Heaven and Hell: Life With Multiple Kids
As moms, we know life is filled with big and little moments of joy and comparable moments of pain. We experience this with our children often. When people ask me how my two kids get along, my response is always the same: “It is heaven and hell.” I love my kids, but day to day (and even from one minute to the next), I do feel like I move from heaven to hell and back again. What keeps my hopes up during the hellish times is the blissful memory of the heavenly times. Without the bad, what does the good really mean, right? Take, for...
read moreThe Link Between Trauma and Happiness
Everything must be balanced by something else — even happiness. Shadow and light, sweet and salty, good and bad, joy and pain. Our lives are filled and defined by paradoxes, an awe-inspiring ebb and flow through triumph and tragedy and back again. Nobody asks to have her world rocked by tragedy, but for many, these earthshaking moments often bring the surprising gift of clarity. Two tragic events helped define my sense of self, my relationship with my husband and children and my life’s purpose. First, my husband, Michael, was hit...
read moreTLC’s ‘Sister Wives’: The High Price of Polygamy
During the “twenty-year wedding anniversary” episode of “Sister Wives,” the pain that wife number one, Meri, was feeling was palpable. This was caused by Kody Brown, her husband, showing his giddy affection for young wife number four, Robin, who is just joining the family. Meri has been married to Kody for twenty years. “Sister Wives,” the TLC series that is shining a spotlight on the polygamist culture (well, at least at one polygamist family, anyway), has been in a bit of trouble lately. The authorities...
read moreYou Never Forget Your First Love
Remember your first love? That intense excitement seeing him in the school hallway that made you beg your mom to drive down his street after softball practice, only to slide way down in your car seat so he wouldn’t see you? The fear that your parents would walk into the living room and see you kissing? The crushing pain when he ended your perfect relationship via a folded-up letter delivered by his best friend? How you really thought you would die of a broken heart? Our first loves have a huge impact on our future relationships. Falling...
read moreWashing Kids’ Mouths Out Really Works!
It began when I called my mom a “scumbag.” I was 12 and was now sitting in my bedroom in total fear, waiting for my dad to get home. My mom rarely told my dad when we did “bad” things, because she didn’t want to deal with his anger and just found it easier to handle us on her own. But my use of the word “scumbag” (spoken in the sassiest of tones and with utter disdain for my mom while I stomped up our stairs) was such a grave offense that full backup was required, and I knew the consequence was going...
read moreThe Link Between Trauma and Happiness
Everything must be balanced by something else — even happiness. Shadow and light, sweet and salty, good and bad, joy and pain. Our lives are filled and defined by paradoxes, an awe-inspiring ebb and flow through triumph and tragedy and back again. Nobody asks to have her world rocked by tragedy, but for many, these earthshaking moments often bring the surprising gift of clarity. Two tragic events helped define my sense of self, my relationship with my husband and children and my life’s purpose. First, my husband, Michael, was hit...
read moreTaking Kids to a Gruesome Trial is Ridiculous!
Connecticut mother Jennifer Ghoshray, who homeschools her two daughters (ages 6 and 7), brought her kids to the gruesome trial of multiple-murder suspect Steven Hayes, telling reporters that it was for a “civics lesson.” Really? Oh — and she had prepared them by discussing the case for “six or seven months.” Really?! Oh — and what Ghoshray was having her young daughters focus on was the emotional state of both the survivor, Dr. William Petit, and the man who’s on trial for allegedly killing...
read moreSex Therapy Basics
Sex provides a couple with pleasure, vulnerability and a deep, close connection that is very important to experience in an intimate partnership. It’s also an important time-out and stress reliever from the mundane tasks and pressures of daily life. An unfulfilled sex life can become a big issue that can erode even the healthy parts of your marriage. If you or your partner is having sexual issues, it is best to deal with them directly, honestly — and with the help of a professional. Sex therapy is a specific type of therapy for...
read moreStop the Teen-Pregnancy Blame Game!
The MTV shows “16 and Pregnant” and “Teen Mom” don’t glamorize teen pregnancy. Giving these young mothers covers on magazines with a quote like, “I’m Broke” certainly isn’t glamorous, either. OK, I get the argument that the teen moms are held out on the cover and given a pretty makeover, and that that might somehow make young girls think it is cool to get pregnant at 16, struggle to receive a GED, never go to college and fight with a “loser” babydaddy about going out drinking...
read moreStop the Teen-Pregnancy Blame Game!
Michelle Golland: The MTV shows “16 and Pregnant” and “Teen Mom” don’t glamorize teen pregnancy. Giving these young mothers covers on magazines with a quote like, “I’m Broke” certainly isn’t glamorous, either. OK Magazine/US Weekly OK, I get the argument that the teen moms are held out on the cover and given a pretty makeover, and that that might somehow make young girls think it is cool to get pregnant at 16, struggle to receive a GED, never go to college and fight with a...
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