Lisa Endlich's Blog

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High school graduation is one of life’s significant accomplishments and one that friends and family will want to celebrate with a gift. This list includes our favorite gift ideas for guys and consists of sentimental and practical choices. Are you shopping for your son’s best buds? Here are some wonderful ideas for grad gifts for your teen’s friend...

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Here are practical and inexpensive graduation gifts to give to your sons and daughters’ friends. (Twenty20 @lifesperfectpicture)

Graduation gifts are some of the most challenging gifts to pick out, especially when you’re buying for your teen’s friends who we’ve watched grow up and prepare to leave home. We asked our seasoned parents what they lov...

The waiting season is officially in full swing. College essays have been written, rewritten, second-guessed, and finalized. FASFA forms are complete. Transcripts and recommendations submitted.

Parents can help their students manage their anxiety around college admissions. Here’s how. (Shutterstock VH-studio)

Across the country, admissions folks are carefully reading applications to decide which prospective students have the greatest shot at success in their schools. As we head toward March notif...

Every Sunday at 6 p.m., my son and I sit down together.

We started calling it College Sunday, which tells you everything about my original intentions. It began the summer before his junior year, when questions about gap years, a career, and

“College Sunday” is our weekly meeting. (Photo Credit: Sky Kahn)Conversations with my son followed a predictable pattern

What I didn’t anticipate was how quickly concern can turn into pressure with a teenager. Before College Sunday, our conversations followed ...

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While a student can’t go wrong with a good backpack, a tote bag is a stylish and convenient way to carry all school gear to and from class. It’s also a handy way to transport a laptop, keys, phone, makeup and more if your young adult is working.

When choosing the best tote bag there are a few key elements to consider, especially because you, ide...

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College graduation is a memorable time for gads and three families. Here are some ideas for (@Twenty20)

College graduation is one of life’s happiest and most exciting milestones, but possibly one of the hardest to find an appropriate gift. The gifts we get our young adults and their friends will vary but, rest assured, we found things that every...

The first night I met my former husband at a folk dancing party, I told him I wanted to adopt a baby from China. It wasn’t casual conversation. It was something I had already decided about my life. I remember saying it plainly, almost as a declaration: I am going to adopt a baby from China.

We began the paperwork to adopt from China. (Photo credit Stephanie Bell)

I waited for hesitation — questions about cost, logistics, or whether this was realistic. Instead, he smiled and said, “That’s incred...

So many excited grandparents, looking forward to their own child having a child, wonder how they can best help once the new baby arrives. We don’t want to do too much and new families need quiet time alone. But we don’t want to do too little, either.

Grandparents can be helpful when a new baby arrives. Here’s what to do and what NOT to do. (Shutterstock Oleggg)

Our daughter or daughter-in-law is more than likely exhausted in the weeks after the birth and an extra set of hands can lighten her bu...

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As a first-year college student, nothing made me smile like knowing I had one of my mom’s college care packages waiting for me at the dorm. It started with an email from the mailroom saying a box would be available for pick-up that afternoon. It was hard to focus on the differences between classical and operant conditioning that my psychology prof...

A few mornings ago, my daughter texted me from upstairs in her bedroom while I was downstairs making my coffee.

“Do you have time to make me some scrambled eggs your new way?” she asked.

“Of course, I have time,” I texted right back.

My teen and I still have time. (Image via Elizabeth Spencer)

Oh, I had time. Maybe I wouldn’t have it on some rare days, which is why she asked. But that day, I did have time, and I think I would have made time even if I hadn’t had it. My daughter and I have been thro...