I woke up much later than I wanted to this morning, and as a result, I was feeling rushed from the second I got up. So when I was making breakfast and Number 4 bounced into the kitchen and asked, “Mommy! CAN I HELP?” I immediately said… “NO.” I was trying to make banana bread […]
Parenting
Another Inconvenient Truth
in·con·ven·ient ˌinkənˈvēn-yənt adjective 1. causing trouble, difficulties, or discomfort. I never thought the decision to stop yelling would have such an effect on me. Up until 10 days ago when I decided I was done yelling, I wouldn’t say I was out-of-control in the yelling department. It wasn’t an all-day thing. It wasn’t even and […]
The five things I did to make it through a week without yelling once at my kids.
So I haven’t yelled for a whole week. Not once. I came close a couple times, but I never yelled. Not at my kids. Not even at my husband. And I feel great. GREAT! I’m not claiming to be mother or wife of the year. Not yelling hasn’t magically caused all of my other shortcomings […]
What I learned in my first yell-free 24 hours.
Yesterday I made a proclamation. I was done yelling. For good. It’s been 24 hours. For 24 hours, I have been extremely mindful of every single word that has come out of my mouth. That was all the time I needed to really assess and determine my 5 W’s. The who, what, when, where and whys related […]
My Mom. A Story by Number 4.
We have these black, hanging wall folder-things from Pottery Barn in our mudroom. Every day after school the kids empty their backpacks and put all their papers in them for me to look at. I finally looked at the papers they brought home and put in those folders in the last few days of school […]
The Tool Box Conversation
The other day I was talking to a friend who has a daughter in high school. She was telling me how her daughter had a rough year this past year. My friend was telling me how she and her husband got their daughter into therapy, how the therapist explained to them and to their daughter that […]