Category: Kids

A single letter that arrived in the mail made me realize I've failed at parenting. Even worse, I'm out of time to fix it.
Daryn's Blog, Family, Kids, Life Lessons Took Me Long Time To Learn, Parenting

The Moment I Realized I Failed Parenting. How About You?

My daughter will tell you I’m crazy. She doesn’t understand. At all. Somewhere between two days before Christmas and New Year’s Eve I simply had a revelation. That I messed up. Not my mother-in-law’s chocolate pie. Not my first novel. Though, I certainly did a fine job of making a disaster of both of those. I’m talking big. As in parenthood. Yeah, I messed up parenthood. The awareness has been creeping in our home with each arriving college acceptance letter.

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The From Behind photo I created for my friend.
Daryn's Blog, Family, Kids, Love Stories, Overcoming Obstacles, Parenting

‘From Behind’ Photos Tell The Best Stories

My finger needs to calm down. Fight the itch. The one that is so quick to delete. The one that is instant judge and jury over a photo not being worthy. I’m reminded of this lesson as I go through old family photos. Which to keep. Which to toss. Does your delete finger itchy, as well, Dear Reader? The one that is about to delete that imperfect photo. You know you’re inclined to do it. Make more space on your

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US Olympic gold medalist Joe Jacobi has a new friend in Chloe Smith, the 6-year-old girl who found his stolen gold medall.
Friendship, Kids, Kindness, Sports, Uplifting Stories

Stolen Gold Medal Leads To Unlikely Friendship

The Olympic gold medal Joe Jacobi won at the Barcelona Olympics in kayaking has brought him a lot of joy since 1992. No wonder he was devastated when it was stolen from his car a few weeks ago. Little did Joe realize, that incident, that loss was about to bring him a wonderful gift and a friendship he never expected. Six-year-old Chloe Smith thinks the story is pretty special, too. Another fine story of friendship from CBS News’ Steve Hartman.

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The St. Joseph High School Cross Country team did their morning run with dogs from the local animal shelter.
Animals, Kids, Pets, Sports, Uplifting Stories

High School Cross Country Team Trains With Shelter Dogs

Talk about the best idea for a high school cross country workout ever! Students from St. Joseph’s High School in Santa Maria, CA took shelter dogs out for their morning run. The idea is the brainchild of Coach Luis Escobar. Coach Escobar explained on Facebook, “Each team member was assigned a dog and we went out for a couple miles around the shelter. I am not sure who was more excited and having the most fun…the dogs or the kids.”

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Nothing like parenting teens to find out you are a terrible person.
Daryn's Blog, Family, Kids, Life Lessons Took Me Long Time To Learn, Parenting

Sure Fire Way To Find Out You’re A Terrible Person

We’re having a popularity crisis at our house. What do you expect in house filled with teens? How sweet of you to offer your sincere compassion about our kids. Actually, you can save your concern. For them. They are fine. It’s we parents who are not doing so well. In case you haven’t heard– We are terrible people. Truly. Terrible. One teen this week was not allowed to drive home by herself through a bad neighborhood at 1 am. You

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Family, Kids, Overcoming Obstacles

How My Teen Is Never Too Busy To Call Me…Old

I thought I was going for lunch. With my daughter. Turns out I was headed for a reality check. From my daughter. “Why don’t you call ahead and make sure they are open?” I suggested playing the role of the boring, plan-ahead mother. I play it well. Seconds later a concerned look spread across Daughter’s face. The wrinkled nose. Similar to when I ask her to clean her room. Just enough so that I can see a surface. Of something.

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Books, Family, Friendship, Husband's Crazy Frequent Flyer Mile Hobby, I Screwed Up, In-Laws, Kids, Life Lessons Took Me Long Time To Learn, Marriage, Overcoming Obstacles, Parenting, Pets, The Hard Stuff, Travel, Uplifting Stories

Daryn’s New Book, “Hope Possible!” Is Here!

I’m so excited that my new book, “Hope Possible” is here! The full title is, “Hope Possible: A Network News Anchor’s Thoughts On Losing A Job, Finding Love, A New Career, And My Dog, Always My Dog.” Here’s a peek at what it says on the back cover: From your TV screen, Daryn Kagan looked like she had her dream job.   As a news anchor for CNN, she had a front row seat to the world’s biggest breaking news

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Family, Husband's Crazy Frequent Flyer Mile Hobby, Kids, Parenting, Travel

The CRAZY, Never-Before-Seen Thing I Saw On Our Family Trip To Africa

8,342 miles. Three plane rides. 29 hours of travel. What a trip. To see the sights of South Africa. Elephant, hippos, rhinos! Come on over and I’ll be happy to inundate you with our family’s vacation photos and videos. [iframe id=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ye-FRJ0NuGI” align=”center”] None comes close to the most remarkable thing I witnessed on this adventure with my husband and two kids. After all, How do you prepare a teenager they are about to enter a world they’ve never experienced? A

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Family, Kids, Parenting

The Last Place I Ever Expected To Find My Daughter

I thought we were so special. So different. No one else had a story like ours when it came to becoming a family. This kind of story of adoption. And there are a lot of great stories. We have cousins just back from Ethiopia with the son they worked two years to adopt. Me? I found my daughter in the funnel cake line. Yep, funnel cakes. Truth is, I actually didn’t find her. My friend, Craig, did. One hot, sticky

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