PenPenWrites
parenting blog, memoir notes, family punchlines & more
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© 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
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I was obsessed with the Boston Marathon-Watertown attacks. Followed the hour-to-hour headlines the first few days. When the action moved to Watertown on Thursday night and lock-down Friday, that changed. I became a live-action addict as police cars were spotted moving toward some sort of end game. Me and millions of others. I had an…
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There it is as one of my Notes to Self, running down the left hand column of this blog: "Be enthusiastic. It beats being critical." Easier said than done, of course. But it raises the question of praise versus criticism and the role the tension between the two play in our relationship with our independent…
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A friend I haven't seen in a while has moved back to my city. Her daughter and family live here. So she and her husband have a built in welcoming committee. At least, that is how we outsiders whose children live elsewhere see it. As she and I are talking–we are trying to make plans…
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Kids are kids. We bring them up to be independent, accomplished and assertive adults. For our daughters, the leadership–the assertive part–sometimes gets lost in the mix. The new president of Simmons College–my alumnus–posted a piece on Huffington Post: Five tips for dads to pass on to their daughters to help them become leaders. Here's…
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Insights is insight. You take it where you find it. I just finished reading Carl Pickhardt's recent blog on adolescents and parental similarity–how we tend to favor the child who is like us and how the issue rears its head big time as our children go through adolescence. What struck me about Pickhardt's column was…
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My friend Lee doesn't understand what is was about her son-in-law that made him attractive to her daughter–even though the marriage is now 15 years old. From the start, Lee didn't see what they would have to talk about–the daughter grew up in an intellectually demanding home; the husband in one where mechanical abilities were…
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I was reading an interview with Janai Brugger in the New York Times. Brugger is the 28-year-old singer who entered the Metropolitan Opera's National Council Auditions and won. Then won Placido Domingo's Operalia competition. And then was offered the ultimate and most amazing of prize: an offer to debut at the Met in Puccini's "Turandot"…
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Here's a line to remember when we have a spat with our spouses or kids: "Conflict is inevitable but combat is optional." Susan Adcox posted this Max Lucado line on her grandparents.com blog. She says she tries to remember the maxim when she has disagreements with her husband but "when it comes to family disputes,…
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When Amy Tan's Joy Luck Club came out, I sent a copy to my mother. It was an interesting choice. The book, which details the lives of four women born in China and their daughters who grow up in America, covers the travails the younger generation [me] face when the immigrant mothers [my mother] are…
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I checked in with the Educated Grandparent, a site that's on my blogroll. The two women who write it–both grandparents and social workers –recently posted on a topic that is a hot button issue for many of us with grown children (and grandchildren as well): the invasiveness of social media activity, or as they put…
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