Family

Parents know (or hope) the day will come when they look at their children and realize they’ve become self-sufficient adults. Not just legally adults, but functioning adults. The kind who pay their own bills, solve their own problems, make their own appointments, and call home because they want to – not because they need something or someone to rescue them…

Do you have a happy marriage? Over years as a relationship coach and counsellor, I am sharing my experience to help you bring your marriage back to what you dreamed it would be when you first met. I will offer some very practical…

I am eager to create a season that will fill my heart and head with pleasant memories that reflect these long, lovely days. For me, the best way to do that is to reach out to friends, neighbors and family and share summer time with them. Here are some of the things that I like to do…

A table of women laughing before the senior center program. A group photo from the church retreat. Smiling faces in the park district newsletter after Bunco night. It’s easy to look at moments like these and conclude that everyone else has found the friendships you’ve been searching for. Those moments are real. But they’re only one expression of friendship…

After 21 years, I left my first marriage. There was no scandal, no single terrible night I could point to. Our values and our goals for a life had simply quietly stopped aligning. One of us was in constant chase of money. The other kept looking toward home and family and finding the other chair empty. Nobody had to be a villain…

We have no shortage of advice telling us to let go. Let go of the past. Let go of what we can’t control. Let go of our adult children’s choices, our ex-husbands’ opinions, the roles we’ve outgrown, the expectations we’ve been carrying since before…

What do stereotypes say about young adults born between 1997 and 2012? What valuable role can grandparents play? To set aside judgment and open up the conversation, they have a key advantage: perspective. They know, for example, that every new generation has, in its own way, been viewed with suspicion by the one that came before it…

Pets bring so much joy to our lives, but being a responsible pet owner also means being a considerate neighbor. A little common courtesy goes a long way toward creating a happy, peaceful community for everyone – both pet lovers and non-pet owners alike. Here are a few simple tips for being a good pet neighbor…

Recently, I took a trip to Idaho to visit my son. He’ll be 56 this July. I adopted him when he was six weeks old, and from the moment he came into my life, he brought me more joy than I could ever explain in a sentence or two. We’ve had a good life together. Not perfect. No life is. But real. As parents, I think we sometimes freeze our children in time without realizing it…

One of the strangest parts of midlife motherhood is realizing your children still matter deeply to you while also realizing they no longer need you in the same way. No one really prepares women for that emotional transition. We spend decades building lives around driving, organizing…