preteens
Several years ago one of our boys suggested that we take a few minutes at our family birthday celebrations and each of us share something we love or respect about the birthday person. We've done that ever since and wow. Just wow. It has been incredible to hear every member of the family express out…
A reader asks what to do with a violently angry 11-year-old son who is fighting and hurting his siblings. The father writes, I'm dying here. My boy continues to be violent to his siblings...one in particular...and tells us he wants out of the family. I feel like a prisoner in my own family, needing to…
Let me be upfront. I love Star Wars. The original Star Wars was released when I was a young teen and I think I saw it 5 or 6 times the first month. It was a grand story of nobility and sacrifice, knights and princesses, tyranny and resistance, epic battles and spaceships. Spaceships! It was…
A dear sweet friend of mine nearly lost her son the other night. Just a few seconds, maybe a minute more and she'd be planning a funeral right now. Here's her story: Sam, our fourteen-year-old, came stumbling into my bedroom on Saturday night at ten, crying pretty hard and saying, "Mom, I don't know what happened,…
A reader asks, "I have a question I'd appreciate being posted anonymously, please. My 12-year-old son came to me with this: he would like permission to use some "stronger" words to use on certain occasions. He had some good friends who use words like "cr-p"and "dang", and he says he feels left out when all…
Nicole asks on our page, "I am looking for some practical ways to deal with my, for true lack of a better word, air-headed 8th grade man-child. I thought we were coming out of this stage, but lately if I tell him to clean the living room and vacuum, he will clean the living room…
A reader asks, "How do you deal with a child who threatens to run away from home, or if your child has done it, how did you deal with it? I don't know what my options are, but my 10 year old lately has been acting very immature, and when I told him to clean…