Welcome back to the show! Thank you so much for being here!!

As our kids get older, the conversations we have with them get harder. Sex, drugs, alcohol, consent, body image, mental health, relationships, safety, world events, and all of the things we wish we could protect them from forever. In this episode, I’m talking about why the goal isn’t to have one perfect “talk.” It’s to create a family communication climate where difficult topics are normal, conversations deepen as our kids grow, and they know they can come to us when something gets complicated.

Because eventually, we can’t control the dorm, the party, the relationship, the driver, or the rest of the world, but we can make sure that when our kids don’t know what to do, we are still one of the people they call.

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Thank you so much for being here!!

If I could apologize to the woman I was before….

If you could apologize to the woman you were before, what would you say? Can you forgive yourself for not knowing what you know now?

On the first non-sweltering day of September, I was excited to wear my white jeans. Well, white jeans 1, Jen 0. I spiraled, criticizing every bit of my appearance and losing my gratitude for all my body does for me.

Thankfully, I’m not that Jen anymore. I’m not the woman who would let a pair of white jeans determine her entire value as a human. Who I am now is the kind of woman who, yes, still criticizes herself. Who still spirals at times. But now I’m the woman who can step back and look at the situation and see it for what it is.

I wish I could go back and apologize to the woman I was who took so much abuse from herself. Can you forgive yourself for not knowing then what you know now? If you could apologize to the woman you were, what would you say? And can you let her forgive you for it?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome back to the show! Thank you for being here!

I am back in the classroom for my 26th year teaching college, but this year is especially exciting for me because after six years of teaching only online, I am back in the in-person physical classroom, and I am loving it! I cannot believe how much that one change has resonated through my whole life!

I started the semester of my family communication class establishing my 10 underlying or guiding principles about families, and wow! did I enjoy putting this list together! Today, we're going through all ten.

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