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
Values
Be the Person You Want Your Child to Be
“You will not believe this story,” began the email from a client who had just returned from family services for the Jewish New Year. She described the mother and three children sitting next to her own family. “She was knitting!” (Yes, you read it correctly, knitting.) “And when she was done knitting, she pulled out her Blackberry and began texting.” I queried as to her guess of the ages of the children. Elementary and middle school, was her reply. There really isn’t more I need to write … [Read more...] about Be the Person You Want Your Child to Be
Your Children Are Watching You!
“Coach Accused of Punching Son” The headline in the LA Times caught my eye. A youth baseball coach is facing a simple assault charge for punching his 9 year old son in the face after the boy was ejected from a game. Are they kidding? I read it again. [Coach’s name] of suburban Harrisburg was charged after he allegedly struck his son twice with a closed fist… I read it one more time to make sure I was reading it correctly. Yep, that’s what it said alright. What could a 9 year old possibly … [Read more...] about Your Children Are Watching You!
Bffs Rock!
I just hung up the phone from my very own bff who was rushing to her mother’s hospital bedside in San Diego. Her world is falling apart. Loaded with her own issues of life and work and now her very ill mother, she needed to complain and unload…and unload and unload. She ended the conversation with, “I just don’t know what I would do without you. You are my bestest friend in the whole world.” Last week in her article in the New York Times, A Best Friend, You Must Be Kidding, author Hilary … [Read more...] about Bffs Rock!
Doing the Right Thing
When I was pondering the Introduction to my new book, You’re Not the Boss of Me, it occurred to me that all I really needed to write was one sentence: Be the person you want your child to be. Four pages later, that didn’t happen. But I still believe it. Children need to be surrounded by adults who live by and model the character traits and values that matter most if you want them to absorb those values. Last week a news story rocked the world of major league baseball. Armondo Galarraga … [Read more...] about Doing the Right Thing
Brats are not born
In response to my recent appearance on the Today Show – http://www.clicker.com/tv/today-show/Brat-proof-your-child-866570.html in case you missed it! — a woman wrote to tell me I was off base. She said that children are naturally brats and are naturally selfish. While I would not be quick to countradict this mother of 4 and grandmother of 11 who clearly has a lot of experience, I must say she is right and she is wrong. She is correct: children are born selfish. Infants and toddlers … [Read more...] about Brats are not born