Effective Ways To Prevent Sports Injuries In Adolescents
Over 30 million adolescents play sports in the U.S. alone. Sports are a great way for them to get out and exercise. However, many often injure themselves when playing. While an injury might not look too severe, it could be damaging to their growing body. This article will explore a handful of effective ways you […]
How Parenting Teenage Boys Prepared Me for a Pandemic
None of us expected this pandemic, save maybe a few epidemiologists and public health experts who “expected” it in the same way we all “expect” to die, which is to say that we know it will happen, but we have no idea when or how or what it will feel like. Three months or so […]
Teens & Memes: What I Learned
Tackling the subject of teens and memes is a bit…fraught. Last week, the New York Times published my article, The Role of Memes in Teen Culture. The article is aimed at parents (and grandparents and teachers), and it’s intended purpose is to help adults understand why and how teens use memes. It grew out of […]
Top Posts of 2019
2019: Conversations about boys move to center stage. CBSN created a documentary about raising boys. The American Psychological Association released recommendations for working with boys and men, igniting a debate about “traditional masculinity.” At home, parents of boys continued to grapple with screen time and video games. In schools, boys were still disproportionately represented at […]
Enjoying Summer with Boys
Five years ago, my then-eight-year-old son pulled himself around the bases on his belly. It was the postscript to a day of Independence Day celebrations, and his spontaneous endeavor taught me a lot about encouraging independence — and a lot about how well-meaning adults can inadvertently interfere with boys’ development. This year’s 4th of July […]
On Graduation & Growing
My second son graduates from high school in five days. I thought I was ready. After all, this isn’t my first go-’round. I’ve already graduated one son from high school and stood by as he launched himself into the world. Unlike many of my peers, I didn’t feel sorrow at his leaving; I felt great […]
When Boys Refuse to Do “Stupid” Homework
What do you do with a son who refuses to do this homework? Especially a son who refuses out of principle — a son who most certainly could do the homework, but has decided it’s not worth his time and energy? This is not a rhetorical question. This is a question I have faced […]
Your Son Could Be Your Son For Life, Even After He’s Found A Wife If you Avoid These Mistakes
Mothers of sons are often led to believe that, at some stage, their son is going to leave them. We’ve all heard the ditty ‘A daughter is a daughter for life, but a son’s only a son until he takes a wife.’. It’s enough to send fear into any mother’s heart, and it gives […]
Stop Assuming Boys Are Bad
“Something unexpected happened…” That’s the lead-up to this CBS New story about a middle school boy who befriended a 5 year old with autism: It’s supposed to be a simple feel-good story, the kind the news feeds us every now and then to remind us that all is not lost and that there is still […]
Age 16 & Learning to Let Go
Getting his license was the easy part. Standing back and figuring out how to when to step in and when to step back…THAT was — is — the hard part. Isn’t that the hard part of parenting, in general? Maybe that’s why I found the baby years easy. When you have an infant who needs […]