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Pet Peeves

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Listening To Our Kids

Andrea Ramsay Speers

communication, happy families, parenting, Pet Peeves, teens, tweens

How well do you listen to your kids? Many parents would pat themselves on the back when it comes to keeping communication flowing between themselves and their children. But [...]

Say What You Mean And Mean What You Say

Andrea Ramsay Speers

chores, communication, happy families, nagging, parenting, Pet Peeves, teens, tweens

Following through as a parent is hard. Who among us has not threatened to cancel Christmas or a vacation, knowing full well that we’d never do it? Who hasn’t said to [...]

Books And Teens

Andrea Ramsay Speers

parenting, Pet Peeves, teens, tweens

I remember reading a series of books when I was a preteen and young teen, whose series name I can’t remember. The protagonists (mostly teen girls) were plagued by such [...]

Whose Work Is Housework?

Andrea Ramsay Speers

chores, entitlement, happy families, parenting, Pet Peeves, self esteem, teens, tweens

Not many of us relish doing housework. Most of us hardly get a kick out of cleaning the mini-blinds and baseboards. Kids? They tend to enjoy it even less. But if we all [...]

Time To Think

Andrea Ramsay Speers

communication, happy families, nagging, parenting, Pet Peeves, teens, tweens

In the daily grind of making lunches, arriving on time, homework, and all of the other activities that fill our days, it can be easy to lose sight of our big-picture parenting [...]

Fears And Phobias

Andrea Ramsay Speers

anxiety, happy families, mental health, nagging, parenting, Pet Peeves, self esteem, stress, teens, tweens

Kids develop fears. It could be separation anxiety as a toddler, a fear of clowns as a preschooler, or a dread of public speaking as a school-ager. About one in 30 children [...]

Whose Work Is Homework?

Andrea Ramsay Speers

communication, nagging, parenting, Pet Peeves, school, self esteem, stress, teens, tweens

If it was meant to be fun, it wouldn’t be called homework, right? But does getting assignments and essays done have to be such a battle? In fact, that’s the last thing it [...]

Encouraging Respect In Our Kids

Andrea Ramsay Speers

communication, happy families, nagging, parenting, Pet Peeves, self esteem, teens, tweens

“Respect” is an important word for parents. We want our kids to respect us as parents, respect all we do for them, and respect other people. We want them to [...]

Raising Responsible Children

Andrea Ramsay Speers

chores, communication, entitlement, gratitude, keeping kids out of trouble, nagging, parenting, Pet Peeves, school, self esteem, teens, tweens

When I ask parents what kind of adults they hope their children will grow to be, they often use words like responsible, respectful, and independent. Which is a worthy goal, [...]

When Parents Disagree About Parenting

Andrea Ramsay Speers

communication, couples, happy families, marriage, nagging, parenting, Pet Peeves, stress, teens, tweens

Who knew that parenting could be so hard on your marriage?? When we meet someone and children aren’t even on our radars, we don’t really know that our parenting styles might [...]