I remember clearly when my mom began the journey into menopause. She was 42 and I was in the midst of my obligatory teen angst. This made for an extremely ugly time of hormonal head-butting. As often happens when one is an ignorant, pig-headed kid with little to no life experience, I swore it would be different when I had children (one of many bone-headed statements I have proven incorrect).

Well, here I am, mere weeks away from my 44th birthday and a full 12 months into perimenopause (yep, 42 was the magic number). You can’t wait until you are old enough... more

Many adoptees wished they had waited until they were more mature before searching for their birth parents. Comments like, I would have handled it so much better if I had waited were common. However, as individuals, we all do what we feel we must, when we feel we must. If a teenager is so obsessed with meeting birthparents that he or she cannot concentrate on anything else then it might not be possible to wait. If thoughts of birthparents are becoming so constant that, they are beginning to disrupt your other relationships, then searching immediately... more

Chapter one covers an adoptee’s fantasies and curiosity about their birth family. Throughout the book, Danea reinforces the normalcy of a teenager’s feelings, emotions, and curiosity. She makes it very plain that everyone experiences these feelings, fantasies, and emotions at some time in their lives. She validates a teenager’s rights to feelings, whatever those feelings might be, and rights to information. She encourages journaling to help teenagers work through their feelings and track their progress.

Danea states in the book that it is natural for... more

World Water Day is March 22 of each year as designated by the United Nations. Drawing attention to the conservation and development of water resources is the overall objective. Advocacy, publication, and organization of conferences with the year’s chosen theme is how they hope to increase public awareness. This year’s theme is “Sanitation.” The U.N. hopes to attract international attention to conservation and development of water resources through this yearly ritual.

The safe disposal of human waste and the ability to maintain hygienic conditions, through... more

A new study on the effects of sleep indicates that women fair worse from bad sleep then men do. According to researchers men’s health was relatively unaffected by sleep quality. However, women who didn’t get a good night sleep suffered physically and mentally. Physically, poor sleep affected women’s blood insulin levels and resulted in higher levels of markers of inflammation and of fibrinogen. Mentally, the study showed that women who didn’t get a good nights rest had more symptoms of depression, hostility, and anger.

What does a woman’s sleep quality have to... more

I was really excited to receive a new book in the mail about adoption issues. Adopted Teens Only A Survival Guide to Adolescence is 98 pages of clearly written, useful, and relevant information organized in a logical sequence. The book isn’t actually for adoptive parents although it can be eye opening for us to understand what our teens are thinking and going through emotionally. It is written for adolescence who were adopted and are trying to make sense of it all. The book was written by Danea Gorbett and published by iUniverse.... more

I cannot remember where I heard or read this, but I have heard it said that adopted children are less likely to leave the home when they turn eighteen. They are also supposedly less likely to leave town to go to college or take a job. Instead, they are more likely to live at home while attending a local college or get a job closer to their adoptive parents' home.

I tried to find this article on the Internet but was not successful, so I must have read it in a book somewhere. I am not saying that this premise is true. I just thought this was... more

Last week, I shared about medicating my son for his Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). My son has acted like a perpetual four- or five-year-old for years even though he is now seven years old. Because his behavior was like a younger child's behavior, I modified my parenting accordingly.

Now that my son is medicated, it is as if he matured two years overnight. Suddenly, he is doing things that he could not do before. He is also processing things... more

In my post, Adoptive Parenting: Inequity In Hands-On Parenting Responsibilities, I talked about the inequity of the hands-on parenting responsibilities in many adoptive families. Of course, there are exceptions, but in many families, the husband sees his parenting role as being the breadwinner and leaves the hands-on parenting to the wife. The wife often feels overwhelmed and resents the husband for not helping out enough with the children, which causes the husband... more

In my post, Adoptive Parenting: Inequity In Hands-On Parenting Responsibilities, Fenyimom posted the following comment:

One that I've heard from several of my male co-workers, whose wives are stay at home moms - we work in an operations team, where we are oncall. If you're oncall and get contacted after work, you have *got* to take the call and work the issue. For some strange reason, my co-workers wives don't understand this. Their... more