In honor of anti-bullying month this October, watch this and think about how you talk about others in front of your children, your friends and your colleagues. We all learn from each other about how it is acceptable to talk about other people. Unfortunately, the internet and social media have made it too easy …
Life Lesson #2 Benign Neglect
The second of the series featuring unlikely and surprising but important principles for living well…we’ll start with a story… Not so long ago, one of my junior tribe members asked to go outside in dark late at night with a friend (who didn’t have his license) and practice parallel parking on the street with our …
Resilience
I was at an introductory meeting for parents at a school the other day. One of the speakers spoke to us about students and how to best prepare them to be able to do well. She said that research indicates that the number one predictive factor of academic success is the level of resilience in …
A Brave Mama Calls
Got an email from a dear friend, Nellie * yesterday…and she told me of how she had spoken with her son that day. No big deal for many moms…but for this mama, it was a once in lifetime experience….literally. Nellie received an email from her son who she has not seen in 36 years…she released …
Being Treasured…A Priceless Gift
The gift of knowing and hearing one’s worth and value is priceless. Learned that lesson in living color again this week. Ever since my junior tribe members were toddlers, I would take them out for lunch on their birthday. Just the two of us. Always right on the day…unless it was a weekend, and then …
Nurture changes brain structure
School-age children whose mothers nurtured them early in life have brains with a larger hippocampus, a key structure important to learning, memory and response to stress. …”This study validates something that seems to be intuitive, which is just how important nurturing parents are to creating adaptive human beings,” says lead author Joan L. Luby, MD, …
Have You Hugged Your Kid Today?
Have you hugged your kid today? Hugs can NEVER be overrated. Hugs are powerful…oxytocin is released during a hug…it connects people, it calms the soul, and soothes troubled emotions. Hugs help children settle, it “slows down a racing engine”, it reduces pain. Hugging is part of spending time, showing you care, nurturing and loving another. …
Mr. Dressup
CBC turned 75 years old this week. They’ve been playing bits of archival material, and because its one of the stations I listen to when I’m in the car, I’ve been catching bits of them…like pieces of “As it Happens” interviewing a hostage taker in the middle of Washington’s hostage crisis years ago, or the …
Deep Breath–and Love with Action
Sometimes it doesn’t take a lot for it to mean a lot. I was talking to a friend the other day…a friend who has had it “up to here” with adolescent sons…you know, the normal kind that burp (loud!) without apology, needs rides hither and yon, and just generally think they are the center of …
A Mixed Goodbye
All over this country, mothers and fathers are having “anticipatory grief”…knowing we are in the latter half of August. Soon kindergartners will leave their mothers for school…some can hardly wait to use their new knapsacks and tuck into school. Soon, new high school graduates will be packing up their suitcases and going off to college. …