We’ve had a long week, and today was a long day, and the kids are all wiped out. Tonight Number 7 hit a wall and lost her shit. Number 4 did something to piss her off, and then she just started pretty much throwing punches. Normally when she goes off the deep end like that, […]
Parenting
20 Things You Can Do To Be a Great Parent
Yesterday I came across this question when I was wasting time on Facebook: “I’m going to be a first-time dad in a few weeks… I’m quite nervous! Does anyone have some helpful tips on how I can be a great dad? “ About a million things immediately popped into my head. It doesn’t matter whether you […]
Life Lessons From The Saxophone
A week or so ago I wrote a post about Number 4 and how she was feeling conflicted about continuing to play the saxophone in band in school. This was a tough call for me because 1) she’s talented, 2) she LOVED it last year and 3) I think, like many of us, she may […]
Let nature take its course.
Someone asked me about natural consequences yesterday. Natural consequences are unbelievably useful and effective in helping our kids (and ourselves!) learn valuable lessons about accountability and responsibility. But they are largely underutilized because we as parents so often have a hard time letting our kids be uncomfortable or deal with disappointment. First I think it’s important to make […]
The Four Gift Rule (And The Story Of THE ROBES)
I was going to wait until closer to Thanksgiving to write about this, but after what happened yesterday, I’d like to share it today. If you follow me on Facebook, then you may have already seen this post from yesterday (had to do three screenshots because it’s long — but funny!): So the kids […]
The Time I Lost It On Number 7’s Birthday
Yesterday I wrote a post about mistakes and how I want to use those situations to teach and model for my kids how they are just opportunities for growth. And then this morning I fucked up pretty badly Ugh. And after that whole post yesterday, I’ve spent most of the morning beating myself up! It’s […]
