recent posts
- Teaching Love to Tweens Who Pretend They Don’t Need It
- Snow Days Then vs. Snow Days Now
- Winter Parenting Wins That Deserve a Trophy
- January According to My Almost Teenagers
- For the Five of Us, as the Year Begins
- What This Year Taught Me About Motherhood
- Holiday Break with Tweens: A Survival Guide
- The Silent Nights of Motherhood | Staying Up Wrapping & Worrying About Who They’re Becoming
- How to Handle Holiday Overstimulation (For Kids and Grownups)
- The Tween Gift Guide No One Asked For (But Everyone Needs)
Category: Chaos
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For me, October has always had the perfect vibe. The crunch of leaves underfoot, the cozy sweaters, the pumpkin spice everything—it’s a month steeped in drama. But once you’ve entered the magical purgatory known as parenting tweens, you start to notice something unsettling: October is tweendom, in seasonal form. It’s moody. It’s unpredictable. It’s dramatic.…
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Every fall, tucked in between practices and math homework, comes a day mothers everywhere simultaneously dread and secretly cherish: School Picture Day. The reminder slips into backpacks, and just like that, it’s not just about standing in front of a camera—it’s a full-on theatrical event starring tweens, complete with drama, costume changes, sibling rivalries, and…
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There are wars raging in my house every morning before school. Not the “Did you brush your teeth?” battles (though those are alive and well). Not the “Please eat something other than Takis for breakfast” skirmishes. No, the daily wars are fought over tween fashion choices—the hills my children are inexplicably prepared to die on,…
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Once upon a time, I thought the toddler years were the emotional peak of parenting. Silly me. That was just the warm-up act. Now, here I am, squarely in my mid-40s, experiencing the joys of perimenopause while parenting three tweens entering puberty. That’s right. One body. Three hormones. Five moods before breakfast. Welcome to the real Hunger Games.…
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One minute they want to snuggle, the next they’re slamming the door. There should be a warning label on parenting tweens: May cause whiplash, emotional whiplash. Side effects include crying in the pantry, involuntary eye twitching, and spontaneous laughter at completely inappropriate times. Raising tweens is a bit like being on a rollercoaster built by…
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Somewhere between piano lessons and the 4-H Fair, I lost the feeling in my left butt cheek. I’ve become one with the seat of my Jeep. My Apple algorithm thinks I’m 12, and my car is less a vehicle and more a time capsule of growing-up moments. Hi. I’m Angela, and I’m a full-time mom…
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Ah, late July into August—that weird in-between place where sunscreen feels like a second skin, popsicles have lost their sparkle, and no one knows what day it is anymore. You’ve already vacationed (or attempted to), grilled, chased fireflies, and now… everyone’s cranky, hot, and over it. Including you. Especially you. This is The Summer Stretch—those…
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Fry, Party of Five is back – older, moodier, and with more eye rolls than ever. But don’t worry, this isn’t a comeback tour with glittery graphics, Pinterest-perfect photo ops, or sponsored cereal reviews. Nope. This time around, it’s just me— Angela —writing straight from the trenches of tween parenting, heart first, filters off. If…
Fry, Party of Five 