The power of “WOW”

I’m a bit of a knowledge geek.  Or, maybe, a lot of a knowledge geek. One of the ways I increase my enjoyment factor when I exercise is to listen to podcasts that teach me things…pretty nerdy, huh?  But I like to hear about new and interesting things…it’s just quirky interesting learning…and I find I …

Hump Day Nudge: Giving the Best

Y’know how we often say in December…Wouldn’t it be nice to keep the Christmas spirit the whole year through? Y’know, that feeling we feel so powerfully between Christmas and New Year’s of:   family is important  relationships are stuff of life slowing down to spend time with friends and family is life-giving? Yeah, I say …

Building Capacity: You Can Do It!

I am not a morning person. This might be an understatement. I’m quite certain that all of my college papers were written between the hours of 11:00pm and 1:00am, and that I never really engaged meaningfully in class until after 9am and a few cups of coffee.  Many years later, and in spite of parenting …

Post-summer parenting shame

It’s that time of year again, where parents pull out school supply lists and dust off indoor shoes to see if they still fit for the upcoming year.  Lazy summer routines make way for structure, and boxes of KD head back to the pantry in favor of bagged lunches and portable snacks. For some people, …

Father-ishness

Today is a day we honour fathers in our lives…”Father’s Day”…and folks all over the city are having brunches, breakfasts of dried out cold toast or limp waffles, and BarBQ’s. The value of fathers in a child’s life cannot be overestimated. Having a father to affirm your personhood, to celebrate who you are, to remind …

The power of love

I think sometimes moms get caught up in the hoopla of the research of how to stimulate children’s brains, what to feed kids, how much screen time to allow, how to develop math skills, have the children learn a second or third language, how much physical activity/sleep/playdates etc. to have…and forget what is most important …

Parenting Through Divorce

No doubt about it.  Divorce is painful. Excruciating. It rocks a family’s world. And with that then, like it or not, divorce rocks a child’s world.  For some kids, it is a welcome relief from the fighting and the stress and the fear that kids feel when their parents are at each other’s throats, metaphorically …