Managing Their Moods

How to maintain your own equilibrium when they don't

It was day three of vacation with my husband and four kids — and I was losing it. My kids, ages 11 to 18, were cycling through moods, sometimes simultaneously. And I was being swept up in it, like the football we were playing with that kept being plunked into the lapping surf only to be spit back out on the sand.

That was me: the wet, crumpled football.

I should’ve been relaxing. Well, actually, wait. Should I have? No. It was a family trip. My expectation is never to just kick it. Getting through a few pages a day in a good book is a miracle.