It’s hard not to love the movie Babies. That’s what I chose to do for my Mothers’ Day observance. It was kind of like eating chocolate… all good! There were none of the not-so-fun parts of babies, like colic and diarrhea and sleepless nights. Just one oooo and ahhhhh after another. But the cute is not what stuck with me. Several days later, I am thinking about the stark contrast in the way the Japanese and the American babies were parented compared to the African and Mongolian babies. The … [Read more...] about Leave the Babies Alone?
Environmental influences
Follow YOUR Passion
A Mother’s Day blog should be meaningful, perhaps profound, poignant, maybe a little sappy, and really chock full of platitudes about the importance of mothers. It should be, but I am on a different journey. I was sitting in Disney Hall, watching the dynamic Gustavo Dudamel and listening to the brilliant Los Angeles Philharmonic with my dear friend, Freida Mock. I sat there thinking how angry I am that music education has been cut from public schools and how important it is that children be … [Read more...] about Follow YOUR Passion
Lousy Local Conditions
While I cannot take credit for inventing the expression lousy local conditions, I use it all the time. It’s just so right-on-the-button. Lousy local conditions refers to those times when a child’s less than perfect behaviors are magnified or even created by the conditions of his environment. The child who has missed a nap or a meal, who went to sleep late or woke up too early, who has been dragged on too many errands, who has attended one birthday party too many, who had a bad day at school, … [Read more...] about Lousy Local Conditions
The 4 R’s
What an amazing experience I had last weekend when I lunched with two women with whom I went to elementary school, one of whom I have not seen since I graduated from 6th grade. Seriously! Keep in mind that I graduated from Seeds UES in Los Angeles, now called The Lab School (of UCLA), in 1960. That’s right, 50 years ago. But this blog is not about all the catching up we did nor is it about the 50 year reunion we are organizing. In sharing our memories my two classmates and I discovered a … [Read more...] about The 4 R’s
Gimme Juice Now!
Regardless of the topic of the seminar I am teaching, I end up making the same point: There are three peaks a child must climb in order to grow up and make his way through life fairly happily: learning to tolerate frustration, learning to tolerate disappointment (These first two are kind of twin peaks.), and learning to delay gratification. It is the last peak, the one that stands on its own, that parents find particularly daunting. Being able to delay gratification is directly related to … [Read more...] about Gimme Juice Now!
The Importance of Doing Nothing
“What are we going to do today?” pleads the child as he climbs into the car after a full day of school. What is that about? Is it that the child has come to expect that every day brings a new form of parent-organized, post school entertainment – music lessons, sports lessons, art classes, dance classes, “enrichment” classes, and playdates? And I wonder if maybe, in our mission to make sure our children don’t miss one minute of mind and body improvement, we are forgetting the importance of … [Read more...] about The Importance of Doing Nothing