3 mins read

The Problem With Trying To Be Perfect

I had lunch with an old friend recently. Shes a New York-based Broadway actress. My friend is a pixie — waifishly pretty, sweet and thoughtful. Youve seen her in a few commercials playing a ditzy young housewife and a cute first date trying to figure out how to use her new phone.

4 mins read

How To Raise A Teenager Without Losing Your Mind

Most parents do not relish parenting teenagers. Teaching them to drive is terrifying. Catching them drinking – and puking – for the first time is appalling. The horrors of teenage sexuality. The surliness, the lying, the sleeping until 3 pmDealing with teenagers is a grind, a bore, something to be SURVIVED.But I love being a parent to teenagers, as I recently told Michel Martin on NPRs Tell Me More.There was a parenting roundtable …

6 mins read

Should Your Kids Tell You When They Start Having Sex?

When you first had sex, did you tell your parents? Either parent? BOTH of them? In my case, being a 70s child, I never discussed sexuality (my own or others) with my mother or father. After I had three kids in my 30s, I assume they figured out I knew what to do between the sheets. But the subject continued to be an unexplored, lets say completely closed, family topic.

4 mins read

The Worst Mother On The Planet

I loooooved being a mom when my kids were 10 and under. I was the unrivaled hero in their lives. My middle daughter once presented me with a crayon drawing scribbled with There are many pritty things in life, but you are the prittiest of all.

3 mins read

Prince, Heroin and Your Medicine Cabinet

The news that the artist and musician Prince died from an accidental fentanyl and heroin overdose is tragic. But the fact that a lethal ingredient commonly mixed with heroin killed Prince should scare, as well as sadden, parents. Any of our kids could die this way. The dangers lurk in an innocent place – our…