It has been a busy day, as usual, but it was punctuated by my frequent checks of my last post to see what inspiring comments had been left. Who knew it would be such an interesting dialog?

I have read various readers’ theories about who "fearless" might be … and there is another possibility. I think this person who is so clearly quite unhappy with me might be my son, Tommy. Tommy has asked me not to write about him, and I haven’t. It was not particularly... more

One of my regular readers has been trying to incorporate an older teen boy into her home, with varying degrees of success. Recently, this courageous and giving mom posted that her “son” states, “he's having an identity crisis. Who or what does he really want to be?”

This comment falls right on the heels of a conversation I had in the car with Beth just a few days ago. I believe it was actually on her birthday, as she was turning 11 years old. She... more

I used to be an active participant in ATN’s list serves—heck, I used to benefit as much or more than I contributed. I needed the outlet when I was still in the thick of parenting Amy … Currently, I am not reading our lists regularly, although I do check in as often as I can. I simply can’t keep up with the exploding number of new members, new lists, and new crises.

I also occasionally visit another community forum, although I have essentially backed out of that one as well. But upon... more

While I was exhibiting last weekend at an adoption fair, commemorating November as Adoption month, I met a man in his late 40’s who identified himself as having serious attachment and PTSD issues. He reminded me a great deal of Nancy Ashe.

His story was that he was the youngest of four children, and he spent about a year and a half on the streets and 8 years in an orphanage. This was 4 decades ago, of course, and the state was Alabama, I think.

This... more

In my recent blogs about Dora and her manure moving, a reader inquired how to get a teenager to work when they refused to do anything. You can’t make someone work. I wanted Amy to get a job on her own as soon as she turned 16, but of course she had no intentions of doing so. My husband and I arranged her first couple of jobs, at age 14 and 15. When she did... more

I sat Dora in my lap this morning before she headed to the bus and read her Bipette’s comments and questions about how to handle her “unofficial” teen-aged foster son. Together I talked through my thoughts with Dora … and now I’ll share them with you …

Here are the significant quotes from Bipette’s comment, addressing her foster son’s complaints that Bipette’s husband was OK but Bipette was a problem:

She was in his business too much and helping... more

Last night a friend and I went to Uno’s Pizzeria, mowed down a ‘Shroom pizza and then attended a Symphony Pops concert where the featured performers were four guys impersonating the Beatles. The crowd was almost all Baby Boomers or older. The Boomers were itchin’ to get rockin’ in the aisles, but we refrained. The show was called the Classical Mystery Tour and my friend Amy and I had a great time. (Sunbonnet Sue, see her... more

Continuing with my discussion of adding troubled older children to your family, I am responding to Bipette’s comment as posted here. In my last post, I described the experience my family had when we added a 17-year-old girl we knew for many years. However, I think in some ways Bipette’s situation is a little different. This young man asked three times to... more

I’m going to interrupt my homeschooling series to address the poignant comment and many questions posted by Bipette regarding the teen boy living in her home right now. Please read the comment in its entirety here.

I’m going to start by describing a situation I experienced and how it played out in my family. I have briefly blogged about this family here.... more

As I mentioned in my previous post, Kyle and Marie spent the weekend with us. Kyle is on the receiving end of communication from Amy, although he is admonished not to share some of what she tells him. She doesn’t want us to know the location of where she lives, but did tell him to tell us she is “safe” and she is living with a friend and the friend’s husband and their two-year-old son. She is apparently paying rent and contributing to grocery money. The location is... more