Is coparenting giving your teen whiplash?
You didn’t begin your marriage planning for it to end, or believing you’d be co-parenting with a person you once called spouse. This isn’t about blame, shame, or judgement in any way. I believe you made the best choice for you and your kids. That doesn’t make it easy. Unfortunately, your co-parent may have entirely […]
Prom, parties and an emergency plan
That’s all good and well for the day-to-day comings and goings of your teen’s active social life. Then junior and senior years come along and the stakes get higher. The bigger the event, the more you feel gripped by fear and launch into a million questions from your mental, multi-page check list to see if […]
7 Tips to Help Your Teen Clean Their Room
You’ve offered to help, you’ve threatened, set consequences, all the things, and none of that’s working so you keep cycling from resentment, to angry, to blowing your top and still, nothing changes. The state of your teen’s room has become such a sore spot you’re not speaking, and if you do, it’s short and infused […]
Everything Changed When My Teen Met ‘Them’
Now your teen is checking off risky behaviours and bad habits like it’s a speed race, using vapes, weed, drinking, swearing, etc. Even their face is different. They don’t value school or their activities anymore, have isolated from their friends and are being sucked into a vortex like in a trace you can’t seem to […]
You don’t LEARN to parent, you just know
You weren’t taught, you learned. From the time you were born, you’ve been absorbing what’s ‘normal’ in parent/child relationships, even when you didn’t agree. You were a blank slate with nothing to compare to so it ALL registered as ‘normal’. Everything your parents did, how they treated you and each other, which they learned from […]
Are you done yet? How about now?
You’re sitting at the table as you family finishes eating dinner. You set down your cutlery, make eye contact with your teen and say, “(NAME), you’re on dishes tonight, ok?” Maybe you’re asking or it was already their turn and you’re just reminding them. Your teen looks away and mumbles, “Mm-hmm.” Every fibre of your […]
The proven secret to keeping your teen away from risky behaviour
Your fear of losing your teen to substance use is valid and real. The need to keep your teen safe takes over and drives you to one solution you likely know well. ‘We’ve made it clear those things aren’t allowed in our home and we’ve raised our teen to know better. We need to draw […]
Is your teen looking for love in all the wrong places
This one hit close to home. My intention in sharing my vulnerable experience as a promiscuous teen is to help you to better understand your own teen, take the steps your teen needs to create change, and shake off more of my own shame story and deep sadness around this chapter in my life. Park […]
Top tips for supporting your teen through anxiety
Whether your teen is developing anxious tendencies or has been diagnosed in some form, it can be scary and unknown territory to support them in, especially if you don’t have personal experience with it. You’re of no help if you’re drowning too. After our son’s diagnosis at 8yo, I dove headfirst into rescuing him from […]
Don’t talk to me like that
I get it. So where’s the line? (Psst! Scroll down to be included in my FREE offer!) Remember when your toddler was learning to walk and they didn’t get it right about 1000x or more? Remember how you kept picking them up and encouraging them to try again while kissing all their bumps and bruises […]