Tag: parenting

The unimaginable twist to my unanswered prayer.
Daryn's Blog, Parenting, The Hard Stuff

The Unimaginable Twist To My Unanswered Prayer

My daughter spotted it first. As kids are apt to do. Though, she probably didn’t realize exactly what she was seeing. Just how enormous it was. This is the story of how innocently standing in line at our favorite burrito joint, With nothing more than quacamole and a margarita on my brain, There it was. My unanswered prayer. My big, glaring, forever-wished-for lifetime prayer. If you had been watching us, you would’ve seen Daughter and me patiently inching forward. This

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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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Animals, Daryn's Blog, Family, Life Lessons Took Me Long Time To Learn, Parenting, The Hard Stuff

How A Fish Explained The Hardest Part About Parenting To Me

I’m in debt to a fish. The fish, who in 10 seconds, explained my parenting conundrum to me. Keep your expert books, parenting websites. I have clarity now. Thanks to the fish. You see, Dear Reader, my daughter is a senior in high school. We are in the season of looking at colleges. So much has changed since I went 10,000 years ago. These days, the kids put everything they want in a school and a software program spits out

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Family, I Screwed Up, Parenting

Do Humiliating Mommy Moments Ever End?

In case you were wondering— The lady running around last weekend from one end of the metro area to the other in what can best be described as “Mom High Fashion of Shame.” Yeah, that was me. How shall I best describe my outfit? T shirt that I had slept in, so big it would still be loose on King Kong. Sweats from 1984, or thereabouts with stains and holes to match. Plastic Croc sandals. Uncombed hair half up in a clip.

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Family, Life Lessons Took Me Long Time To Learn, Parenting

14 Wishes For My Daughter On Her 16th Birthday

Dearest Daughter, We met when you were 11. I married Daddy when you were 13. The judge made you and me legal with our adoption when you were 14. This parenting gig really does fly by in flash, so before you zoom out the door, on the occasion of your Sweet 16, here are 14 wishes from me to you: 1. I wish that you know how much joy you’ve given your two mothers. Both Mommy in heaven, and now

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Do You Let Your Kids Watch?

Please catch my newspaper column each week in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the Dayton Daily News and other newspapers across Ohio.  Here’s this week’s column: “Chirpity chirp!” went my phone alerting me to a text message. Nothing like interrupting a special moment with my kid with what turned out to be a heavy philosophical question about parenting. There I was a couple weeks ago, snuggled up on the couch watching TV with my daughter when I heard my phone chirpity chirp. The text was

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