What kind of listener are you? How to turn up the sounds so you really hear when people are speaking to you. You know how sometimes you’re chatting with someone – your bestie over coffee, your kids over supper, or even just a coworker – and you realize you haven’t really heard a word they…
relationships
Beyond Tantrums: Shift Your Teen’s Entitlement into Appreciation
Is your teen constantly asking for “stuff?” You can stay true to your values and raise an appreciative vs. entitled teen. One of the most common frustrations parents have with their teens is dealing with what feels like ungratefulness, entitlement, or a self-centered attitude. Parenting teens is already challenging—but when your teen seems spoiled or…
Your Teen & Their Friends
If your teens rather spend time with the friends vs. you now, it’s normal. You can still be involved in their life while giving them space to grow up. Parents may feel mixed emotions as they watch their teens grow up. They are happy, on one hand, that their children are no longer hanging on…
Five Tips for Handling a Moody Teenager
Don’t be frustrated – these five clear, practical tips will help you feel both empowered and empathetic when dealing with your moody teen. Anybody who’s ever been a teenager and anyone who’s ever raised a teenager (all of us, that is) knows that teenagers can get moody. One minute, they’re cheerful and prattling on about…
3 Ways to Connect to Your Teen
There’s so much potential in developing the relationship between you and your almost-adults. These are three easy ways that work wonders. Teens and preteens have always gotten a bad rap. Everybody knows that teenagers are their own separate creation. These days, however, many parents are finding it harder to relate to their teenagers than ever…
9 Winter Wins for Your Marriage
How do you keep things fresh and exciting when there’s so much routine in the days ahead? Now that we’ve changed the clocks and have long months and nights ahead, we’re faced with a looming question: What do we have to look forward to? Oh, just a loooooong, cold winter. Doesn’t that sound exciting? Well,…
Catching Up with Friends? How to Be Mindful
Even the questions you think are innocent can sometimes be offensive (and yes, it can be offensive to ask someone if they’ve lost weight!). Here’s a quick guide. It may be while taking a power walk on a country road, on a midnight run to Walmart, or at the local ice cream store–when summer comes,…
Why You Shouldn’t Say “I’m Sorry”
Instead of expressing guilt to your husband, express your apology with an expression of gratitude. Here’s how– One of the top dubious contributions of Hollywood to the art of relationships (coming up right next to “love at first sight” and “they lived happily ever after”) is the wildly-inaccurate-but-cool-sounding aphorism “Love means never having to say…
How to Be There When You’re Not Quite Sure What to Do
You want to help your neighbor or friend, and you want to show her you care, but you’re not quite sure what to say or do. What’s appropriate? What is a misstep? What might be seen as just lip service? Many I have spoken to, both personally and professionally, profess that they don’t know what…
How to Connect with Your Teenage Boy
A BCP Reader asked a question, and we started schmoozing about the topic…and we discovered a lot of important tips on keeping the relationship with your teenage boys strong. While some of the emails you send to hello@betweencarpools.com only need quick replies, some others, including the topics you suggest, we go through when we all…
