September 7, 2015 Marriage and Divorce
As a child, I never put a whole lot of thought into whether or not I’d have children of my own when I got older. Like most people, I just assumed that is was part and partial of the whole…
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If there is one thing I am eternally grateful towards my high school guidance counselor for, it’s for this little nugget of wisdom: “Before getting into a fight, ask yourself: Is this the hill I want to die on?” I…
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Of all the relationship advice people have been given over the years, one of the major mainstays has been honesty policy. As we all know, in order to cultivate and maintain intimacy with our partners, we must be honest with…
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When it comes to precious commodities, it’s a pretty safe bet to say that time is one of the most carefully regarded, if not always wisely spent. We are forever concerned with time; the speed at which it’s moving (particularly…
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When people talk of divorce, it is inevitable that someone will bring up the heart string-tugging topic of sons being raised without fathers. Since divorce became a common statistic, there has been much discussion about sons being raised solely by…
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It’s no secret that various facets of Japanese culture eventually make their way over to the United States. Karaoke, anime, manga, pocky, sushi, J-pop, cosplay; all of these have been exported to the States and are now staples of American…
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In times of want, we all feel compelled to scrimp and pinch to make ends meet. We start paying more attention to sales at the grocery store, we reassess which of our monthly expenses are necessities and which are luxuries…
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Thanks to the publicity of such ginormous families as the Duggars or the Gosselins, there has been a lot more discussion cropping up here and there about the possible negatives of being raised in a rather large family, and whether…
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If you ever want to find out exactly how little your family members know you, here’s a simple test: send them to the store to pick up something for you. It’s an acid test of sorts, in that it doesn’t…
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If you have been raised by by a parent affected by Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD,) it’s a pretty safe bet that a large percentage of your childhood was spent focused on just trying to survive from day to day, since…
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October 23, 2014 Communication
When you consider the fact that my husband and I were born barely fifteen miles away from each other, you would think that we grew up in pretty similar circumstances. After all, it was the same part of the state,…
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October 23, 2014 Communication
Guys, I’m sure you have all been here before. Maybe it was back when you were a teen, just learning the ropes of the dating world, or maybe you’re older, married and it just happened the other day. Whichever the…
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October 20, 2014 Marriage and Divorce
If you are in any kind of an intimate relationship, infidelity is not to be accepted nor tolerated in a partner. To say otherwise is to go against the very nature of what it is to be in a relationship….
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When it comes to parents-in-law, the prevailing opinion is that mothers-in-law are far more difficult to interact with than their spouses. Whether she’s the meddling type, passive-aggressive or just plain witchy, mothers-in-law have long held the reputation for being the…
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When it comes to difficult situations in my life, ending my relationship with my mother was both the easiest and hardest thing I’ve ever done. Which sounds a little odd to say, since how could it be both? Theoretically-speaking, it…
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September 4, 2014 Communication
When it comes to high school, prom is the ultimate school-sponsored social event. Sure, there are other dances held throughout the school year (EX: homecoming, winter semi-formal, Sadie Hawkins, and so on,) but all of those pale in comparison to…
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September 3, 2014 Communication
Of all the things that women do that make men scratch their heads in confusion, asking trick questions ranks pretty close to the top of the list. After all, what purpose do these questions serve? Unless it’s to provide her…
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Stop me if you’ve heard this one: You’re in a relationship with someone and it started out great, but as time progresses there seem to be little red flags popping more and more often. When you first met them, you…
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June 19, 2014 Marriage and Divorce
When I was five years old, my parents made the decision to divorce. My sisters and I were informed of this decision one afternoon in late summer, telling us that it had nothing to do with us, that they both…
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March 9, 2014 Marriage and Divorce
Marriage, like any other aspect of life, is subject to change. While the fundamentals may remain the same – you and your spouse love one another, and have made a lifetime commitment to one another – that does not stop…
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When it comes to all the things we cannot change, chief among them is the order in which we were born into our families. No matter how much older you get or what you achieve, at the end of the…
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January 26, 2014 Marriage and Divorce
One of the greatest misconceptions about marriage is that everything is going to be different once the vows and rings have been exchanged. It’s as though people seem to think that once the ink has dried on the wedding license,…
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When it comes to all the things we cannot change, chief among them is the order in which we were born into our families. No matter how much older you get or what you achieve, at the end of the…
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When it comes to the many joys of having siblings, one of the cheaper thrills is satisfaction of annoying the ever-loving snot out of them. The only thing that even comes close is the knowledge that you made a substitute…
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December 24, 2013 Communication
From what I understand of straight men, trying to understand women is more puzzling than a Rubik’s cube and more frustrating than Windows Vista. Which strikes me as hard to believe, since I think women are pretty easy to understand….
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Marian Sandmaier once said, “A sibling may be the keeper of one’s identity; the only person with the keys to one’s unfettered, more fundamental self.” While this may be true of any kind of sibling, it is especially true of…
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When people talk about twins having the same personalities, I can’t help but think of all the different sets of twins I know. Thanks to a family tendency towards twins, there are two sets in my immediate family; my mother…
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When people think about twins, one of the first things that comes to mind is Spock’s evil twin on the original Star Trek series. With his evil goatee, you knew right off the bat that this Spock was the bad…
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One of the most personal and long-lasting gifts a child can give their parent is the possibility of a nervous breakdown. Sure, pictures made with elbow macaroni are nice and all, but any kid can give their parent one of…
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When it comes to sisters, there’s so much to be said about them, and it appears that the majority of what can be said can be somewhere between sour and saccharine. Which, as any of us out there who have…
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