March, 2023 | PulseonParenting

How to Know When You’ve Found Your “Thing.”

Be brave enough to suck at something new.

Mar 31 2023

What’s your passion? Let’s find your passion! I’m passionate about… Plenty of well-meaning people use the word passion to describe that “thing” that makes them come alive. But I hear passion and my stomach clenches like I’ve heard nails on a chalkboard. Passion was a trigger word frequently used in the multi-level marketing business (MLM) I was briefly an “independent contractor” for. The idea of finding their passion as a part of the MLM drew people in, enticing them with community, a white Mercedes and a fabulous high-heeled lifestyle. Passion manipulated people and kept them cogs in a money train…

Our labra-dork came to New Zealand with us.

Mar 21 2023

Store. Ship. Sell. Every item needed one of these three labels and handled accordingly. It was no small task. Hundreds of little choices cluttering the international moving process. Decisions about bowls and pillows and books were scattered amongst obtaining visas and work permits and airline tickets. Even so, there were plenty of items we couldn’t label store, ship or sell. There were the intangibles that elude decision and couldn’t be packed away in a box and saved for later. We all know the adage you can’t take it with you. But it turns out, you do take some things with…

Teen Friendship Breakup: How to Help With the Trauma

Mar 09 2023

The end of an era. Friendships come and go, as adults know all too well. We’ve been through those ups and downs and growings-apart more than we care to admit. We know the drill. But our children don’t. So when the best friend since Kindergarten drops a bombshell, it feels like World War Three in our child’s life. When friends break up, we need to help our teens cope. “I don’t want to be friends anymore.” Those seven words. And then she walked away. Not a great beginning to high school. When I think back to my 9th-grade year, that…

Mar 02 2023

This week my twin boys turn 18. The good news: they get to register to vote in U.S. elections. The bad news: they have to sign up for the U.S. draft. And the interesting news: they can legally buy alcohol. In other words, turning 18 in New Zealand means the partying turns real. My generation of Americans and younger may find this to be crazy or cool, or somewhere in between. The minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) in the U.S. has teeter-tottered in the last 100 years: in the early part of the 20th century, it was 21. Then it…

Archive - March 2023

How to Know When You’ve Found Your “Thing.”

Turns Out, You Do Take Some Things With You. Now and Always.

Teen Friendship Breakup: How to Help With the Trauma

Turning 18 in New Zealand: the Partying Turns Real