Mental Health

The Importance Of Your Girl Friends Once You Become A Mother When I was younger, my mother used to read those “Chicken Soup for the Soul” books or grocery shop late at night for her “me time.” She had her girl friends, but she never did prioritize her friendships. Her priority was my father and me, which should be on the most important list. My mom was a stay-at-home mom mostly my whole life so my mother raised me different than how I am raising my boys. The cost of living was cheaper, food was less expensive and some homes only had one working parent. In our home, my boys have both parents working multiple jobs. According to the labor force...

Mother’s Little Helper Is On Backorder I was officially diagnosed with “adult ADHD” in 2021 at the tender age of 45. It didn’t come on the heels of the TikTok frenzy of self-diagnosis, but instead was met with my suspicion the moment my doctor said, “Oh yeah, you definitely have ADHD.” No, no - I laughed at her. That’s just a silly “catch-all.” But this was before I knew what ADHD looked like in girls and adult women. I wasn’t even into my second page of Google search results on women with ADHD before I was staring, slack-jawed at the screen and wondering how this could have been missed. I just thought I was ... really, really good at some things and...

Mom, I'm So Sad All The Time: Ending The Stigma Begins At Home In early 2021, both of my beautiful, amazing sons told their father and me that they were struggling with mental health issues. This was during a year that brought with it a cancer diagnosis for our 10 year old, more Covid chaos, the death of their grandfather (whom they loved dearly and saw almost weekly since their births) the death of their great-grandmother (whom they were also very close to), unrelenting anxiety and hopelessness for our 16-year old, plus the day-to-day struggles that life, middle school and high school brought with it.    As divorced co-parents, their father and I have made it clear that we are always open...

Instant Gratification Junkies :: Are We Raising Them?? I want what I want, and I want it NOW! Our lives are consumed with needs and wants, and for the most part, our society makes it pretty easy to obtain things quickly. Do any of these below sound familiar? Hungry and don’t have time to cook? There are drive-thru’s, gas station foods, and microwaves for that. Having a bad day at work and need some release? That’s what happy hours provide. Bored and need some entertainment? That’s exactly what scrolling through social media delivers. Kid throws a fit and you just need it to stop before you pull your hair out? Just give him what he wants! Emotionally taxing day with nearly unbearable...

Honor Roll Mom :: Keep Your Expectations Reasonable My oldest child is smart. Like mind-blowingly smart. At 14, I don’t remember a single time he ever had to study for a test. He’s able to remember vast amounts of knowledge and the adults in his life regularly look to him for guidance whenever they have a question about history or geography. He’s been on the honor roll ever since he was old enough to be on it and I’ve been the proud mom, sitting in the front row cheering him on every step of the way. With a child like this, you get used to seeing the A’s and as much as you don’t want to be “that parent," any time...