Elin Stebbins Waldal

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Dear 16 Year Old Me

May 14, 2015 By elinwaldal 13 Comments

Dear 16-Year-Old Me, Just you wait. Oh, how I cringe when I hear those three words. I cringe because what is inferred is this: you don’t have a clue, you haven’t seen anything yet because the life you have led thus far doesn’t measure up to what someone else has experienced. Truth is, I don’t […]

Filed Under: Inspiration Tagged With: Dear 16 Year Old Me, Dear Daughter, Dear Son, Parenting, Teenagers

Books and Memories

Dec 9, 2014 By elinwaldal 14 Comments

Books and memories…for me they go together in a way that elicits feelings of love. When I look back as far as my mind’s eye will take me, I can’t see a period of time that didn’t include books. According to my mother, my first favorite was Pat the Bunny. Mom had a story, which by all appearances was […]

Filed Under: NaBloPoMo Dec 14, On being a parent Tagged With: Bedtime Stories, Children's Books, memories, NaBloPoMo Dec 14, Parenting, reading, Rituals

Halloween is Over

Nov 1, 2014 By Elin Stebbins Waldal 28 Comments

Halloween is over, it’s over in the literal sense because it’s November 1st and it’s also over in the metaphorical sense because my three kids are all well past the ages where their costumes made my heart sing. We could hear them as they approached last night. Little feet slapped the sidewalk as if the […]

Filed Under: NaBloPoMo Nov 14, On being a parent Tagged With: Halloween, Parenting, Time

The Crashed Computer, an unexpected reminder

Oct 21, 2013 By Elin Stebbins Waldal 2 Comments

By and large we are not technically savvy people, so I was skeptical when Jimmy announced we were going to retrieve lost information from off of the hard drives of our old computers. Towers, monitors, keyboards and wires all previously utilized had been unceremoniously shoved to the garage. Among them was an old Dell that […]

Filed Under: On being a parent Tagged With: computer crash, hard drive recovery, Parenting, pictures

The Gift: A short story in parenting

Oct 2, 2013 By Elin Stebbins Waldal 9 Comments

When my son Max was four he went to pre-school at a small private school in Boulder, Colorado, the school was nestled in the outskirts of town with a playground that enjoyed a full view of the Flatiron Mountains. It was there that I learned what remains one of the best pieces of parenting wisdom […]

Filed Under: On being a parent Tagged With: Kindness, Parenting, Patience

Talking About Teen Dating Violence

Apr 7, 2011 By elinwaldal Leave a Comment

*Note: This interview was originally published on Midlife at the Oasis. Not all kisses are loving, as Elin Stebbins Waldal reveals so bravely and intimately in Tornado Warning: A Memoir of Teen Dating Violence and Its Effect on a Woman’s Life. As you know, Amy, Susan and I all have teenage daughters so we were immediately […]

Filed Under: Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault Awareness Tagged With: dating abuse, Healing, Parenting, Teen Dating Violence, Teens, Tornado Warning Book

Mothers and Daughters

Oct 27, 2010 By elinwaldal 3 Comments

It is not unusual for my daughter and me to create time together. I absolutely love that weeks before her 13TH birthday she still says these words — “I can’t wait to spend the afternoon with just you mom!” As it happened this past weekend we planned to spend Sunday afternoon together, a day that also coincided with the […]

Filed Under: On being a parent Tagged With: Belief in Oneself, Daughters, Love, Mother daughter relationship, Mothers, Parenting, Self-Confidence, self-esteem, Time

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