Orange Parents

Monday’s article reminded me of my first plane trip with my oldest daughter. She was nine months old and I was a blissfully naive new mommy. We were flying from Virginia to Montana to see my family.
I was so excited to get there that I booked the earliest flight they had (mistake number one). This… [read more]

Your Mother Would be Ashamed If…
she saw you treat another mother that way.
I have four children. They are all over twenty. So it’s easy to forget how complicated the infant years actually were.
I was on a plane a few months ago sitting directly in front of a mom with a newborn. (I bet you know… [read more]

It’s one thing to spot the problems you face as a parent. It’s another thing to try to solve them.
Earlier this week we identified five signs that show you might lack integrity in your parenting. Integrity is such a core issue. Like a building that’s well constructed, a leader who has integrity survives storms in… [read more]

We all want to see our kids become the kind of people we imagine they can become. To some degree we want to see that in their careers, but at the most basic level we want to see that in their character and heart.
How do you do that? I recently heard Mary DeMuth summarize it… [read more]

There are two kinds of people who live in a house: People who leave the lights on, and people who turn lights off after others who have left the room and forgotten to.
I am the second type. I spend most of my free time walking around our house turning off lights (okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration),… [read more]

We’re approaching the time of the school year when we’ll honor our young people: from high school graduates in their cap-and-gowns and life-will-change-forever speeches to kindergarteners earning ribbons for tying their shoes to “participation trophies” for you name the sport. It’s pretty easy to get honored by somebody during this season of accomplishment.
Honor, though, is… [read more]

This month’s issue of Scientific American Mind is about your memory and learning how to erase distractions. It challenges the idea that the brain is simply a “passive storage unit.” The editors suggest that your mind “behaves like a seamstress who sews concepts from threads of vital information while snipping away extraneous material.”
According to the special… [read more]

Almost every parent I know worries about technology and their kids.
When should my child get a phone? Facebook? Be allowed to game? Get their own tablet or computer? How do I know what’s really going on?
I think our natural default as parents is to think about imposing external limits. And external limits absolutely have a… [read more]

I remember getting my first smartphone about seven years ago. It wasn’t much compared to what’s in the marketplace today, but I was mesmerized. I thought it was so amazing that you could text and email right off your phone and almost (emphasis on almost) browse the Web. Even at dinner. Even on vacation.
My family,… [read more]