TOPIC: Parenting
Banish Common Parenting Myths
As if it isn’t challenging enough to raise children, most parents believe myths that make them feel confused and inadequate. These horrible myths can spoil the joy of family life. You may have never realized how intensely these beliefs affect you, but they do. By acknowledging that these myths exist in your life, you take the first step toward eliminating them. Learning the truth will erase your doubts and build your confidence.
ScreamFree Parenting
Years from now, when Oprah leans across the couch and asks, “Hal, how did all of this get started?”, I’ll have my answer ready. It started right here with these words: the greatest thing we can do for our kids is learn to focus on ourselves. Those are the words that launch my upcoming book, ScreamFree Parenting: Raising Our Kids by Keeping Our Cool.
Surfing Your Child’s Emotional Tsunami
Here’s a conversation I recently had with my 7-year-old when he wasn’t at his logical best.
Ben: I can’t go to sleep. I’m mad that you never leave me a note in the middle of the night.
Me: I didn’t know you wanted me to.
Ben: You never do anything nice for me, you do things at night for Luke, and I’m mad because my birthday isn’t for 10 more months, and I hate homework.
A New Kind of Mom
Owen and Jodi are this amazingly quirky and funny couple who live in Austin, Texas. They met while both working on a comedy improv team and they are ridiculously in love. We spent the weekend with them recently and they reintroduced us to world we had almost forgotten ever really existed. A world full of Jazz clubs and late night pancake stops. Of laughter late in the night and early into the morning. Of philosophical talks over lingering cups of coffee. Real coffee. Now, my days are filled with attending practices and checking homework. I spend more time in my minivan than I ever thought possible, driving to birthday parties for kids I don’t even really know.
Becoming a Father: 10 Things They Don’t Warn You About
Congratulations! You have decided to throw your genetic hat into the ring and commit the next 18+ years of your life to the creation, protection, education and gratification of CHILDREN. Or perhaps you’re simply weighing the options. In either case, here is a handy list of 10 things that may befall you that NO ONE will tell you about before you begin down the road to parenthood.
Eating Out with Kids: Restaurant Behavior
You don’t have to give up dining out, and you don’t have to skip a date night if the babysitter cancels. There are ways to teach children how to behave appropriately in a restaurant so that it is a fun evening out for everyone in the family.
Mothers and Daughters
I think moms generally get a bad rap as their children get older. In movies and TV they are usually portrayed as neurotically overbearing or with selfish disdain (or an absurd amount of wisdom, but I digress). And adult daughters of mothers can often be seen as helpless to their mother’s power and hoping she will cut her visit short. Is that really the case in the real world?
What I’m Learning From Single Parents
I cannot really imagine being a single parent. Yes, I’ve counseled with hundreds of them, spoken to hundreds more. And yes, I’ve experienced countless moments of “doing it on my own” with my two kids when my wife was out, or out of town. And yes, unfortunately, I was raised by two single parents after my parents divorced when I was eleven.
Memorial to a ScreamFree Father
“My dad never pushed me into golf. He never told me to go practice; he never even asked me to play. It was always me wanting to play with him.”
-Tiger Woods
If you’re watching golf this weekend, like I will be, look out for the new Tiger Woods commercial. It’s a collage of various footage and photographs from Tiger’s childhood, all showcasing his close relationship with his father, Earl Woods.
I’ll Be There For You
“I’ll always be there for you.” Sounds like the words of a great friend, doesn’t it? Most of us think so. But let’s examine those words for a moment. Part of our mission at ScreamFree Living is to change the way the world talks about relationship. This is because our language is so reflective of our true beliefs, leading us to communicate messages that may not be the ones we intended.
