If You've Ever Loved and Lost: Read this blog entry from a Sandy Hook mother

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My kids asked me if I posted anything in remembrance of Sandy Hook this week. I told them that the families and the town's people in Connecticut asked for privacy, peace, to be left alone and instead for people to do random acts of kindness in their own communities.

This morning, while reading my blog roll, I was catching up on some recent posts. In that list was a few from the Parker Five. I originally found the blog while I was researching some parenting tips and relevant blogs to share. Believe it or not, I was not searching the subjects of school shootings or tragedies to get this blog to pop up…just 'parenting'. That's because she writes not just about the death of her daughter and that is exactly why it's one of the reasons I enjoy reading it. She has great advice on parenting and life in general.

I am both sad and happy I found it….

There are no words, as a mother myself, that can convey how I feel when I read this mom's blog, but I appreciate that she can find the strength to share her moments during, what would seem to me, an impossible journey.

While I feel good that I respected their wishes and didn't write about Sandy Hook on the anniversary of their suffering (and even though I just posted a new message of my own last night), I still have a job to do as the author of Family Matters and it's to share important messages with everyone… and this post comes from this woman's heart and explains why Sandy Hook doesn't want the attention and reminds us why it's important to find peace after something so horrible.

This post is the other reason why I like reading the Parker Five's writing… they are sharing with us how to survive after a loss as large as losing a child…but also teaching us important lessons about life at the same time.

Please read her message for you as they (and many, many, others) meet the one year anniversary...

Back to School Anxiety: Bullying

Download “School Boy Being Stressed” by David Castillo Dominici via freedigitalphotos.net I recently wrote about how to help your child if they’re struggling with going back to school because they were bullied. My biggest most important tip was to listen, because I honestly could not write a ‘How-to-make-them-not-afraid’ column. Frankly I thought that was absurd. Fear is sometimes real. Anxiety is sometimes truly there, and for a good reason. Our job as parents isn’t to try to make it go away, it’s to try to find out the true source of those worrisome feelings. If you’d like to read more, click here. And if you’re child is struggling to find excitement about the new school year, don’t deny it, just accept it and move forward gently. Here’s some more on bullying: Family Matters Links: A Touching Story/Song Bullying: A thing of the past A Peace Poem By My Teenage Daughter A Deeper Insight into My Thoughts on People Who Bring Harm to Others Other Links: Stop Bul

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Enjoying a trip to see family and exploring the outdoors. May was Mental Health Awareness Month. It’s over now, but it shouldn’t be. I’m not a medical professional or anything even close, but I am convinced that every person on the planet (no matter age, economic status, profession, race, or gender) is vulnerable to events that can alter their state of mind. If you’re not sure about this, just research the increase in the amount of people seeking psychological help due to the pandemic, then try getting an appointment with a therapist or counselor that doesn’t require weeks or months on a wait list. There are so many things damaging our mental health that we don’t even realize. Add underlying issues not yet detected and undiagnosed…it’s a bad situation made worse, and the need for support more urgent. Many teens are struggling with mental health issues right now and many of us don’t even know it. How could we? Not too many teens feel comfortable talking to adults about ‘their stuff’ a

Green Punch Buggy....!!!!

Green Punch Buggy...No Punch Back! As I was writing this blog post, my son came to me showing off his Lego creation. And don't you know I got hit at least five times since on my computer screen was displaying at least five different punch buggies, of five different colors thanks to Google Images. (Bad timing I'm thinking...) How can we possibly have world peace with these silly cars in the world!? ;) Don't the owners of these cute-but-obnoxious-cars understand that driving these things around town promotes violence!? ;) Anyhow.... The original purpose of this blog was to ask parents everywhere this question: Do you find yourself saying 'PUNCH BUGGY *BLANK-COLOR*! ' to yourself, even when the kids are not in the car??? I do! Isn't it funny how those games we used to play as a child are still around? I bet our parents say the same thing.... HAPPY FRIIIIIIDAAAAYYYY! P.S. I got hit at least ten more times, since as my son stood beside

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