Moms, Interrupted.

So, we've all heard about a certain college admissions scam. The one where parents bribed and lied and actually made up fake profiles to get their kids into desirable colleges. Pretty gross, right? And the worst part is not that my image of Lori Loughlin (Aunt Becky!) has forever been tarnished, but rather how she has hurt her daughters.  Apparently, her daughters didn't even want to go to college (oh the irony), but it was something that their parents wanted desperately.  If the news is to be believed, their parents wanted so badly for them to have that "college experience" that they were apparently willing to risk their careers, not to mention jail time. The expectations they had for them (in this case, anyway) were so far from what the daughters wanted for themselves.  Now, I don't know this family, so I'm playing arm-chair psychologist here. But it seems to me that the parents let their expectations blind them to reality.  Maybe it was too hard for th...

I had always been excited at the prospect of "launching" my kid into the world (be it college or whatever) to begin his life.  I'd also heard all the stories about how freeing it would be. About how photo credit: creativecommons.org much time I'd have to myself and all the hobbies I would be able to do now that I didn't have school field trips and choir concerts and school plays to attend. It sounded pretty cool... until it wasn't. During the month of his graduation, my kid informed me he would be moving a few hours away to live with his dad; a complete 180 degree turn from the plans we'd made together.  So yes, I was shocked and very disappointed, but as he was turning 18, there wasn't much I could do. So off he went. And there I was. You know, one of the benefits of your kids leaving the nest is that you have more quiet time to reflect. It also happens to be one of the downsides. That summer was rough. My husband also happened to be workin...

Seems everyone is doing the Marie Kondo "Does it bring you joy?" method of decluttering.  I read her book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing  a few years ago and managed to get rid of a ton of clothes (6 garbage bags' worth!).  Full disclosure: I may or may not have kept up the habit of organizing my drawers and folding shirts in that cool Kondo way. Back when I was a "perfect" mom - ha! As I get older, I find I have to declutter my mind as well as my physical space. Decluttering my mind often comes in the form of doing away with the negative self-talk.  I swear that we moms are the hardest on ourselves.  When I'm having a bad day, that negative inner voice starts reminding me of all the mistakes I made as a mother; of all the times I was selfish, or lost my cool, or didn't live up to my own expectations of being a perfect mother.  If left unchecked, pretty soon my head is so full of the negativ...