by Shadra Bruce | Let's Talk, Teens and Tweens
Getting Real With Shadra Bruce When your kids are young, there seem to be no bounds to what they will say. There is no filter, which can be both precious and embarrassing (ask me about the bitch song sometime). They want to tell you literally every single thing that...
by Shadra Bruce | Let's Talk, Raising Healthy Kids
Getting Real With Shadra Bruce Children of all ages engage in irritating behaviors that are likely to drive you crazy. Sometimes, it seems like it is wired into their systems to figure out exactly what provokes parents the most and then repeat the behavior as much as...
by Shadra Bruce | Let's Talk, Parenting
Getting Real With Shadra Bruce When you finally decide to trust that your child (or children) won’t burn the house down it can be a big step for the whole family. As a parent, the anxiety can be enormous, but your kids will more than likely be thrilled with the...
by Shadra Bruce | Let's Talk, Toddlers
Getting Real With Shadra Bruce There’s a reason that one of the first words your child masters is “no.” Children copy what they see and hear, and it’s an easy assumption that you are saying “no” quite often. But what does “no” really mean? “No” and “stop” are often...
by Shadra Bruce | Let's Talk, Raising Healthy Kids
Getting Real With Shadra Bruce Violent video games are always getting the blame for the destruction of today’s innocent youth. Yes, it must be the violent video games that are teaching children poor values, right? Perhaps it’s time to take a closer look at what the...
by Shadra Bruce | Family, Let's Talk
Getting Real With Shadra Bruce If you haven’t guessed yet, we are pretty comfortable with change and upheaval. We have taught our children to confidently live their own lives, and we’ve done so through example. If there was something we wanted, we went for it. Of...
by Shadra Bruce | Education, Let's Talk
Getting Real With Shadra Bruce In writing and talking to Dave about the damage that can be done when helicopter parents won’t allow their kids to grow, learn, and make their own mistakes, we discussed how likely it was that certain school administrators around...
by Shadra Bruce | Let's Talk
Getting Real With Shadra Bruce It’s normal to be concerned for your child, especially when they are doing something for the first time (riding a bike, going to school, staying with a friend). Are they going to make the right decisions? Are their teachers offering the...
by Shadra Bruce | Stepparenting
Getting Real With Shadra Bruce It was heartbreaking for me watching our older kids wait for phone calls that never came, visits that never materialized, and relationships that never happened with their biological mother. I wanted nothing more than to magically go back...
by Shadra Bruce | Education, Let's Talk
Getting Real With Shadra Bruce Our education system is nowhere near perfect. It’s definitely come a long way, but it seems like we still have a long way to go in acknowledging the talents of individual students. It seems that with laws such as the NCLB Act, a child...
by Shadra Bruce | Let's Talk, Teens and Tweens
Getting Real With Shadra Bruce The teenage years are wrought with challenges that parents have to come to terms with, but one of the biggest is teen driving. There is something terrifying, in my mind, about placing a teenager (we’re talking about someone whose...
by Shadra Bruce | Let's Talk, Toddlers
Getting Real With Shadra Bruce Books are one of the best educational tools for toddlers for several reasons. Reading to your child promotes learning and literacy, encourages creative thinking, and it is wonderful time for you to spend together. However, if you’re...
by Shadra Bruce | Let's Talk, Stress Management
Despite the fact that we work at home, we are not immune to the demands of life when children return from school. Just because we are home doesn’t mean we’ve tended to the household (you should see the dust that piles up, normally until Dave can’t stand it...
by Shadra Bruce | Healthy Eating, Let's Talk
There are many fad diets out there, most targeted specifically at women. Lose 10 pounds in one week, shrink belly fat, and get toned by consuming strange mixtures of maple syrup and cayenne pepper and who knows what else. Fad diets all promise the same thing: they all...
