Parenting & Family Life Archives - Allison Evans Coaching

Love & Relationships Parenting & Family Life

Mind Your Busy-ness (Be Present Instead of Worried)

Mind your own business! I was a child the first time I heard that retort. I was leaning toward two girls in a tête-à-tête, straining to hear their whispered conversation. I understood the clapback immediately: I was prying into things that did not concern me. How, then, does it make…

Allison EvansApril 5, 2024

Parenting & Family Life

Small Investments that Pay Big Returns in Relationships

Family life can be a lot of work.Although I admit that’s not a super helpful thought – I wrote about that kind of thinking in “Marriage as Serious Play” – it sure feels true sometimes. I have peeled a lot of carrots, washed thousands of dishes, paired up countless freshly…

Allison EvansMay 24, 2024

Love & Relationships Parenting & Family Life

The Spiritual Path of Motherhood

There are many paths to transformation, all of them hard and none superior to any other. I labored industriously as a student, relentlessly as a military officer, and tirelessly as a schoolteacher. But nothing changed me like motherhood.I recently wrote admiringly about the French approach to mothering that I encountered…

Allison EvansMay 9, 2024

Love & Relationships Parenting & Family Life The Work

Sexy Moms and Toddlers Who Dine: Lessons from the French

The MILF is not a thing in France. That was my biggest takeaway from the book Bringing Up Bébé, by Pamela Druckerman, an American journalist living and raising her kids in Paris. My children are grown, but I had to read this book because it is a Venn diagram of fascinations:…

Allison EvansApril 26, 2024

Parenting & Family Life

When You’re Scared, Trust More

I’ve been worried about my son. It’s the classic parenting dilemma: your child has a problem, and you want to fix it for them, but you can’t – even if it were possible, it’s not your place. So, you smile and casually ask, “How’s it going with x?” and encourage,…

Allison EvansMay 27, 2022

Parenting & Family Life

Something to Wrap My Empty Arms Around

"The ultimate touchstone of friendship is not improvement, neither of the self, nor the other. The ultimate touchstone of friendship is witness." - David Whyte Anytime I have the opportunity to listen to the poet David Whyte, I take it. He looks deeply at ordinary life and finds wonder and…

Allison EvansMarch 19, 2021

Parenting & Family Life

Kids, Parents, and Respect

This week my 18-year-old daughter told a story of how I’d crushed a dream of hers when she was a middle schooler. I could believe that I had an opinion on what she had wanted to do. But the idea that I would have “crushed” “a dream” – such high…

Allison EvansFebruary 23, 2021

Parenting & Family Life

Powerful Parenting Teachers Who are Not My Daughter

Motherhood, as I shared last week, has been a stumbling path for me. I always wanted to do it well, but I was unprepared. Who is prepared, though? The mountains of parenting books persuade me that, at least, I was not alone in my cluelessness! As I reflected on things my daughter…

Allison EvansDecember 11, 2020

Parenting & Family Life

Things My Daughter Taught Me

I’m in a reflective mood. Our daughter and firstborn, Elliot, turned 18. Before I had her, I knew I wanted to be a mother, but it was a blind instinct. I didn’t know what I was getting into. Honestly, I thought parenthood might be like it was on tv: the…

Allison EvansDecember 5, 2020

Parenting & Family Life

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