New Book Reveals the Hidden Power of Sensitivity

Sensitive: The Hidden Power of the Highly Sensitive Person in a Loud, Fast, Too-Much World, by Jenn Granneman & Andre Solo, takes a positive look at what is too often deemed a negative trait: being a sensitive person. Using science and data to back up their assertions, the people behind the online communities Sensitive Refuge and Introvert, Dear, convincingly advance […]

A Guide To Better Decision-Making

WISE DECISIONS: A Science-Based Approach to Making Better Decisions  by Dr. Jim Loehr and Dr. Sheila Ohlsson is a useful guide to understanding the science behind our decision-making and, more importantly, how to use this knowledge to make even better decisions. This book makes you stop and think. It’s obvious, but have you considered that beliefs are merely opinions? And […]

15 Teen-Approved Ways to Say I Love You

Each February, after we get over the excitement of a weather-predicting rodent, the world becomes full of pink and red hearts and silly bow-and-arrow-carrying cherubs. It is natural around this time to think about ways to let our loved ones know how we feel. Though teenagers sometimes act as though they don’t want to give or receive love, they do. […]

This Book Will Help Parents Survive the Emotional Teenage Years

If you have (or will soon have) teenagers in your house, The Emotional Lives of Teenagers: Raising Connected, Capable, and Compassionate Adolescents, by Lisa Damour, PhD. is an essential resource for your home library. Those of us who have parented (or remember being) a teen know that teen emotions can be intense and often change rapidly. In an easy-to-understand manner, […]

Parenting Teens Is More Guiding and Advising Than Controlling

My love affair with the ocean began in my teens when my parents became friends with a man who soon became family. He had a boat that he used for pleasure and chartering small fishing trips. Breaking his long-standing rule of “No women on the boat,” he invited the family out for an afternoon (of four family members, three of […]

Is it Possible to Be Too Old to Trick-or-Treat?

Teenagers occupy a strange in-between world. They are no longer children, but they are not yet adults. They are quick to abandon “babylike” things, then almost as quick to regret that they have done so. It is during the teen years that many of us start to wonder why we ever wished so hard to grow up faster. Trick-or-treating is […]

Tonight is our high school graduation. Though I will not be attending, I am thinking of those students and their families. My kids have already reached this milestone. I know some who are walking tonight and others who will join them as alumni in the years to come. Four times I have sat in the high school bleachers, waiting for […]

New Book Outlines How Parents Can Help Teens Get More Sleep

In her new book, The Sleep-Deprived Teen, Why Our Teenagers Are So Tired and How Parents and Schools Can Help Them Thrive, Lisa Lewis presents valuable information on teenagers and sleep including the dangers of not getting enough. She’s done the homework for the rest of us and presents here a thorough, yet accessible summary of many studies, laying out […]