Enjoy Your Children and Parenting!

There are always a ton of opinions about raising children. When are you are a single parent, it can seem as if you are judged even more than your peers. Do you use spankings or time outs? Is yelling harmful or just part of the job? Can you damage a child’s self esteem by being too critical? It’s enough to make me feel like I need a parenting class just to confirm my parenting choices. It’s tough to navigate through this minefield. When I divorced, I knew that I was going to be as active a parent as I could. Early co-parenting efforts were tough, but eventually my ex and I created a peaceful ...

More about: Can Respectful Parenting Be Effective?

Parenting teenagers is hard work.  Not only are you attempting to maintain some authority in the family hierarchy, but you are trying to raise a respectful and independent adult. A question my friends often throw out is whether their teenager should get a job. At first I thought, that’s a no brainer, of course they should.  But as my teens started wanting and needing more money, it was not so clear cut. My older son didn’t do much. He got pretty good grades but he really didn’t put much effort into school.  He didn’t play sports and wasn’t really a joiner.  For a while he was in a band but they didn’t practice often and never ...

More about: Working Teens?

Summer vacation.  For kids it is the pinnacle of the school experience.  Nine months of hard work to earn nearly 3 months off.  For parents it can be just the opposite.  Three months of constant activities, taxi driving and the dreaded “I’m bored.”  One of my friends said “You know you are a grown up when year round school sounds like a good idea.” Guess that means I’m a grown up now. For my teenager who can drive, it’s not so bad.  She took a babysitting class so she could learn infant CPR and baby-sit at night.  She is also working part time. For me, there is no parenting class to teach me how to occupy my kids during ...

More about: Summer Activities That Won’t Break the Bank

When I decided that I needed to end my marriage, my first thoughts were about the kids. How was I going to be a good father?  What kind of custody arrangement could I realistically expect to receive?  And how much time did I really want? As part of my divorce, we were asked to take a parenting class.  I opted to take an online class entitled Stressless Single Parenting.  I felt it would be more meaningful to my life as I was now going to be living it.  I toyed briefly with a co-parenting class, but my wife could barely have a civil discussion so I thought I would ...

More about: Going It Alone Can Be Great

When you get divorced and have kids, you are thrown into the great unknown of co-parenting. Now there is someone who was a partner but is now an adversary. I tried hard to make sure my former wife was not my enemy, but she made it very difficult. I did my best to compromise but she was just not into respectful parenting. This became painfully obvious around the holidays. At some point, we had divided the holidays and times for when and where the kids were supposed to be.  In the beginning I was alone. Her family had some long standing traditions so I put the kids first and let her have them.  She had ...

More about: Holidays, how to handle it?

Once my first marriage was over, I was really interested in being a single guy.  I dated many girls and partied during the week.  Eventually though, it became obvious that this lifestyle wasn’t really for me or my kids.  Around that time I met the woman who would become my new wife.  The interesting thing is, I never considered what it meant to bring a woman into my life and into the little family I had created with my kids.  After being married to a controlling shrew of a woman, I finally had some independence.  I could do what I wanted, when I wanted and how I wanted.  During the week when my kids were with their mom, Helen and I ...

More about: New Partner New Parenting Style

Dealing with your former spouse can be tricky, especially when it comes to custody issues. This issues get bigger when the child is a teenager. How can you navigate the troubled waters without sinking can be difficult. But it all comes down to your communication and parenting style.

More about: When Your Teenager Wants to Modify Custody

You have probably enjoyed the quiet that comes along with your child being away at camp. You have also been preparing for visiting day. I have a few tips for making the visit a successful one. First, show up, it's a sad day when a child is alone on this day. For your child it's an important day for you to see what they have been doing. Bring something for all of the kids that are bunking with your child. This adds a benefit of being a cool parent but also shows that you acknowledge the other children. Keep in mind that your child is following camp rules while they are there and it's not your place to interfere. You ...

More about: Visiting Day at Your Child’s Summer Camp

There is a new drug called "K2" which is popular among teens. It has also been called "genie" or "spice". It's legal in most of the United States and is packaged as incense or bath salts. It's not difficult to find for purchase, it's sold in head shops, magazines and online. This drug can be more than 15 times more powerful than marijuana and cannot be detected in a drug test. Nationwide there have been more than 500 hundred calls to poison control centers this year about the drug. Side effects can be tremors or full blown seizures and the DEA is currently researching what is in the drug and making a claim of whether or not it can be ...

More about: A Popular New Drug Among Teens

Sometimes you want your kids to grow up as much as they do so that they can take on doing things themselves. Every child reaches milestones at their own pace and you as the parent just need to nurture them and be patient with them as they explore their world. you may find that she is very shy and timid when you drop her off at preschool the first time, but after a while she won't be able to wait to get there and play. Your job is to teach your child to be effective, capable and independent and they may not get there on your time line. Teaching your child to be brave and try new things is great, ...

More about: Be Patient With Your Children