Parenting

One major way that people sabotage their happiness within intimate relationships is by comparing themselves to couples at different ages and stages or how they were in their 20’s. They also tend to compare themselves to their "happy" friends. In this post, I hope to help level expectations for what a happy and healthy relationship looks like in your 40’s and 50’s, as opposed to your 20’s and 30’s. Marriage changes after the hormonally driven 1.5-3-year honeymoon stage. But ag

I lost my Dad about a year and half ago and it seems like lots of my friends are losing parents. We often talk about how sad this current stage of life is. These days, I seem to meet up with my childhood friends at wakes and funerals. When my husband and I got married in our 20s, we entered the wedding season of life. We had a party every weekend. In our 30s, those same friends got pregnant, and the celebrations continued as we entered the baby season of life. Now, in our

My kids got me this shirt for my birthday last year. I think it captures my essence perfectly. The one thing that has been consistent in my approach to everything is “balance.” I believe when you have balance in every area of your life including parenting, then you are in good shape. I keep reading about “gentle parenting.” It’s all-over social media, blogs etc. While I am all about gentleness and self-control, I want to share a few thoughts. It seems like it’s a trend withou

There is, of course, no one right answer to this question. Anyone who tells you otherwise is probably trying to sell you something. We know from the research that there are a range of constructive ways to handle unsavory kid behavior. Still, I know that sometimes, it can be useful to hear specific suggestions. So here are mine. 1. Try to stay calm. Sometimes, parents yell. And that’s fine. Your human. (Just take responsibility and apologize for it later.) But if you can s

Many parents, especially mothers find parenting teenagers to be the most stressful phase of their lives. I’ve discussed here about how to connect with your teens. You can read Part 1 and Part 2 about Connecting with your kids. Mothers are working through other issues at the same time as this stage hits. This post addresses why parenting teens can be challenging and how couples can help each other through it without taking the stress out on each other. As soon as puberty hit

A group of teenage girls on a Christian retreat were taken to a mountaintop and told to listen to their mothers. One at a time, they were blindfolded and told what steps to take. Since cliffs were nearby, they had to walk slowly and deliberately. Each blindfolded girl was told to listen to her mom. Her mom was instructed to speak softer and softer until her voice became a whisper. Meanwhile, the girls watching were told to gradually get louder and louder to drown out the moth

Like most parents, I have some wisdom to share with my kids. Maybe I think I have more than I actually do. But they keep me humble and remind me I don’t know everything. "You are not Coptic Oprah, Mom." So I digress, but I do have a little bit of wisdom that can really help them, based on my own experiences and mistakes. And maybe just maybe someone will listen. With my teenagers, I have realized that attention spans are limited. We can blame TikTok or Instagram reels but the

Great attention is paid these days to the subject of “mean girls.” For moms raising daughters, it’s a hot topic, something that adults can get fired up about. This can be particularly triggering for me as I have met my fair share of mean girls. When my daughter shared with me how she is spoken too by one girl in her group, mamma bear surfaced very quickly. I’ll go take care of it myself, teach that young lady, her mother and everyone a hard lesson. But we all know that won’

I was filling out the endless paperwork for re-enrollment for my youngest son’s school. He is starting his final year at the elementary school that all 3 of my kids attended since pre-K. I found myself really missing those days where all they wanted was me. I was literally the center of their world, and I didn’t always realize that at the time through the haze of sleep deprivation and the new normal. I remember thinking that putting them in the all-day preschool would make my

A few weeks ago, while driving my kids we started talking about friendships. They were very curious about my friends. I don’t have a lot of family here, so I always overcompensated in friends. I used to have these epic parties and I would be very inclusive and invite everyone. I enjoy hosting but was whipped out after every party and my kids never wanted big shin digs. I realized it was more about me. As I got older though, my circle became smaller, more intimate and more mea

I, like many others in my community grew up in a child-centered home. My immigrant parents were in a new country with new social norms, far from anything familiar and did everything to protect my brother and I, with the goal to afford us opportunities that they didn’t have. They did their best with the few tools they had. But we are a new generation with every possible answer at the hit of a search button and we have access to an endless self-help world. These days, couples w

I am not sure why I never wrote about this before, but I guess it was very traumatic for me. I have 3 beautiful, healthy kids thank God. I was diagnosed with hyperemesis gravidarum (HG) when I was six weeks pregnant with each of my pregnancies. At that point, I was vomiting 15-20 times a day, lost twenty plus pounds, and was extremely dehydrated and malnourished. I couldn’t stand for longer than a minute and had lost nearly all my strength. My hair fell out, my vision was bl

By Silvia Farag, MSW, LSW, PsyD Candidate Today is the third post in a five-part series I’m sharing on sexual abuse. I’m honored to have an expert clinician in the field share her knowledge and experience on the topic of child sexual abuse for several posts in this series. I’m also honored that she’s a friend and my sister in Christ. You can read her first post in the series, Talking to My Children About Child Sexual Abuse, here, and her second post in the series, Parents Pre

By Silvia Farag, MSW, LSW, PsyD Candidate It’s hard to accept, but child sexual abuse happens in every community. Prosecuting these crimes means that kids have to disclose the details of what happened to them, and it’s easier for them to do so when their caregivers can read the signs and are prepared to listen and intervene. Parents have a huge role in this. In my last post I talked about what led me to talk to my own children about sexuality and child sexual abuse, with exam

By Silvia Farag, MSW, LSW, PsyD Candidate I left my lofty corporate job to begin a career in Social Work. I took a position with the state in Child Protective Services and was learning on the job. What a way to start a career in Social Work. I am pretty certain that not having children of my own quelled the pain of some of the most horrific allegations of abuse and neglect I encountered. I was able to push through the most difficult days of investigating child abuse with the