All week this week I’ve been dropping Kay off very early in the morning for her 36-hour Driver’s Ed course. Kay turned 16 in May, but won’t have had her learner’s permit the required 12 months until mid-July. At that time she can make an appointment and take her exam for her driver’s license.

The procedure is much more stringent than when I was 16. We live in a major metropolitan area in a state that has (thankfully) decided to put some restrictions and requirements on learning to drive. The course she’s taking is now mandated by law (or at least part of... more

If you know someone parenting an autistic child, or a child with any neurological impairment, take the time to read The Chronicles of Ben from yesterday’s (June 10) Chicago Tribune.

This article is written by David Royko, son of the late columnist Mike Royko), and parent to a 12-year-old autistic boy. I was profoundly moved by David’s in-depth, accurate and heart-wrenching description of what it was like to raise this special child and then have to make the difficult decision to send him to a residential treatment center in order to allow the family to survive.

There... more

A survey given to high school seniors would indicate that maybe your teenagers shouldn’t be employed during their high school years. The results of the study indicated that students who were employed during high school years were more likely to be depressed. These same students had lower grade point averages, which may have been because they had less time to spend on homework, the researchers surmised.

The working teens were also... more

There is much I agree with in Dr. Perry’s book, The Boy Who was Raised as a Dog. But in the chapter I was reading today, he lands squarely on the evils of attachment therapy…and in specific…on holding. I bristled when I read this, because I think attachment therapists get a repeated bad rap. So many of them recognize the trauma our children have endured and realize the critical importance of attachment. So many of them are nothing short of brilliant when it comes reaching... more

Last summer, I drove with my van loaded with baby clothes and baby furniture across the United States, 1067 miles actually, to meet our new daughter. Her birth mother chose a closed adoption, so we weren’t invited to the birth, but the agency called a few hours after she was born. I couldn’t wait to meet her, so I drove straight through, almost 16 hours, and met her just before she was 24 hours old.

Her birth parents couldn’t release their parental rights until the third day, so she couldn’t be released from the hospital,... more

I was actually surprised about the sibling type bond that developed between my 15-year-old birth son and our newly adopted 15-year-old daughter many years ago. They began to cover for each other and stick up for each other, just like any life-long siblings.

Now that our daughter is 24, all of our children are very attached to her, even the seven-year-old who was just a year when she moved out on her own. She makes a point not to miss anything they invite her to such as church plays, award ceremonies and graduations.

Why is it then, that some children raised together,... more

I’ve always said that I prefer “in your face” confrontation from children as opposed to passive-aggressive behavior. My theory is, at least I know what they’re thinking. We’ve only parented a few of the “in your face” children but, we’ve had plenty of passive-aggressive children.

Passive aggressive disorder is said to stem from specific childhood stimuli such as overbearing parents or parents with substance abuse issues. I guess it makes sense that most of the... more

HELP! As I’m reading Dr. Perry’s intriguing accounts of traumatized children, each exhibiting different behaviors and symptoms, one message rings true. The children who were nurtured by an attentive caregiver as an infant, the children with consistent care, recovered much more quickly and completely from whatever trauma (abuse, injury, accident, medical procedures) than those who did not receive consistent, nurturing care.

What happens to infants matters SO much! For those of us parenting children from chaotic early childhoods,... more

My mother and I make our annual trip to the green house together each year around Mother’s Day to pick out our vegetable plants and flowers. I guess it has become a tradition because when I asked her what she wanted this year, she said, “We usually go to the green house.” Well, that makes my job easier, because it can be difficult to choose gifts for parents.

People may spend hours designing their flower gardens, carefully choosing plants and flowers for just the right mix of color, varying heights, and blooming time. I have a rather unique... more

Mayer-Von Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser Syndrome (MRKHS) or congenital vaginal aplasia affects maybe one in 5,000 female infants. These girls are born without a vagina, but have normal uteri, ovaries, and external secondary sex organs such as breasts. Because they do not have a vagina, they do not have a menses; they cannot give birth when they mature, nor can they have sexual intercourse without intervention. Diagnosis doesn’t usually occur until they try to have sexual intercourse for the first time.

Most girls without vaginas who seek treatment will use dilators to create a... more