Do you allow your kids to give you the joy of laughter? Do you let yourself play long enough to get the joke? Do you even take the time to hear them when they are funny...even if they don't intend to be? Do you factor in the self confidence and self worth they derive when you express your appreciation for them through your laughter? Live a little—Laugh a little!
![6 Lessons I Learned By Talking To My Teenage Daughter [EXPERT]](http://images.tangomag.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/node-full/image_blog/father_daughter.jpg "6 Lessons I Learned By Talking To My Teenage Daughter [EXPERT]")
For once, my teenage daughter decided to talk to me. We were driving home from school and she said, "Dad, I have something to tell you." Here it comes, I thought — either some overwrought teenage drama or a parent's worst nightmare is about to escape my precious firstborn's lips. With a quavering voice she delivered the punch: "Jackie and I are dating."
I stood there in my sweatpants, a bit disheveled, wanting to cry out, "No! You and I belong together!" But that was my need, not his. He walked off, his Bakugan backpack shining in the sun, without turning his head. I tightened my jacket around me. He caught sight of his friend, and slung his arm around his shoulders, a gesture that seemed more mature than he was. They disappeared into the school, laughing, tilting their faces towards one another. And just like that, the cord was severed.
If perfect parents ever lived, I pity their children. What excuse could the children of perfect parents offer for their later failures? On a more serious note, when parents aim for perfection, the category they are more likely to occupy is "too good," as in "too good to be true," or down right incompetent.
My husband and I seem to parent our children differently based on their genders, a tendency I never expected, being the enlightened and empowered woman I am. (“Roar” and all that.) Once we had both a boy and a girl, though, this tendency became obvious.
Single parents have it rough trying to balance their personal lives with the demands and responsibility that come with being a parent. Dating can be especially challenging, as there are certain boundaries that should not be crossed because the overall well-being of the child has to come first.
Only one reproductive choice is stigmatized: voluntary childlessness. Many protest against this cultural bias, arguing that childfree (preferred over childless) should be a respected choice, says Berkeley clinical psychologist Mardy S. Ireland, Ph.D., author of Reconceiving Women: Separating Motherhood from Female Identity (Guilford, 1993). Motherhood is the defining life experience for many women, but it's not for everyone. Being female doesn't mean your instincts, talents and needs destine you for maternity.
We've all dated someone who didn't pass our parents' approval meter, but nothing, not even Dad's "rules for courting my little girl" lectures, can beat how this 47 year-old German man taught his daughter's older boyfriend a lesson. Helmut Seifert, father of a seventeen year-old girl, castrated Philip Genscher, 57, with a bread knife after an anonymous tipper notified him of their relationship.
Not every mother is thrilled for her daughter's wedding, but while some dissenters hold their peace, others accuse the bride of being a suicide bomber. Over the weekend, CNN reported that a Russian woman told police that her daughter planned to explode a plane. The flight was delayed and the bride, who was traveling to Morocco for her wedding, was taken away for questioning. Investigators later traced the call to her mother, who admitted that she disapproved of her daughter's engagement to a Moroccan citizen.
We asked some of the top love experts to give the final word on the most-asked relationship and dating questions. In this episode of "The Final Word," Ian Kerner, Evan Marc Katz, Debra Burrell and Andrea Syrtash give advice on how to deal with an intrusive mother-in-law.
Some family stuff is just plain hard. Like now. My mother is 84, lives 2,700 miles away, has been in and out of the hospital due to illness, and is now in a rehabilitation center. I've flown from New Jersey to Nevada to relieve my brother, who lives down the block from her. I'm now navigating conversations with doctors, figuring out what isn't being said and working out what happens next. I'm staying for several weeks and, since I've done this a few times, I know the terrain. I'm not complaining. But I am keenly aware of what such separations and circumstances do to my own family, to my marriage and to me as a mother.
