Family-related posts: kids, teens, parenting, marriage and home
“He is very manipulative!” You’ve probably heard this sentence before. Maybe you even used it yourself. It’s usually said with the same tone you’d use for moldy cheese or stepping on LEGO barefoot. But here’s the thing: manipulation isn’t a bad word. And before you scream, “Noooo, Ronit, don’t go there!”, stay with me. In […]
I met Zara’s parents, Annie, and Dan, at a parenting workshop I ran in their remote hometown. Over 60 parents crowded into a small school hall, tired, worried, and hopeful. That night, I shared a true story about children’s dysfunctional ways of seeking love and attention—and about how parents struggle too. How we must take care of ourselves if we want to care for our children. There were lots of crying parents there.
That workshop ended after 9pm, but the conversations didn’t. Parents stayed, queued patiently, and waited to talk to me personally. Annie and Dan came to me after 11pm. Annie was teary and barely able to speak. Dan gently touched her arm, grounding her.
Their daughter, Zara, was 16. She hadn’t been to school for over a year. She didn’t leave the house. What they were facing had a name many parents know too well: teen social anxiety.
Read Teen Social Anxiety: True Story About Fear, Movement & One Brave Yes »
Most of us move through life reacting automatically to what shows up in front of us. Something happens — the scale goes up, a cold sets in, we overeat after a stressful day — and immediately we label it: bad, wrong, a setback, a failure.
And once we label something, our mind jumps into its usual story.
– “I messed up again.”
– “I shouldn’t feel this way.”
– “This shouldn’t be happening.”
– “What’s wrong with me?”
We don’t even notice that we’re doing it.
Read Weeds to Flowers: How a Shift in Perspective Can Transform Your Health and parenting »
We all know that warm, melting feeling when someone says, “I love you.” Three simple words, yet they reach every cell of our body like sunlight warming a cold room. We crave hearing them, and if we’re confident enough, we enjoy saying them too.
Love nourishes us — research shows that love strengthens our immune system, increases happiness, expands longevity, and even impacts financial wellbeing. The greatest thing in life is simply to love and be loved in return.
But here’s the strange, painful truth…
Read Breaking the Generational Disability of Love: How to Teach Your Children to Feel Truly Loved »
I decided to write about FOMO (Fear of missing out) because I’ve seen it quietly affect adults as much as teenagers — parents, grandparents, professionals, anyone who scrolls through social media or compares themselves to others.
We all want our children to be happy, successful, and confident, but sometimes, we forget to nurture our own sense of contentment. FOMO steals your happiness and I want to help you recognize FOMO understand its impact, and take practical steps to reclaim joy, confidence, and peace of mind.
Read The Emotional Cost of FOMO: How Fear of Missing Out Steal Your Happiness »
From early human history, punishment has been a dominant tool used by parents, educators, and governments. Most of us grow up with the belief that people act based on two main motivations — pain or pleasure. The classic “carrots and sticks” model seems to govern human behaviour, and for many families, this model continues to shape the way children are raised. There are alternatives to punishment.
Punishment is not simply a behavioural tool. Punishment is a manipulation strategy, often disguised as “teaching a lesson.” We use it to make others behave in a way that suits us, even when we say it is for their own good. When we punish children, we attempt to arrange life to meet our needs — not theirs.
Read Alternatives to Punishment: Positive Discipline for Happier, Stronger Kids »
Last week was World Kindness Day, and every year, when the date comes around, I can’t help but smile. But I also can’t help thinking, Why only one day? If there’s anything families need right now, it’s more kindness — not just for others, but especially kindness to yourself.
In my coaching work at Be Happy in Life and in the countless conversations I’ve had with parents over the years, this theme keeps coming up again and again. Parents want their kids to be confident, happy, and emotionally strong — but they forget that the journey starts with the emotional environment inside themselves.
Read Kindness to Yourself: The Secret to Raising Happy, Resilient Kids »
Growing up in a family that can’t enjoy the present and thinks joy can only come later, one day (maybe!) can do lots of damage to your kids. Not enjoying the things you have, focusing on trying to impress others, and saving everything “for a special day” takes a lot of energy.
This was the family I grew up in, and I had to change it, for my sake and the sake of my children.
Using my own medicine and walking the talk, I have used my own techniques of writing goals and changing attitude from “One special day” to “Every day is a special day”, and I set new family goals that changed our family life forever.
Here is my story.
Read Make Every Day a Special Day »
Kids sometimes do things that others don’t like. Sometimes, they break things and even hurt others. It’s important to help them understand what happened, but parents should never force them to say, “I’m sorry”.
I think the idea of saying “sorry” is distorted because of social “expectations” that if someone is hurt, we must have done something to cause it. This makes parents “teach” their kids to say “sorry” even if it comes without actual “sorrow”.
It’s very easy to see it with young children. They take a game away from another kid (sibling), the other kid cries. Immediately, the parents scold them and force them to go to the other kid and say they’re sorry.
This is humiliating. It plants in those kids the idea that saying “sorry” is admitting guilt, even if they don’t think they’re guilty. And it builds up and stays with the kids.
Communication works like a bee. It can produce honey or sting. It’s true. Our communication is the tool we have to connect or destroy relationship. To be better parents, we need to develop better communication with our children.
When our kids are born, they have full trust in us. They trust us with their life. They have to, because without us, they would die. Literally.
Over the years, that trust is gradually lost. Not because the kids grow out of it, but because the parents change the way they communicate with their children.
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