entered the back-talking phase – and it is driving me crazy! Alien abduction I feel like I put my well-mannered daughter to bed one night, and she must’ve been abducted by aliens that taught her to be sassy. Almost overnight, she started interrupting us to tell us what she did or didn’t do. The eye-rolling started when asked to do simple chores. For the most...

As moms, we tend to cling desperately to those magical years when Santa is real and a stuffed elf does anything but sit on a shelf. But our children grow older and we are faced with the changing landscape of the holidays. Do we tell them the “truth,” or do we assume they know already? Do we cross our fingers and hope their peers don’t make fun of them for fervently believing? Or do we adopt the policy of my college roommate’s mom and double down – even into adulthood - saying “if you don’t believe, you won’t receive?” I’ve been hit hard with holiday fatigue. I’ve grown tired of the charade after 13 years of being the sole person...