Are you starting to feel overwhelmed? Is your head filling with tasks to accomplish, social engagements, travel plans, financial pressures, amped up family dynamics…? Can you feel the tension building in your neck, your temples or your belly? While the holidays are beautiful in so many ways, they sweep us into an unnatural velocity and present many stressors on our nervous systems. It’s no wonder so many parents get burnt out and, instead of enjoying the holidays, find themse

There’s a thing that happens to you on the way to our parents’ house for a holiday dinner. You start out as a mature, grounded, self-directed adult and by the time you’re pulling into their driveway, you can feel yourself surrendering your truth and your autonomy. “Here we go again.” You fall into old patterns. You let your sister second guess your latest decision or poke holes in your plans. You let your parents instruct your children in ways you wouldn’t. Your affirmations,

I am happy to be able to share a tender interview with one of the parents I coached last winter. Meet Marthe, an award-winning musician, peace activist and single mom. When we met, she was feeling guilty about how often she was fighting with her teenage daughter, and she was terrified that she was driving her away. This is her story about finding steadiness and peace in her parenting and learning how to connect with her daughter in a very different way. Q. What problems were

Sometimes things get mixed up that aren't supposed to get mixed up. Your white T-shirt comes out of the laundry pink. The tomato sauce...

Your hands are full of so much strength and grace. Expressing emotions, emphasizing your words, rubbing lotion into your skin, stroking...

In my  last article , we considered what’s really happening when our almost-adult kids complain: what’s happening in them and what’s...

Listening to a teenager complain for 20 minutes is tough. And listening to them complain every... single... day... is even tougher. It...

Photo by Felix Mittermeier on Unsplash I loathe the phrase midlife crisis . “Oh, she’s falling apart, letting herself go, not handling...

Photo by Jacqueline O'Gara on Unsplash I am excited to be able to share with today you a very personal interview with one of the parents...

“Oh God how I hate saying this out loud, but sometimes I really resent my teenager.” I could feel the raw truth of her statement. And the...

Photo by chuck derby on Unsplash What does the word “approachable” make you think of? A welcoming front door, a big cuddly dog, a calm...

Photo by Lori K Walters In my coaching practice, I've heard many parents say, “I feel so restless and useless when nobody needs me. I...

Photo by Let's go Together  on Unsplash Last week’s article about resisting the urge to jump in and fix things for our teens garnered...

Photo by Meina Yin on Unsplash I’m guessing you opened this article because you’ve experienced some of these symptoms: Living on high...

Relationships with teenagers and young adult children are trying. You never know how they’re going to respond to something you say. You...

Photo by Deanna Lewis  on Unsplash I got this message from one of my readers a couple of weeks ago: "I don't really want to admit it, but...

Photo by James Wheeler on Unsplash When you've got a teenager, you spend a lot of time in your head, trying to stay one step ahead of...

Photo by Sergey Pesterev on Unsplash Alexis thought all was lost. Her son had caused some trouble at school for the third time in a...

Mei had been silent for a full minute. I had asked her if she could recall having this feeling at any other time in her life. She had...

Photo by Anita Austvika  on Unsplash Remember the fairy tales you heard when you were young? In many of them, once the scary thing was...

Photo by Will Hulbert on Unsplash I want to tell you a story about when I was 10 or 11, a freckle-faced kid in faded jeans. It was a...

Photo by Ray Hennessy on Unsplash “I’m not doing a good job with my 17-year-old,” she said. “I hate what’s happening between us. There’s...

Photo by Guillaume Auceps on Unsplash There are plenty of things that can hold us back in our development as parents. And one of those...

How to find your next step when your relationship with your teen feels stuck.