Do you want to know when you really become a grown up? It’s when you have to take care of your parent. The day you realize you’re the caregiver.

When my mother died within two months of my daughter’s birth, I knew I had to do something to tie the two events together.

I graduated high school with a ton of bad advice on establishing a credit rating and almost no concept of financial planning beyond “How to Operate a Savings Account.” I don’t want my kids to do that.

I know why I’m second best. I know that since I’m the one involved in the daily parenting grind, telling her – make your bed, go brush your teeth, get dressed, STOP jiggling my butt! – I’m the prime target for her frustration and anger. I WANT TO BE THE FAVORITE PARENT!

It’s been over a year. It was Friday, March 6, 2020. I booked a babysitter and told Jeff we were going to happy hour. That was our last outing for months—everything shut down the following Monday.

Struggling to find Easter gifts appropriate for your baby or toddler? Get a little creative! Instead of filing a traditional wicker basket, get an item to fill that can be part of the treat.

This one felt different. It was closer to home than ever before. This time, my children are old enough to see the news and ask questions.

My definition of ‘clean’ has changed over the years. There was a time where I would have thought ‘clean’ meant clean. Now…

My hair became impossibly thick. I started getting teased in grade school as the adorable curls morphed into some curls, some shag carpeting.

My inner badass is in there. I’ve missed her. I pretty much have just been bad. And on some days, I’ve just been an ass. But not today.

I graduated high school with a ton of bad advice on establishing a credit rating and almost no concept of financial planning beyond “How to Operate a Savings Account.” I don’t want my kids to do that.

Eighteen gets to be a gut-wrenchingly small number when you realize that’s the number of times you have to make significant memories with your kids.

If your daughter is heading to college next fall, you’re probably in the same place I was last year. It was my daughter’s last summer before college.

rather than dwell on the growing pains of change in our relationship, I prefer to celebrate the positive side of being a parent to my adult kids. And there are so many reasons why…

Before the kids have moved out completely, I’ve decided to try to start preparing for an empty nest – when it’s just my husband and me at home.

The great big book of parenting (which none of us actually receives) never warned me of the absolute fear I would have of an empty nest.

Jonathan, my middle child, graduated from high school this month. Like millions of moms this graduation season, I wiped the