Our Little Litter

Inevitably you will run into moments in your life where you have to talk to your kids about "the hard stuff".  I had to figure this out when I was diagnosed with cancer, two months after our third child was born.  Luckily I have a Masters Degree in Clinical Counseling and have a fair amount of time working with kids in the clinical context.  I also grew up in a home that was very open, and no topic was off limits, so I learned the value of openness in the home at a very early age.  I was the kid on the elementary school playground, who was teaching my friends about periods, erections and sex, using anatomical terms. Both in and out of the therapy office, I have parents asking me how to talk to their kids about "adult" issues, and I tend to rely on the same suggestions, so here I am sharing them with you. You Are More Uncomfortable Than Your Child Is Hands down, the adult is always more uncomfortable than the kid is.  If you listen carefully to the conversat

Yesterday was the twins first tball game! For most of the twins almost 5 years of life, there has been very little time when they do not have easy access to mommy or daddy.  They can always ask us questions, or look to us for direction... until tball.  There are 20 kids between the two teams, 4 are serious about the game, 7 are crying, 3 left the field and are playing in the grass in the next field over, and 6 are switching between wrestling in the infield, and picking dandelions, or piling rocks like tiny yogis.  There are about 7 adults in the infield to make sure that no one gets nailed in the face with a ball, and so the kids know where the bases are. The 4 that are actually playing are constantly looking to one of the many coaches for guidance, but it's confusing to know which coach is yours, so when the coach yells, "Run to third" about half of both teams go running to third.  They are all so excited to get the ball while fielding, that when the ball goes to the