Guest post from Dad

As a wonderful 12 year old girl, Amy has fully embraced the idea that Dad is always wrong. Whether it is my handwriting on the family wall calendar or the level of sunlight during the daytime. She loves to point out my every little mistake like using the black marker on the calendar (black means the whole family) for an event that is only Mom and Dad (blue and orange). It is totally age appropriate for her to not let anything go and she excels at it. If I say I am 5 ft 8 1/2 in tall she will say, "No... uh.." Then she's not sure what to say, she just knows that I am wrong! Other times I'll say the clouds look white and she'll say, "No, the clouds aren't white they are off white with blue peaking through." Amy is never mean about it or condescending, she just says declares my error and makes a correction. It happens like 10 times a day! Mostly I need to just keep my mouth shut.

Reed, who just turned 15, is starting to struggle with social anxiety. In freshman English they do what the school calls a socratic seminar. The kids basically talk about a topic and the grading is based on their level participation. During the first 2 seminars Reed literally said nothing and earned grades of zero. Lara and I met with the teacher and counselor. Reed now participates in smaller seminars with few numbers of kids and some kids he is more comfortable with. His grades have been good in these smaller groups but we don't have a sense of how much he is really participating. Tonight, Reed and I went to Chick-fil-A for dinner. The deal was that he had to order the meal for both of us. This scared him to death. He admitted that he was afraid of messing up. We stood in line for about 10 minutes until he would only go to the counter with me standing right next to him, prompting him. He did the ordering and I am very proud of him, but he needs a lot of practice and to face his fears. In hindsight, this anxiety is probably why he doesn't go out for sports/activities and why he won't ride bikes to the store with his friends. We need to parent him better to give him tools to face his fears, put him in situations to practice social contact and be successful.

Love you both. Dad