Tag Archives: friends

Balancing One-on-One with Group Socializing

Helping and guiding our children as they develop social skills is just one of the many challenges of parenting. Most of us want our children to have friends and an active social life, but we want to keep things in perspective too—and help our children learn how to keep things in balance. One area where we can help our children learn to maneuver in the social realm is in balancing out one-on-one friendships and social activities with group socializing. One-on-one socializing or establishing and maintaining those close and intimate friendships is an important part of life. It is also an … Continue reading →

Diary of a Cat Care B&B: Smelly Cat

Posted on by

If you were a fan of Friends, you may remember Phoebe’s song called “Smelly Cat”. The lyrics went something like this: Smelly cat, smelly cat… what are they feeding you? Smelly cat, smelly ca-at, it’s not your fault! And hoo boy, did we have some smelly cats at the cats-only boarding facility over the Memorial Day weekend! But just like there are lots of different personalities in our guests, there are lots of different smells. Some cats have food that smells awful. We have one guest (who I adore) who eats the grossest-looking and smelling food. I swear, it looks … Continue reading →

Who in Your Life Can You Ask ANYTHING?

I think we all need to have at least one person in our lives of whom we can ask absolutely anything—we can show our silliest, least educated and most desperate sides to and they will be able to respond appropriately. As a parent, we may feel like we have to be that person for our kids (and I think it is a good thing if we are) but we still need to have someone like that in our lives too. We all need someone we can ask for parenting advice, dating advice, or just express some of our most unsavory … Continue reading →

Finding Allies in Business

One of the things that makes working the traditional job palatable is the work allies—those friends and coworkers with whom we know we can work well. I think having allies is the key to whether a person likes their job or not. As home business owners, most of us work alone and we have forfeited having the friendly coworkers and allies in the next cubicle over. This doesn’t mean that we should give up on having work-related allies altogether, we just might have to work a little harder to find and nurture them… When I look back over my work … Continue reading →

Judging Your Child’s Friends by How They Look

Most of us want our child to have great friends–we know how much better friends can make life and we also understand that socializing and social development is important. Unfortunately, we don’t always warm up to our children’s friends–we wonder if they are a good influence, the right “sort” of people and whether or not they are adding or subtracting from our child’s life. While every person our child chooses may not be who we would choose, we still have to be careful about judging our child’s friends based on how they look or what they wear. Judging and labeling … Continue reading →

When Siblings Have Shared Friends

If your children are like mine and they are close together in age, one of the “bonuses” is that they may very well move in the same social circles and interact with some of the same peer group. Some kids really like this, while others may want to have their very own friends that they don’t have to share. In my own family, we have been through “stages”—there was a period around the middle school years where my kids really needed to separate and carve out their own identities and this meant having their own friends too. Overall, however, there … Continue reading →

Who Are Your Learning Partners?

I believe that we have people in our lives for reasons. Even those people who are the most challenging can be good learning partners–allowing us to learn important life lessons, develop knowledge and skills, or work on personal development. I still think that we have a great deal of choice in the matter, however, and we don’t have to take in anyone and everyone who crosses our paths. We can choose people who will be positive additions to our lives as our partners on the journey. I think of my kids and I as being learning partners–after all, some of … Continue reading →

Families.com Marriage Blog Makes a Top 100 List

This morning when I checked my emails I was greeted with a nice surprise. A lady named Fiona King had written to tell me that her website (I believe it’s called Nerds Do It Better which is somehow connected/sponsored by/or otherwise affiliated with 100BestDatingSites) had posted an article called “Ask the Experts: 100 Best Blogs for Relationship Advice.” She thought it might be something I thought Families.com readers would find interesting, and also pointed out the Families.com Marriage Blog had made the list. Yes, you read that right, you awesome Marriage Blog devotees. You helped put us on a Top … Continue reading →

A Unique Story to Share

Posted on by

The death of a close friend would have to be a terrible thing to experience. Likewise, the death of a spouse would also have to be a terrible experience. Therefore I am not writing to judge anyone. However I recently heard about an awkward or perhaps just interesting situation that I wanted to share with you. It seems that school age best friends grew up together, went off to college together, and even got a job at the same place. These two ladies were tight. They double dated and spent much time at one another’s homes. As time passed one … Continue reading →

Surround Yourself with Safe People

We often talk about the importance of a support network for a single parent and it is imperative that we find friends and family who can lend a hand, offer support and encouragement, and bolster us in our lives as a single parent. It is also important, however, that we learn how to identify and choose “safe” people to support and love our families. Depending on where you are coming from in your life, it might be easy or challenging to choose safe people to surround yourself with. Some of us have strong and healthy boundaries already, or we are … Continue reading →