Okay, the word trick sounds desperate. However, I am not above any tactics of desperation if it means getting to spend time with my middle-schooler who now barricades himself in his room unless I’m feeding him breakfast, lunch, dinner,...
I love the idea of shopping, but in practice, it can be overwhelming to me. Looking across a vast store at a hundred different options and deciding which pieces of clothing match, what design to choose for a room,...
This is a true story about how I went from fairly normal, if not a little dramatic at times, to batsh*t crazy in the span of 36 hours.
My daughter graduated from high school. It was awesome and hard and...
Hang on, you boy mamas of wild toddlers and sleepless nights, there is a magical time coming in your near future, I promise. It's the golden age of boyhood, and it appears somewhere around age 7. And as far...
The rapid increase of e-cigarette use, or vaping, among youth is a serious issue. In fact, the FDA and the U.S. Surgeon General have declared youth vaping a nationwide epidemic. Parents and educators in Duval County are rightfully concerned....
When my husband and I first started thinking about having kids, we talked a lot about what they’d be like. Whether we’d have boys or girls, if they’d inherit my husband’s dimples or my eyes, and what they’d be...
As we continue to acknowledge, uplift, and encourage autistic people, I would like to take a moment to remind you to listen to autistic people — not just parents of autistic children. Hear their voices and share their stories,...
Before having children, I just knew that our family would gather around the table every night and eat dinner together. That is how I grew up, and my husband and I cooked and ate together every night, so of...
Check on your friends with high school seniors. They are not okay.
Every day brings one more experience that I both treasure and mourn with the thought of "It won't be like this again." There was no preparing my heart...
My parents wanted to give our toddlers a yearly membership gift to visit their favorite places. It turns out, there are endless options in and around Jacksonville! From parks to play spaces, here are some of our favorite local...
I dreaded it for years. The hormones. The backtalk. The eye rolls. Uncontrolled emotions. His awkwardness. My awkwardness answering certain "questions." Seven class changes with seven different teachers. The increased workload. Bullies. Fights. Heartbreak. We have only begun the...
"How was your day?" "Fine."
"Is everything okay?" "Yeah."
These one-word exchanges are all too familiar to parents of kids and teens. While it can be tempting to take those short phrases at face value rather than risk an argument, it’s...