Juli's family relations blog

This last week in our Family Relations class, it was very timely for me as we discussed Parenting of a Teen and I happen to be embarking on a new experience of being a newly single mom of a 14 year old boy, I am feeling a little bit intimidated at the prospect.  My husband and I were such a good team with our 4 other grown kids when they were teenagers so doing this alone is really scary.  Boys, especially teenage boys need their dad.  It is bittersweet that I can refer back to his Dad and what he would say or do.  Bitter that he isn't here with us anymore to say or do those things that he knew how to do perfectly to help boys become men but sweet that we have both had such wonderful experiences with him up to this point.  The class material was such a great reminder for me. While my son looks like a man child at 6 foot 1 and 220 lbs, the things we discussed, I could see how important they are to him and where I am falling short sometimes.  The parenting ...

I have always known that Fathers matter in the lives of their children because I had an amazing Dad and his influence along with my mother's was paramount in formulating me.  I was trying to think of the things they helped me become and there isn't anything in my life that they didn't help with in becoming me, the woman I am today.    In our family, we had 7 girls and 2 boys plus a mom and dad.  You might think that being the Dad of 7 girls would make any man crazy, all those hormones raging at different times of the day or month and add to that two boys whose favorite thing to do was tease the girls and make them scream.  At times it was a wild ride but we all love each other and get together as often as possible.   My brothers learned how to be men, husbands and fathers from our dad.  He is one of the kindest men I have ever known.  I don't think I ever heard him say an unkind thing to any of us or about anyone not a part of our family eith...

Communication-we all try to communicate with those around us but we seem to have a lot of miscommunication going on.  Here is an example from this week.  My son and I went to Great Scotts to get a drink one afternoon.  I generally have a hard rule that I don't want him to drink energy drinks.  He decided that he wanted one and while I was pumping gas, he ordered a drink that contained an energy drink.  I was very angry and communicated that in the store which was an embarrassing situation for all of us and probably the lady helping us behind the counter.  What was the reason for the extreme reaction to ordering a drink, my interpretation of what I believe energy drinks are responsible for.  Whether what I think is true or not, I have assigned meaning to drinking energy drinks that my son doesn't realize and therefore, he believes that I am totally over reacting.  Hence, we have a miscommunication.  Luckily, I had just had my Family Relations ...