Grown and Flown

We are a reader-supported site and receive compensation from purchases made through these links. See more about our Privacy and Affiliate policies here

The store manager at Men’s Wearhouse saw another teen boy, one of thousands who would come this spring in hoodies and sweats, looking like they’d rather be any place else. The only thing setting us apart, I thought, was we were the first fitting of prom season and the store was unusually quiet; a benefit, I told him, to having a type-A mom.

A mom of a likable, down-to-earth kid calls the school counseling office worried. “My daughter’s friends seem to be ditching her,” the mom tells me. “She sees photos on Snapchat and Instagram of their parties, but she’s not invited to any of them. I don’t know whether to be mad at her friends or worried that my daughter is doing something to push them away.”

We are a reader-supported site and receive compensation from purchases made through these links. See more about our Privacy and Affiliate policies here

We asked our

Every year it comes to this. Every year for twenty-five springs, at some point during the first full week of May, I have found myself in Target or a grocery store or at CVS standing in front of the Mother’s Day cards with a lump in my throat.

Sometimes, depending on the poetry within the ca...