Parenting | PulseonParenting

All in the Family: Helping Your Overweight Child Make Healthy Choices

Mar 15 2018

I entered the exam room with a paper chart (back in the olden days before the electronic medical record), the patient’s name and the patient’s concern, “discuss weight.” I was no stranger to addressing issues like this with my adult patients; it was a routine part of my day, treating and making treatment plans for a patient’s well-being and overall health. What I was not prepared for was, on entering the room, to see a mother and her preteen daughter…the latter, not the former, being the patient. At that point in my career I had little experience with…

Feb 08 2018

While driving down the busy artery through town, I noticed patriotic lights flashing behind me. What? Me? What did I do? I honestly had no idea. I wasn’t speeding. I didn’t run a red. Maybe I had a light out? My face flushed hot as I desperately looked for a place to pull over, wanting to halt the embarrassing parade-of-two on the busiest road, at the busiest time, through town. The amiable police officer approached my van as I nervously located my registration and insurance (thankfully I hadn’t left my license in my other purse, as I have been…

Jan 31 2018

I’m not easily swayed. To the frustration of Kirby vacuum salespeople and real estate agents across the Midwest, I’m not quickly convinced, if at all convinced. As Jimmy Buffett sings, “Indecision may or may not be my problem.” Maybe that’s my affliction, too, but I think it really it comes down to my preference for being in my head, mulling things over. And over. And over. Aaaaaand… over. Constant wheel-turning is one of my seriously introvert traits. Overall, I’m an ambivert, sitting on the fence between getting jazzed from socializing and feeling…

Jan 16 2018

My son wants a smartphone in the worst way. And no wonder. His best friend received one for his thirteenth birthday. He gets asked frequently by his 7th-grade peers why he doesn’t have a cell phone, so the pressure is real. Topping his list of reasons he should have one? So he doesn’t have to borrow someone else’s to call for a ride home. He feels embarrassed. It’s never easy in middle school, on the cusp of or in the throes of puberty, trying to navigate your place in the crowd. Especially when your status in that crowd is…

Jul 13 2017

At 3 am we were awakened by a dull thumping-and-scraping coming from our garage. In my half-awake haze I wondered why one of the kids would be up at this hour, and in the garage no less. Then I heard slap-slap-slap-slap-slap! on the mud room door, and I realized my husband was up, making a ruckus of his own. There’s something in our garage, he said. My husband strode purposefully out of the room, and I was left confused as to where he thought he was going, if our garage was being rearranged (so it seemed) by someone who didn’t…

Jun 27 2017

I am in awe of the transformation. I am a little sad, too. My younger son, born breech at barely five pounds, is becoming a man. At age 12 he is hands-down taller than me, with a cracking voice, acne and, um, hair (more on that below…). It boggles my mind, a glimpse into what is in store for his twin brother, who has yet to join him in this journey. I decided to repost What to Expect When Your Son Starts Puberty from April, 2015, to help us Moms (and Dads, of course) navigate these changes, changes in our little boys that…

Jun 17 2017

It’s here! Summer break. Honestly, my head is spinning the school year went by so fast. And I feel totally unprepared. So I dug up this post from 2015 (which also earned a repost last year) to help refresh my brain on how to (and not!) navigate summer with kids. And I hope it helps you, too: Two years ago, as the school year drew to an end, I wrote a post that received some flak. In Hooray for Summer? (In retrospect, Horrors, It’s Summer! would have been a fun title…) I described the difficult transition for parents, myself…

May 31 2017

It could have been awkward. It could have been confrontational. It could have resulted in animosity. But it wasn’t, and it didn’t. It was a case of two parents trying to sort things out and do the right thing, two parents who believe it takes a village to raise children in the best possible way. How empowering that is, especially when the reason for coming together is a child’s mistake. I like to think I can tell when my kids are lying (oh, silly, silly Mommy….) and when their desperation for my understanding is based in their innocence. But conflict between kids,…

May 09 2017

“Do you work?” I haven’t been asked this question, in this way, for awhile. And how thankful I am for that, for those three little words stir something in me that can only be described as unpleasant (and a little gross): a turbulent goo sloshes in my stomach, a heat rises in my chest and a fog clouds my brain. The sensation isn’t quite anger or embarrassment but a discomfort, unease at having to respond that while I don’t have a career outside the home, I do indeed work within it as a mother and homeschooler and writer. Am…

May 03 2017

Every Boy Scout knows the Scout Law like the back of his hand (and can recite it so fast it sounds like one word): A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent. Although it wouldn’t flow trippingly off the tongue, I think after “clean” should come really, we mean it. And thrown in somewhere should be: Awkward. Really, really awkward. I don’t suggest this to poke fun, I’m truly being sympathetic. Being 13-ish is tough and it shows. I remember my own middle school experience and it was no fun, but on…

My name is Heidi Black and I have it all... Maybe not in the traditional sense of the phrase but I do feel I have it all: three beautiful, healthy children, a devoted husband and father and the privilege of being a Domestic Engineer. (I used to call myself a SAHM but that just doesn’t fit when my day is filled with coordinating 5 schedules and preplanning their execution, all up to a week in advance.) And now, indulging in a not-so-secret desire to write, and following the advice “write what you know” I am ready to share what I have learned from this ironic life journey and along with you, discover answers to those many questions related to parenting.

Category - Parenting

All in the Family: Helping Your Overweight Child Make Healthy Choices

Step One For An Extraordinary Life: Pay Attention

#MeToo and What Comes Next

Should My Tween Have a Cell Phone? Ask Delaney Ruston, MD.

Playing it Safe in Bear Country: a Few Stories From the Other Side

What to Expect When Your Son Starts Puberty

Hooray for Summer (Exclamation Point): Steps to a Successful Break (Question Mark)

Parenting Shall Overcome: When Kids Misbehave

Happy Mothers’ Day to the Working Mommas ( aka, all of us)

The Boy Scout Law, Updated