Perspectives in Parenting

If you avoid spending time with family because of how mentally taxing it is to be around your siblings, then you know the stress that comes with having toxic siblings. Healthy family relationships are those that are loving, caring and understanding. Sadly, just because you are related, doesn’t mean that you automatically get the picture-perfect sibling relationship. Below are 4 red flags that you have a toxic sibling: They know it all and are never wrong To put it bluntly, they are always right, no matter what! They always have all the answers and are patronizing toward you if you try to call them out on it. They are controlling The rules do not apply to them. They will do what they want when...

“I’m kind of an absent friend, like I will love you with my whole heart, and go out of my way to give you any help you need, but I tend to live in my own world, and suck at keeping up communication, and I’m really sorry to anyone who takes that personally” — The Minds Journal Reading that line hits me in the core. I’m sorry that I have been an absent friend. To my friends… I am lonely, and I need you. I typically stretch myself thin, way too thin to the point that I let my friendship and family interactions fall by the wayside. Even though I work several jobs, and go in several different directions every day,...

Being the youngest of three with a pretty large age gap between me and my sisters, I was lucky to become an aunt at ten years old. I suddenly had these two built-in friends who I got to help love and raise and now are in their twenties being WHOLE humans out in the world. As I grew and became a Mama, seeing my kids' relationships with my sisters and friends grow made my heart soar. Suddenly there are all of these strong women helping me raise my kids. I think Aunts need all the Cheers! Cheers to the aunties who pick up their nibblings from school on the days the parents can't. Cheers to the aunties who LOVE camping and are...

When my sisters and I were young girls, my family watched the mini-series, The Thorn Birds, almost religiously every time it was broadcast on network television. We were raised in a strict Catholic home, as evidenced by our family of five female siblings. None of us ever questioned how this tale of a conflicted Catholic priest became family canon, or even why we were allowed to watch such a film in the first place, but in hindsight (particularly in the wake of a much more aware cultural and moral battleground) has led to many questions that I think are worthy of exploration. If you are unfamiliar with the 1983 mini-series based on Colleen McCollough's novel of the same name, a...

My daughter spent 18 days in the NICU after she was born eight weeks early. This was new territory for me since my son was evicted at forty weeks three days. The experience made her homecoming that much sweeter, but it was a difficult journey fraught with emotions for our entire family. Admission to the NICU When your baby is very premature, they are quickly taken to the NICU after birth. I got a brief view of her when the doctor held her up for me to see. My husband got to see her while she was weighed, measured, and her birth APGAR scores were taken. But neither of us got to hold her when she was born. She was quickly...