POSTS WITH TAG: teens

Big Kid Mom Moment

12 Ways Motherhood Has Made Me a Much Cooler Person

Posted by Janelle Harris
on Feb 7, 2012 at 4:14 AM

Janelle HarrisIt’s 3:30 in the morning and I’m at the laundromat, having a threadbare but friendly conversation with Louis, the Spanish-speaking attendant and flying through my mountain of funky clothes. Some of them I know full well weren’t dirty in the first place; instead of stashing them in the drawers or closet where they belong, Teen Girl often finds it easier to sling them into the hamper and let me send them through a round of unnecessary washing. It irks me — detergent costs as much as a freakin’ date night — but I plod through without grumbling. This time, anyway.

I’m as far from being the finished, fine-tuned product I aspire to be as a woman, much less as a mama, but I like to think I’ve been getting progressively better since October 10, 1998 for a few reasons.

Read More
Big Kid

Have You Ever Had to Scold One of Your Child’s Teachers?

Posted by Janelle Harris
on Jan 4, 2012 at 11:58 PM

Angry parentsIt’s 12:00 a.m., and when most children are all snuggly buggly wuggly in their widdle beds getting lots of shuteye for their big days at school tomorrow, mine is still awake.

Apparently, her class got in trouble today for excessive chattiness and in a brazen show of authoritative take-that-ness, her teacher slammed them with — wait for it — 60 definitions and 60 sentences. On top of science homework and algebra equations, Girl Child’s whole night has been spent with her face stuck in a dictionary and a marble composition book leading up to now, the stroke of midnight. I am not amused.

Read More
Big Kid

It's Actually Good for Your Kids to Think You're a Little Crazy

Posted by Janelle Harris
on Dec 30, 2011 at 7:32 AM

Scary momThere are tons of little tips for this motherhood thing that you can only pick up and add to your bag of tricks from experience. My latest one is a gift from Ma Bell herself: my daughter, even in all of her stealthy teen know-it-all-ness, has the volume on the cordless phone cranked up so high, I can hear every word the person on the other line is saying.

Of course, I play like I’m completely oblivious as I walk to and fro in my mom duties — cooking dinner, putting away groceries, plucking hair balls off the carpet — but if I think something’s a-brewing, I’ve got one ear to the phone, just like she does.

So I had to chuckle to myself the other day when the friend she was talking to suggested Girl Child, who was going to be staying home by herself the following evening, have a few people over in my absence.

“Your mom won’t know. We’ll be gone way before she gets home,” Heathen Pal coaxed. 

Read More
Big Kid

Teach Your Kids to Count Their Blessings, Even if There Aren’t a Lot of Blessings to Count

Posted by Janelle Harris
on Dec 21, 2011 at 11:23 PM

Count your blessingsThe best thing about the holidays, besides the food, the love, and — depending on who pulled your name in the family gift swap, the thoughtful presents — is that the close of another year signifies a period of reflection. It’s an opportunity to take stock of our fortunes and be grateful for what we have and who we are. Despite the obstacles that have tumbled across our paths like big ol’ redwood trees, we’re still making it. Still standing.

In all of the hubbub of shredding open toys they’ve been begging for for months but will play with for maybe two hours max, it’s important for parents to ask their kids to count the good things in their lives. You know, the ones that can’t be purchased at a 24-hour Toys R Us. It’s so easy to get caught up in the pomp and circumstance of Christmas consumerism, but failing to count their blessings may come back to haunt them. 

Read More
Big Kid

Will Your Kid Be Material Girl (or Boy)? Check Their Christmas List

Posted by Janelle Harris
on Dec 19, 2011 at 11:27 PM

Christmas listBack at the end of 7th grade, Girl Child was turning into a label groupie. In her limited little world of fashion, it was all about Juicy Couture. I was perplexed, 1) because we were wearing that stuff when I was in school and I wondered how it managed to stand the test of an almost twenty-year generation gap when 2) it’s really not that hot. 

My analysis was blowing in the wind. As far as she was concerned, it was Juicy, Juicy, Juicy. Then it was Polo, Polo, Polo. Before we moved on to the next great American tween fad, I had to nip that mess in the hindparts.

Being fly and fabulous, I told her, is all about having the style to take something from a thrift store or Wal-mart and make it look like something in the window at a hot boutique or swanky department store. Whose name you have slathered across your front or backside has no bearing on how well you dress. 

Read More
Big Kid

7 Kids Who Totally Rocked Their Good Samaritan Status in 2011

Posted by Janelle Harris
on Dec 11, 2011 at 11:33 PM

Thumbs upRemember good news? It came somewhere in between the reports on car bombings and car jackings on the evening news and the top headlines in print or on the web. As happy stories get more and more sparsely shared, we’ve had to do a bit more digging to find the little nuggets of sunshine that put smiles on our faces.

