PenPenWrites
parenting blog, memoir notes, family punchlines & more
recent posts
© Penelope Lemov and Parenting Grown Children, 2025. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given.
recent posts
© Penelope Lemov and Parenting Grown Children, 2025. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given.
Category: Uncategorized
-
If you have a 20-something hanging around your life, chances are 50-50 you’re getting your cultural and political news from different sources. If the young person is a grandchild, the odds go to 99-1. I’m making up the numbers but the point is that our older generation gets information about the world from very different…
-
When our kids are planning to visit us–be it to drop by for an hour or to come home for a weekend–we’re usually alive with anticipation. Ah, the the joy and positive energy a visit brings. The question is, are they feeling as positive as we are?Yes, they are! That is, they share in the…
-
Our closets are full. So is the attic, basement and every cranny that can hold papers, memorabilia and photo albums. To say nothing of unused dishes, scarred pots and chipped figurines. Getting rid of some or all of that stuff is formidable. It looms like a climb up a mountain of slag. And yet, do we…
-

We’re now grownchildren.org. We had to move from our old home (our host closed its doors, or rather its digital presence) and our domain name (grownchildren.net) became problematical. (I’m working on it!) Meanwhile, the new home at WordPress and slight variation on domain name promise to be a plus. painting: Rebecca Lemov
-
Sending off our young adults to fend for themselves, to live independently of us–it's what all those years of toddler-through-teens parenting were about. And yet, it's hard to let go. We want to hold their hands, keep the safety net in place, be there for them should they falter. We're only human. We're parents. We're…
-
Some of us count ourselves lucky. Our children find their future Mr or Ms Right next door. Or within the same time zone. Or in the same country. Or from a similar culture. But what happens when none of that describes our child's important love interest. Instead, it's someone with a very different background and…
-
I came across a post from the past. It's nearly 10 years old but it's about one aspect of our legacy that may surpass all of them. As a reminder, the three parts of our legacy, as I see it, are the worldly goods we leave behind, a sense of our values and clean closets.…