Welcome to Part FIVE of my all things teen boy series. If you need to catch up, find the lineup here: INTRO, Preparing for Puberty, Kids and Porn, What to Expect in Puberty, Teens and Dating.Whew! We've covered a lot, haven't we?Today I will talk about teenagers and their peer relationships. I know this is a big topic, and one blog post is not enough to cover it all, but we'll at least scratch the surface, ok?!*Side note: Feel free to substitute "daughter" for "son" throughout
Blog
Teenage Boys and Dating
Welcome to part Four in my All things teen/pre-teen boy series.I hope you have enjoyed the series so far. If you've missed any, catch the introduction, and first three posts here: Intro, Preparing for Puberty, Kids and Porn, and What to Expect When Your Son Starts Puberty.But here's a little secret: I like those first three topics because they are pretty straight forward. Puberty, for the most part, is predictable and pretty easy to talk about. Sure, I shared some
What’s Growing Now? Tropical Fruits on the Farm, September Edition
Hi. Welcome to the farm...It's been a long time since I've done a Home and Country, "What's growing now?" update. I totally missed the early summer season with our first ever lychee crop. (They were really good!) But moving right along...Things have been FRUITFUL around here, to say the least. We've had bumper crops of so many good things! Bananas are our main year-round fruit here. We actually grow apple-bananas which, if you haven't tried them, are the best banana in the
Kids and Porn: A Guest Post, a Great Resource, and a Wake-Up Call.
This is part Two in my series. Start with the Intro: Six Week Series on Parenting Teen and Pre-Teen Boys Then Part one: What you Should do Before Your son Starts PubertyWarning: I am really passionate about today's topic. I'm passionate because my boys are absolutely in the target market for the porn industry. You are likely to hear more about this from me in days to come. The more I learn about the subject of pornography, and especially internet pornography, the more I feel
What You Should Do Before Your Son Starts Puberty
Welcome to Part One in my series on Parenting Teen (and Pre-Teen) Boys! Since I announced this series last week I have received so many great questions and requests for topics to cover. I'm wondering if my six-week series might turn into sixteen weeks!^^Photo from a few years ago, when all of my boys were pre-teen...I should also mention that each post in this series could probably be an entire series on its own. I have so much to say (and passion, in case you don't notice,)
Introducing: A Six Week Series on Parenting Teen (and Pre-Teen) Boys
It's been just over a year since I wrote the post, What A Teenage Boy Needs Most from His Mom. That was my first ever viral post, and it wreaked all kinds of internet havoc, even crashing my site as one and a half million people visited over a two-week period. (I wasn't complaining.) Over the last year, it has continued to be shared all over the world, and I'd guess that many of you reading this might have first found me through that post. (hi! So glad you're here!)I opened that Teenage
Tortellini Salad with Grilled Chicken and Veggies.
Have I ever mentioned that we don't have a dining room table in our house? Well, there's your little bit of Swanson-trivia for the day. No dining room. No dining tables inside the house. (We do have a large kitchen counter with seven stools, but that's it for indoor seating.) Fortunately, we have a plenty of places to eat under covered lanais on both the front and the back of the house, which we use year-round. We most often have dinner on our front lanai, where we can look out at the sunset
Parenting Without Anger: A Vlog
In my recent post talking about the Anger-Lecture Cycle, I mentioned that one of the worst moments in parenting is being confronted with a behavior that absolutely warrants a consequence, yet being completely stumped as to what the consequence should be. In that moment, mad as heck, my mind often freezes. I see red. Smoke begins to billow out of my nostrils (not really, but maybe really.) I wish I could think on my feet, but I simply cannot. Sadly, this is a total set-up for mom to lose her