I remember vividly looking for something on TV while I was spending endless hours nursing my first born child, Claire in the mid 80′s.  I’d watched Phil Donahue from time to time but his show ended and was replaced by Oprah Winfrey.  I loved her instantly and I felt, like so many others, that she was like one of us.  She was someone I knew I could comfortably invite into my own living room.  She was real.  She was funny.  She was warm.  I absolutely loved the way she connected with her audience and her guests.  I was hooked.  Everyday from 4-5 for probably 20 years, I turned on Oprah.  I watched how the show evolved from a standard talk show with a bit of a twist, to what Oprah stands for now.  I confess I’m a personal growth junky so I would be riveted to the TV with the many guests she had who taught us how to live a better life.

My kids have grown up with Oprah.  Part of their childhood memories will be remembering me turning her on every single day.  When my daughter graduated, someone wrote in her yearbook:  “I’ll always remember coming to your house after school and watching Oprah with you and your mom.”  Many of her regular guests have become household names.  Like thousands of other people, I started a book club after Oprah started her book club.  I learned what a life coach was from watching her interview people like Cheryl Richardson, Debbie Ford and many others.  I became a life coach myself.

I haven’t been watching Oprah as religiously as I did before because when Dr. Phil started his show, I felt I couldn’t justify watching TV for 2 hours straight, during the the afternoon.  On Wednesday, she’ll be airing her very last show.  It’s going to mark the end of an era.  I’ll be watching the last few shows for sure and I know her parting words will stay with us forever.  In some way, Oprah has touched us all.  We’ve cried with her, laughed with her and grown with with her.  There’s much more of her to come, but afternoon TV won’t be the same without her.

Last week I was leading a parenting group and we started discussing video games.  We weren’t talking about kids playing video games, in this case we were talking about husbands.  There were three women who said their husbands spent countless hours in front of a video screen playing games.  As my own husband has never [...]

I recently had a mom of a seven year old girl tell me she was having a lot of problems with her daughter.  She wasn’t doing the things she was asked to do, she was arguing a lot, and generally challenging her mother with virtually everything.  I also had a mom of a five year [...]

I’m going to make the assumption that all of you reading this have said at one time: “I just want the best for my child”. Have you ever stopped to consider what you really mean by “the best”? Do you feel everything you own that’s associated with parenting, should be “the best”? Do you feel [...]

Like most people, the arrival of the New Year moves me to do some reflection of the previous year and have thoughts around my intentions for 2011.  I like to document my successes rather than my “failures” or what didn’t go well.  For me, every new client who gained some valuable insights from me that [...]

Where does the time go?  Here we are on the day before Christmas, 2010.  I’m hosting Christmas Eve dinner tonight for my family and then Christmas dinner will just be the immediate family; being my husband and I, our four adult children and our seven year old grandson.  I usually have everyone for Christmas dinner [...]

Tomorrow on the Dr. Oz Show, we’ll learn that many of the things we were told growing up, were actually wrong. “Myths Exposed! Everything Your Mother Told You Was Wrong” Does mother really know best? Dr. Oz busts the most common wellness myths. He is joined by the guy who makes science fun, special guest, [...]

The other day I had a fascinating conversation with a young mom that led to her sharing parts of her childhood.  Without going into the details, the essence of her story was that much of her young life was spent living her mother’s dream.  The result produced some complicated outcomes for her as an adult. [...]

A few years ago through a social networking site I met Marilyn Jenett, a prosperity mentor who teaches people how to manifest money by changing the way they think and talk about money.  I read testimonials from people who had taken her programs and did indeed manifest money where at times it seemed to appear [...]

A couple of times a year I  lead a group of parents in a series of parenting classes.   The groups are small; usually just 6 to 8 people.  Because I’m a coach, they end up being group coaching because I try to meet the individual needs of each parent and use much the same kind [...]