Tag Archives: wrestle

Has Parenting Made You Softer?

Recently I was chatting with a parent who confessed that parenting had made her “softer”—not in terms of being squishy and emotional, but she wanted to talk about how she just felt more open and vulnerable and real as a person because of parenting. I thought this could be a fun topic for a blog here in the Parenting Blog… I had to agree with my friend—I am more myself completely when I am with my children than with anyone else. I have never had a spouse, partner, friend or family member that I have allowed myself to be as … Continue reading →

Everything is Harder when You’re Sick

Recently, I was standing in a crowd in public and a young mother with two children—a baby and a preschooler came trundling along. She was frustrated and losing patience as the preschooler whined and fussed and grumbled and she was just trying to get where she needed to go. She offered the child a drink and when he refused, she threatened to throw away the beverage which caused him to begin screaming and crying in earnest: “Well, drink it then and quit messing around!” she barked. More crying. While most of us were bracing ourselves for the high decibel temper … Continue reading →

Sisters With Baby Blues

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Yesterday, we talked about unconventional methods of serving the sisters in our Relief Society. Today, I would like to focus in on a group very close to my heart – sisters who have recently had a baby. Often, we bring these sisters dinners in their first week or two home and that tends to be it. Yet many women today struggle with the baby blues, and some of those are actually fighting postpartum depression – and even their visiting teachers may not realize it. In my last ward, I visit taught the same set of sisters for the entire three … Continue reading →

Why Does My Child Keep Overreacting?

It’s always a good idea to remind ourselves that our children with special needs have brains that interpret and assimilate information differently. In a previous blog I wrote about “brain wiring” with respect to people with autism. A neurologist who was evaluating my son’s behaviors said, “It’s the way his brain is wired.” I’ve certainly observed that my son sees and comprehends the world around him in his own unique way. This is especially true for children with sensory integration dysfunction, who receive all kinds of confused signals as their brains process sensory input. These kids have curious, peculiar behaviors … Continue reading →

The Voice of A Hurting Child

Yesterday, Makala was told she would spend the next 30-60 days in residential treatment. She will be there for her 9th Birthday, after 4-years of being our daughter. This morning I received an email from the treatment center therapist, apparently Makala has finally started talking to someone about how she really feels, these are her words: Everyone thinks that I should always just be happy about getting new parents. I am happy but, I also am sad because I had to say goodbye to my birth mother. I get worried that my birth mom adopted other kids who are better … Continue reading →

A House Full of Boys

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I have three grown natural children and five young adopted children. Seven of the eight are boys. I have grown accustomed to knowing what to expect from them. We have five boys in the house who are very close together in age, two and a half to eight. There are some obnoxious behaviors that boys do and no matter how many times the behavior is corrected, they go back to doing it. Boys love to pick up, carry, swing, sword fight and run with sticks. We live on a wooded lot and there are a lot of sticks to choose … Continue reading →

Gotcha Day #3

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By May, 2003, my wife and I had taken into our home two foster children, ages two months and 30 months. We had met their two other brothers, ages four and a half and 18 months, at the twice a month family visits with their mother. We had indicated to the state and our adoption agency that we would also take the other two boys. All of us were worried that the foster home that had them was not meeting their needs. On May 5, the state worker called to say that she would bring the boys to our house … Continue reading →