That’s why all of those YouTube clips — the baby who breaks into hysterics when his mama blows her nose, the twins who have a whole conversation in mystery gibberish about a missing sock — get so many hits. People want something to feel warm and fuzzy about along with their political and social analysis.

In the midst of all our complaining about what kids are not and should not be doing, there are some inadvertently making us proud. Here are 7 reasons to have a feel-good moment: a cadre of kids who do the right thing in a mighty big way. 

Read More
Big Kid

Everything I Know About Being a Mother, I Learned From Being a Daughter

Posted by Janelle Harris
on Nov 29, 2011 at 9:05 PM

Mother, daughterWhen you were a kid, were you squirreling away mental notes about what you would and would not do when you became a mom based on what your own mother did? I sure did. I had a running list of no-nos forged from all the things my mama did to pluck my nerves and swore up and down I wasn’t going to put my own daughter through such agony.

I, for example, was going to let my little girl wear whatever she wanted because my mom stifled my fashion creativity. In the 80s no less, when you could basically put anything on and still be hip. I mean, wearing jellies with socks seemed like a fun, easy way to transition my favorite summer sandal into the cold, winter months. I vividly remember fighting for that look and silently vowing to be the coolest, most style-conscious mom ever when she shut me down. 

Read More
Big Kid

No Disrespect, But There’s an Upside to Being Raised in the Church

Posted by Janelle Harris
on Nov 28, 2011 at 10:40 PM


Me and my grandmother, when we were both babes
I think about my Nana every Sunday. I mean, I think about her almost every day anyway, but Sundays are extra special because I spend my mornings in church. That’s how I’ve spent just about every Sunday since I was born actually, minus a hiatus when I was in college and would’ve rather tap-danced barefoot across broken glass than get up early and haul my caboose across campus to go to chapel.

Interestingly enough, that’s the time when I probably needed to have my rear end parked in a pew the most.

Now as a grown woman raising my own daughter, I see how the values and lessons that were drilled into me by my mom — and of course, my Nana — have come full circle as the morals and lessons I drill into my child. And they were part of the fruit that came from a faith-based household where I had no choice but to rise and shine to praise the Lord on Sunday mornings, no matter what I did on Saturday night.

Read More
Big Kid

The 6 Most Hated Housecleaning Tasks (According to My Teen)

Posted by Janelle Harris
on Nov 28, 2011 at 12:58 PM

Housecleaning

There is nothing like staggering to the bathroom in the middle of the night, barely awake, legs wobbly, and discovering that the last person to use it — which, in this case, would be my precious Girl Child — failed to replenish the toilet paper. Again.

The only thing that can jolt me out of my sleepy stupor in the wee hours of the morning is annoyance. Lucky for me, I’ve learned to keep a secret stash tucked away so that I can teach her a lesson by leaving that paperless brown cardboard roll dangling right where it is for the next time she makes a dash for the ladies’ room.

 When asked why she can’t seem do these basic tasks around the house, she admits that she’s not as enthusiastic about committing them to memory as she is some other things. You know, like fun stuff. Duh Mommy.

Read More
Big Kid

Let It Go and Just Let Your Kids Have Media Freedom

Posted by Janelle Harris
on Nov 25, 2011 at 11:03 PM

Banned from TVThe Boyfriend and I are both single parents with very different styles for raising our girls. He tends to be a bit (read: a lot) more protective. I’m, well, a world more straight-from-the-hip, especially now that my child is old enough to process information in a more adult-like fashion, even though I admit to demonstrating what sex was using a highlighter and a CD when she was but a pipsqueak in the first grade.

But the other day we were riding in the car and he forced the girls to skip two songs on the iPod playlist: “Quickie” by Miguel and “Rude Boy” by Rihanna. In a way, I feel him. There are definitely things I don’t want to hear come out of my daughter’s mouth as she sings along, and “come here rude boy, can you get it up?” would be among them. Still, the kids are 14 and 13 respectively, and I’m wondering if it’s time to pull the plug on parental censorship

Read More
Advertisement
The Stir on Twitter

Did you watch?!! 'Revenge' Gets Twisted! Murder on the Beach Keeps Us Guessing: http://t.co/7JbEtDWx via @The_Stir + @AdrianaV 39 minutes ago
'Real Housewives' Tareq Salahi Sheds Last Shred of Dignity With Laughable Lawsuit: http://t.co/CFtBdypM via @Julieryanevans #realhousewives 52 minutes ago
Yikes! Kids Getting 'Kidnapped for Christ' Are Trapped in a Living Hell (VIDEO): http://t.co/vVHgCF5N via @The_Stir + @WWLD_jburt 3 hours ago
Follow Us On Twitter Follow The_Stir on Twitter
Advertisement