I noticed a problem recently: there is a lot of complaining going on here at Earnest Parenting. Chief complainer: Me. The rest of the family isn’t far behind me. We all seem to have gotten sucked into a pattern of blaming others for situations and complaining (vociferously) if anything goes wrong. For example, the Captain [...]

An open letter to a family I’ve never met: Dear Family, A little over 2 years ago, our family cat Callie died at the age of 17. Because of my allergies, Hubby insisted that we take some time and go without pets for a while and see how it went. My health improved considerably. The [...]

I’ve been thinking a lot about entitlement lately. There are a couple of news items out floating around detailing studies done of young people born between about 1980 and 2000 (give or take). These are the kids who are victims beneficiaries of the self-esteem movement. Speaking only in generic terms, many of them have an [...]