Archive for March 2007

You thought the kids were mean and cliquish…all of us (parents) are inevitably going to get into conflict with other adults about our children. Some things, like cliques, influence whether we go through problems well or badly. The silent treatment. Whispered gossip. Cliques. For those who thought they’d left such torments behind in adolescence, becoming…

I get that it’s important to pick your battles, but at a certain point you do have to pick a battle. The thing is that you really must demand of yourself and other people that they treat each other civilly. Parents should not be allowed to be in a parent meeting and get away with…

Parents should not act like everything is a life-and-death problem-from a bad grade to not playing on the team to not getting a part in the play. If somebody is going to die in the next five minutes, then you move. If not, then you sit down and you figure out what you are going…

In Washington, the issues of race and social class are really complex and very alive, but no one talks about it. Religion can be a filter. Even these humongous houses people live in can be a filter. From my conversations with parents, what emerges is that there’s a really unspoken thing going on between white…

Boomer parents want a feel-good answer that solves the problem with no messiness. They don’t want their kid to experience pain. Their issues are more about not wanting to say no to their children. Gen X parents have a herd mentality that you really see when it comes to technology. They don’t ever question why…

The Queen Bee Mom is highly socially and academically intelligent. She can make you do things and you don’t it because it’s so subtle-often in the guise of bing complimentary. She’s appropriately dressed, often in the conservative style, but not dowdy. She’s effortlessly perfect. Queen Bees can be amazing leaders, but they always have to…

This is not about mean girls growing up to be mean moms, but rather about how all of us are inevitably going to get into conflict with other adults and how things like groups influence whether we go through problems well or badly. What i see with mom cliques is that they are most prevalent…

Although many adults don’t realise it, peer pressure is just as pervasive for parents as it is for kids. Perfect Parent World is a set of behaviours, a construct, about things you have to be and how you conduct yourself. That symbolises that you are a good parent, that you belong to the group and…