Family

To use the word benefits as it applies to hospice care is a bit of a stretch. The decision to confine a loved one to a hospice facility leads to a heartbreaking and stressful time for everyone involved. It is…
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“Give me your tired, your poor,Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” This portion of the inscription on the Statue of…
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How sibling rivalry affects family relationships… *Sibling rivalry is in every family: Sibling rivalry affects every family in our world and there isn’t too much we can do to stop it from happening. When there are more than one child…
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Using the Internet and new technology to find the best resources for eldercare has truly revolutionized a daunting challenge and made it far more manageable.  The best way to illustrate this is to compare and contrast the care of my…
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Knowing how to stop senior citizen abuse requires knowledge of what constitutes senior citizen abuse, awareness of resources, advocacy and willingness to report the abuse. As a former adult protective services case manager and with several years experience in the…
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Tracing your genealogy has become easier than ever thanks to the introduction of the Internet.  Where you used to have to track down information by using libraries, and even going to the locations where your ancestors were from, now you…
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Home health care becomes necessary when a family member needs temporary or long term assistance with day to day living. While it is typically a Physician or Social Worker who directs and completes an assessment and suggests home care, they…
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When it comes to marriage, it isn’t the “marriage” that’s the issue. Instead, the problem is related to the fact that recognizing sibling marriage under the law means consenting to incest. One might argue that’s not the case, but that’s…
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Empty nest blues may not be a medical diagnosis, but it is a very real psychological condition that can be debilitating at times. Both mothers and fathers can feel the effects of their final child leaving home. However, mothers tend…
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Blood is thicker than water, right? Well, although that is often the case, there are also times that relatives don’t get along, for one reason or another. Sometimes, even siblings, who can enjoy the closest of all family relationships, have…
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When I was working in a cultural museum, I was amazed by how many people wanted to learn about their family history. There are myths and legends in every family, but people wanted to learn what was fact and what…
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Discipline of children is always hard and even more so when it comes to step-children or children blended in. The first most important concept is you as a parent, need to choose your battles. Is it really that important? For…
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It’s extremely hard to let go of your children. Just like that moment when they took their first step unaided, there comes a time when a child has to have those financial strings cut and their parent is expected to…
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My mama was clever And my daddy loved her forever. Laura Nyro December’s Boudoir It is unrealistic to expect parents to always model ideal behavior in front of children. While they want to demonstrate to their children that they have a…
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Are your kids financially independent? “Kids will be kids” is an old adage that parents are familiar with and find to be true. Some kids will try to remain kids who are financially dependent upon their parents, for as long…
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It seems like there have always been some issues and conflicts between family events and work. Both are important and certainly there are times when they overlap. Managing these two parts of the same life can be a bit tricky….
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For many years, I believed my father to be an evil man. He was selfish, aggressive and dominating. He was everything that I should avoid and everything that I should hate. My father was the Devil incarnate.  Now I am…
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The true cost of raising kids must be measured using a twofold approach.  Of course, there are the obvious costs that can be found every day in magazines and news reports about the ever rising monetary costs associated with child…
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When your front door feels more like a revolving door as adult children move out, and then, back in, you need a survival guide. Nothing prepares you for the new role you feel as adult children reenter a home where,…
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Visiting your own grandparents or making sure that your children have opportunities to visit their grandparents is more important than you may realize.  Grandparents offer their grandchildren a relationship that parents cannot.  They are not primarily responsible for the everyday…
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If my in-laws had not been so understanding and open to me and my opinions and my ways of doing things I am not sure I would have been married to my wife today. And I’m only able to say…
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How a wife can cope with an overbearing mother-in-law  The issue of in-laws is one which many wives wish did not exist in marriage. This is because it is the bane of many ailing marriages. Many daughters-in-law tend to dislike…
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“Did you clean your room?” “Have you finished your homework?” “Why does your teacher want to see me?” “Did you take the rest of the cookies?” “Are you crazy?” “What did I do to deserve this?” These are the kind…
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Protecting an elderly parent is very important in all instances. Today, the elderly are abused in their own home, and can sometimes even be abused in a nursing home. At the same time, while they are still in the same…
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It has been said over and over that it is important for families to sit down and eat meals together. What is not necessarily explained is why these meals are so important. *Communication People have gathered over good food to…
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It’s an all too common situation where Mom makes dinner, people show up and eat, then Mom ends up doing most if not all of the cleaning up afterwards. Or people do help, but only under duress or with a…
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There is no simple formula for a happy family. Every family is different therefore will require different things in order to be happy. There are, however, a few rules which can apply to any family. There are two essential things…
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Falling is love with your spouse may very well have been a piece of cake compared to getting your mother-in-law to like you.  If you are the new wife, your mother-in-law may view you as competition for her son’s affections…
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Sadly, the image of the ideal family, as portrayed in ‘The Waltons’ or ‘Little House on the Prairie’ is just that, an image with virtually no relation to current reality. This is true for the majority of people, as families…
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My in-laws are wonderful people; easy to get to know, and easier to love. We were first introduced about two weeks after my husband and I met, two weeks before he proposed! The twenty-seven days from meeting to engagement were…
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