About Us
If you’re like most of my readers, you are already a concerned and involved parent. You want what is best for your children - and want them to succeed in life and in relationships. You want them to resist the entitlement culture and become a responsible adult. But you realize this success doesn’t come as an accident. It takes parenting with intention. That’s why you’re here.
That’s Why You’re Here.
UnEntitled Parents - Propelling Teens Toward Responsible Adulthood. You are not just about a one-size-fits-all view of success, you desire your young adult to thrive in many arenas of life:
You long for a deep and lasting relationship with your budding adult, and that is worth fighting for. UnEntitled Parenting improves this relationship in the present and in the future. By backing up the helicopter parenting, you have more energy and bandwidth to be the best coach you can be. You have a front-row seat to watch your son or daughter move toward the best adulthood imaginable, one where they can solve their own problems, feel empowered to make wise decisions, and take on challenges that come their way.
So What’s Stopping You?
You want to be that parent that allows your son to learn from his own mistakes, so why can’t you? When he forgets his homework, you feel the pressure of college admissions and you take it to him anyway. If you don’t take it to him, you are constantly beating yourself up for being a bad parent and wondering what his friend’s parents are going to think of this tactical failure.
The struggle is real. To add to the challenge, you are also watching your adorable, easy-going once elementary kid face hormonal battles and academic and performance stress under a magnifying glass of social media. You feel helpless against the gauntlet forcing students through high school with the “perfect” formula for college admissions or that next step in life.
I’ve Been There, Too.
Entitlement is a word I never wanted anyone to use to describe one of my children. But someone did, and it was accurate. I know what it feels like to want to develop responsibility in your children, but find it hard to hold them accountable for the things that develop that responsibility. I have always struggled with “how much is enough?” when it comes to work, chores, and letting them experience the natural consequences of their decisions.
I wish I could say I had an “aha” moment, but it has been more of a slow accumulation of good information and empirical evidence that made me realize there is a place of balance between expecting too much and expecting too little. It is a path. The path to UnEntitled has a name and a direction; it is like having guardrails to keep our kids on the road to responsibility.
Along with my husband of twenty-six years, my mom who lives nearby, and an amazing village of aunts, uncles, friends, teachers, and mentors, I am still striving toward the goal of raising responsible adults. One daughter graduated college, her two sisters are still in college, and the two boys are in high school.
My childhood friend Anne dubbed me “the Guru” when it comes to parenting. I can’t promise that, but I have accumulated more than twenty-four years of good ideas, mistakes to avoid, and lessons learned. My passion is sharing those ideas so other parents can avoid the pain of regret and instead experience the joy of raising a responsible adult.