How many ways can I help you to rebrand the holidays? I'll try one more time by sending you to watch the video I taped for Parents Ask. Tuck the ideas away, and enjoy the rest of this holiday for now. Then when all is said and done, ponder the ideas I have offered about rebranding the holidays to be in keeping with your family values, moving from GimME to give you. Have a lovely holiday season. … [Read more...] about Holiday Mistakes Parents Make
gimmies
The Experience of the Holidays
It’s all about gimme gimme gimme right about now, the middle of Chanukah and three weeks before Christmas. Well, of course it is, because the world—the media, advertisers, merchants—focus our children’s sights on the stuff they’re going to get. Ugh! In the end it is the experiences that define the holidays. Do you remember what you received when you were 7 or 8 or 9? Not likely. But you do remember what you always used to do with your family, year after year. Experiences in the form of … [Read more...] about The Experience of the Holidays
ThanksGIVING…and then?
I am always struck by the irony of Thanksgiving, the holiday of giving thanks, being followed so closely by the winter holidays—Christmas and Chanukah—the holidays of gimme gimme gimme. Our children are taught the Thanksgiving story—the horror of the true story somewhat p.c.-ified (made politically correct) to reflect the supposed kindness of the Native Americans to the Pilgrims. They are asked to consider all of that for which they are grateful. They participate in canned food and gently used … [Read more...] about ThanksGIVING…and then?
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!