Family Matters

35-hour Baby

The story of my personal loss and recovery and proof that what does not kill you, makes you stronger and more positive

Acceptance

The 3-part story of my life coaching client who learned that acceptance is a critical element in finding happiness.

Anorexia

I have spent some time coaching a woman who suffered from Anorexia Nervosa. She weighed 32kg and would not eat to save her life. A study in high schools in Canada found that 50% of girls were on a diet because they thought they were overweight. If your daughter is young and you think, “I’ll deal with it when she is a teen”, think again. Anorexia is a control disorder, so watch for the signs and save your daughter while you can!

Bullying

Myths, facts and figures about what has become a worldwide epidemic both offline and online. Bullying is a form of violence, so what should parents do when their child is bullied or bullies someone else?

Creative Kids

Creativity is more important for kids today than knowledge. Kids know a lot more than we did at their age, but to be successful, they need something extra – they need to be able to figure out where everyone else is going and go some other way. In other words, they need to be creative

Effective Reading for Kids

Reading is an important tool for gaining knowledge. When I was a kid, my teachers provided us most of the knowledge we got. Today, my kids get most of their new knowledge by themselves, much of it by reading. In fact, I believe that getting our kids to love reading is the single most significant thing we can do for them. Here is how.

Excellence

There is a paradox in the search for excellence, because it is the result of an attitude, a habit you need to have in the first place in order to achieve it. This series offers tips and advice on how to succeed and achieve excellence in life

From the Life Coaching Deck

Stories about my life coaching clients and their personal development journeys. Each story carries a message everyone can enjoy and learn from

Handy Family Tips

Things you can do at home to save time, money and space, based on personal experience

Happily Wealthy Family

Financial struggles can put a lot of strain on family life. When I talk to people about the challenges in their life, many of them say that shortage of money is the main source of their difficulties. This post series contains tips and advice on how to do better financially and why.

How to Manage Difficult People

How to Praise Your Kids

Kids can be smart and/or pretty, but not confident. In fact, when kids think they are smart, it sometimes takes away their motivation. This is why parents must learn how to praise their kids

How to Raise Friendly Kids

If you want your kids to be friendly and succeed in life, you must help them develop social skills by providing them with many opportunities to experience interaction with friends. So what are those social skills kids need?

How to Stimulate Kids

Every person prefers to communicate using one or two channels or styles. Kids are no different. They can be visual, kinesthetic, auditory or digital.

Once you know your child’s communication styles, it becomes easy to stimulate them, keep them busy and help them develop.

How to Study For Tests

Tips and advice from my personal experience as a teacher and tutor, as well as the accumulated experience of many teachers, other parents and my own kids

I Believe in You

How parents’ letters of love and trust inspired kids in my leadership camp and changed their lives and what we can learn from this as parents

Irrational Rules of Living

Most people do not like to talk about their rules, but they have them for everything. There are rules for living, rules for dying, rules for work, rules for home, rules for riding the bus and rules for eating in a restaurant. As soon as you understand you do not live alone in the world, you know that to get along, you need to have some rules to live by. The amazing part is that even to get along with ourselves we need rules. Of course, as mostly subconscious beings, many of our rules are quite irrational.

Kids in Power Prison

A special event that took place during a leadership camp and made kids face a challenging position of power over their peers

Kids' Declaration of Independence

If you talk to most parents (when they are calm), they will tell you that independence is very important. Yet when I ask them how if they teach independence, they talk about chores. My mom did the same. She said, “If you do the dishes from the age of 10, when you live in your own home, you will be able to do the dishes”. We told her, “No, Mom. If I wash the dishes from the age of 10, by the time I am grown up, I will hate and resent it so much I will avoid washing the dishes”.

Even though my mom did not think that fun and motivation had anything to do with the kind of grownups we would become, she still wanted us to be independent. I think that much like many other parents, she confused doing chores with independence.

Make a List

Improve your life and grow as a person by making these lists – what makes you happy, who are your friends and lots more

Mom, I'm Bored

How many times have you heard that? Almost every school break and holiday, kids have no idea what to do with themselves when they are out of their routine. Of course, it is their parents’ job to keep them busy. So here are 100 fun activities for the little ones to make your life easier.

Motivating Kids

Lots of great tips on how parents can motivate their kids – external vs. internal motivation, using praise and many more

My Psychic Mom

Stories of weird things my mother knows and dreams about that I just cannot explain in any other way, so I think she is psychic

Quid Pro Quo

The give and take of various relationships, from advertising to free sample to making friend and bearing a grudge. When you want something from someone else, start by giving, but what if “they started it”?

Ronit's Parenting Bible

I deliver many parenting workshops. One of the participants asked me if I had ever written my “parenting bible”. At first, I did not think I could write a set of rules that would suit all parents, but then I decided I would just write my personal parenting rules and parents could just use them as a starting point for writing their own

Save Your Marriage

The things that make marriage tough and the tips that make it possible to keep and nurture

Self Esteem Mini-Course

What is self esteem, what is it good for, why kids should have high self esteem and how parents can help their kids have it

Telling Parents the Truth

Telling parents their child has a problem is not an easy task. Do you tell parents their child has a difficulty and risk that the label is going to be hard to remove, or follow the parents’ desire to believe their child will “grow out of it” and find out in Grade 6 that the kid is unable to read a single word?

The Approval Trap

We are all born into the approval trap without a choice. We seek our parents’ approval to learn about life and build our confidence and then we get trapped! But how do we get out and regain control over our life?

The Art of Misery

Happiness and misery are titles of all the experiences in life. The Star Wars movie series is a good example of the two contradicting experiences. You can join either the Jedi or the dark side.

Things I Want My Kids to Know

Important things kids sometimes do not know about their parents and I want to make sure my kids always know – that I love them, that I will always come to rescue them, and more.

Tips for a Stress-Free Lifestyle

According to scientists, stress is the number 1 cause of mental and physical problems in humans in the 21st century. I think we are so stressed because life today is much more complicated than previously: there are too many options, too much stimulation and everything goes so fast. Way to fast. This series gives you 60 great ideas to relax and eliminate stress from your life forever.

Top Parenting Bloggers Discuss

Answers to important questions every parent wants to know, given by parenting experts from the blogosphere

Topsy Turvy World

Reverse psychology is a powerful thing in our upside-down world. Giving to get, praising to raise achievers and slowing down to speed up are all practical ways of getting more out of life

TV Diet

Many parents complain that their kids spend way too much time in front of the television. So why do they do it? And what can you do about it?

Video Game Violence

This year, my 15-year-old son Tsoof had to do a school assignments in drama class. If you think Drama studies are all about playing, make belief or acting, they are not. He had to research a topic and present it in a special style and he worked really hard on this project. Gal and I felt happy and privileged to watch the whole process of this assignment and the way he grew from doing it.

Our kids do not play computer or video games that often (they are too busy ice skating, singing, playing music, dancing, playing sport and reading to have much time left for video games), so we did not expect this to make any difference to Tsoof, but it did big time.

We were shocked by how easy it was to find information on video games and violence. It is all there – all the proof for the negative and devastating effects of violent video games on our society. Yet, the spread of violent video games is increasing and things are getting worse.