THE AWKWARD MOM

because uncomfortable conversations are the ones worth having

Category: true success (page 1 of 5)

Preparing Your Kids For the Day You Can’t See Coming

Reading Time: 4 minutes

preparing your kids

One (just one) of the problems with writing a parenting book is the whisper spitting in my ear sometimes as I parent my oh-so-real-life teens. Like the one who yelled at me across the lawn this morning. (See? I’m wondering if I should have let you know that.)

Enter the Whisper: And you wrote a parenting book? read more

5 Ways to Stop Overfunctioning as a Parent This Year

Reading Time: 4 minutes

overfunctioning as a parent

Last week, I brought happy-hour Sonic drinks to my friend’s empty sixth-grade classroom. She’d decked it out as only excited teachers can, with pillowed reading corners complete with fairy lights, innovative seating, and wave bottles she’d made herself, with glitter inside.

We chatted, and I laughed about her curiously-labeled drawer of Bummer Pencils. A bummer pencil, she explained, is one she’s picked up off the floor or from a desk, maybe half-chewed or with no eraser. She saves those–I’m assuming she disinfects them?–for the time when a sixth-grader raises their hand with the news they have no pencil. read more

Parenting Podcasts and Articles: A Few of the Latest

Reading Time: 3 minutes

This week I had one of those shining parenting moments. I caught one of my kids deliberately subverting a punishment.

This kid didn’t lie about what he was doing, which in light of the past, felt like a win. He also seemed to sincerely apologize. I told him I would think about the consequence and get back to him, and we’d talk some more.

And two hours later, he did the same thing, people. #parentingforthewin read more

When Your Child is Driving You Crazy

Reading Time: 3 minutes

crazy

I could tell you my son has energy. But that would be kind of like me telling you Bill Gates is kind of good at computers.

We’re on a sports rotation at my house. It is not because we love to be busy (we try not to be?), or love getting up on Saturdays for games (nope), or think he’ll be a star someday (odds are pretty slim). read more

Blind Wrestlers, Cancer, and How Your Child’s Pain Could be a Gift

Reading Time: 4 minutes

I sat at lunch on Sunday with a handful of friends over turkey with homemade gravy and mashed potatoes (“So much for Keto,” mumbled the woman dishing up next to me). Of all things, the topic turned to high school wrestling. Two of the guys next to me had competed in high school.

One of them, Marshall, is 6’3″. In high school, he was upwards of 190 lbs. Maybe that’s why I was surprised at who he said were the most formidable in the sport: The kids from the school for the blind. In fact, one of them was the state champ during Marshall’s years in competition. At the time those students had no other sports other than swimming in which they could compete; baseball, basketball, and football were all out. So they competed year-round.

Even more than that, we all reflected aloud, was a blind wrestler’s exaggerated sense of touch. We’ve all heard that with the loss of one of our senses, our other senses rally to compensate (think of Stevie Wonder or Ray Charles). read more

Guest post: How Good Moms Can Stand in the Way of Great Kids

Reading Time: 2 minutes

clean kids dirty pick up moms

This morning I walked through my house, trying not to see things.

I tried not to see the underwear packaging left on the floor by my two teenage boys. The clothes my daughter left on the bathroom floor. The cereal bowl on the counter of a few floating Honey Nut Cheerios. read more

Bad News. You’re Not as Necessary as You Think You Are

Reading Time: 4 minutes

necessary irreplaceable indispensable

Ever lost a job?

Years ago, after a frequent series of layoffs in my company, the axe finally fell on me. read more

Do Our Churches Prefer Certain Occupations? (Does God?)

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Last week was the week where you sign enough paperwork that you think, Maybe I just bought a house or something. But actually, you’ve just registered your kids for school. I lost track of how many boxes of pencils and packages of notebook paper I purchased. And one of my kids is starting high school, which may mean that I am old?

Either way, the principal introduced himself as I walked out with my freshman (man, just typing it makes it sound real). And here is what I liked: Our new principal, in his last district, was also an elder in his church. So was our new superintendent. These intelligent, gifted men could presumably be doing a lot of things with their giftedness. But as I chatted with the principal, I thought, I’m really glad you’re doing this particular job. It matters to me and my kids and their discipleship. People like you preserve our schools so they don’t become “unreached”. read more

INFOGRAPHIC: Simplify Your Schedule (in Time for the School Year!)

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Sometimes it can feel a little like my schedule has me on a leash, rather than the other way around. During the school year, when asked how we are, how many times could we answer, “Busy”?

But, as I like to be reminded by Peter Scazzero, we’re human beings, not human doings. We are more than what we do, more than our usefulness, like some machine or hired hand.

Beware the Now

Reading Time: 3 minutes

So this week, my eldest son’s chores have included assembling a bookshelf from Ikea (a true test of manhood), raking and bagging part of the yard, and mowing at the neighbor’s. I admit to a small degree of happiness when he asked, “Mom, where’s a hex wrench?”

See, he’s 14 now. And that means it’s T minus four years till a vast assortment of his advice will come from college students just as clueless as he will be. So this morning, before he crawled out of bed, I sent this list of life skills for teens to my husband for printing.

Playing mom-of-teenager (plus any other hats, like, oh, working mom) can get a little cray-cray. Sometimes I feel like to live in this century is to live within in a blur, like we’re on a merry-go-round that’s too fast, yanking us off-center. As Westerners (and I lump myself into that), when asked how life is, half of us will answer “busy”. But what if the tyranny of the urgent keeps me from the critical?

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