When my son Mason was four he would ask me to do things. “Can I watch a movie? Can we go to the park? Can I ride my bike?” After his inquiries, I typically would consult my watch, the keeper of all activity. He has a couple of watches that he likes to wear. They might as well be in Egyptian, though, because he of course can’t tell time. Anyway, today he asked me if he could do something, I consulted my timepiece as usual and gave him my answer of “no” which he didn’t like. He then said, “Daddy, can you put on my watch?” I said, “sure.” He enjoys wearing a watch from time to time. As I was strapping on his Thomas the Train watch, he said, “Daddy, when you ask me something, I’ll look at my watch and tell you what to do.” Oh really? I’m sure one day he’ll also tell me that I look at my watch too much. He’ll be right.

Yes, Valentines Day is coming and there are plenty of teenagers who might feel unloved, unattractive, and unnoticed because of a lack of a significant other.  What is a parent to do when your teenager comes home from school complaining that she is the only one without a boyfriend or that she didn’t receive a Valentine’s card because no one cares?

I have to say that I am disgusted with our school system in the area of Speech Therapy.  My daughter is above average academically and does not have any major social problems, but she cannot say her blended ‘r’ correctly.   I had made requests to the speech therapist at her elementary school a few times for her and my son to be evaluated.   The answer is always the same.  I was told that both of my children do not say their ‘r’ sound correctly, but since it is not interfering with them socially or with their academic progress, we cannot receive any help from the school system.

Why is it that people don’t hesitate to give out unsolicited parenting advice, no matter how much it offends the recipient?

I am probably the only parent looking at a child’s grades and saying, “A’s & B’s? HOW CAN THAT BE? I want answers!” My stepson is in the 6^th grade. He comes home each night and struggles with his homework. We have determined that he skims — everything. He skims the directions. He skims the reading assignment. He guesses at multiple choice. He will copy sentences the teacher wrote, word for word, as an answer. If asked to reword in is own words, he will change one word. If asked to write 3-5 sentences, you can be sure he will write 3, but say the same thing, 3 different ways. He cannot spell; he mixes capital letters with lower case. He writes above the line and over top of other letters below. He has no clue how to use punctuation. The curious thing is that his work is considered acceptable.

Did you ever stop to think that what you say to your child’s teacher might be something incredibly frustrating for him or her to hear? And if you knew that, wouldn’t you want to know how to rephrase your statement or question?

It was meant to be an innocent question, but when my son E asked it to a friend of mine who is already sensitive about the topic, I could feel the blood drain out of my face. (I will not say what he said to protect this friend’s privacy, but it was not something he should say to ANYONE!) After they left, we had a talk with him about things he should and should not ask other people. I also wrote my friend an e-mail to apologize and they accepted my apology, saying they knew he didn’t mean it to be harmful.

If it came down to it, would you ever call the police on your child? And if so, what would be the last straw — the motivating factor — for you, personally?