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Home » Family Matters » Page 3

Exciting Letters from a Reader: Body, Mind and Gratitude

Happy boy in a water fountain

Recently, I had an opportunity to correspond with one of my readers who found treasures in my blog. She managed to change her life and the life of her family just by following some of my practical tips.

I was very happy, grateful and honored to read her letters. I hope that bringing them here will help you too. Consider your own attitude towards body, mind and gratitude.

I’ve changed the reader’s name to respect her privacy, but left everything else in the letters as it was.

Read Exciting Letters from a Reader: Body, Mind and Gratitude »

Published: August 12, 2020 by Ronit Baras
Last modified: August 18, 2020In: Parenting, Beautiful people, Health / Wellbeing Tags: health / wellbeing, practical parenting / parents, gratitude, change, attitude

My Parenting Book “Motivating Kids” is Now in Print

Motivating Kids

Over 20 years ago, people said to me that books were going to be a thing of the past. The prediction that we would no longer see any printed newspaper or book was devastating for me, because my desire to be an author and a journalist just didn’t seem right without them.

When I heard that, I grieved the lost experience of touching books, taking my kids to the library, smelling the printed paper and sitting in the kids’ corner, reading, enjoying the moment and imagining we are in a different world. Inside, I prayed it wouldn’t happen. At least, I prayed it wouldn’t happen too quickly.

I think my wish came true.

Read My Parenting Book “Motivating Kids” is Now in Print »

Published: July 26, 2019 by Ronit Baras
Last modified: November 28, 2022In: Parenting Tags: books, motivation, personal development / personal growth / personality development / self improvement, practical parenting / parents, how to, choice

Boring: What Does it Really Mean?

Little girl looking bored

As a parent, I hear the word “boring” a lot. I also heard it a lot as a teacher. There are two main reasons kids use the word “boring”:

1. They say “boring” instead of “hard” when they want to hide their difficulties.
2. They want to manipulate their parents and put pressure on them.

Today, I would like to talk about the reasons and solutions for the second type of motivation.

Children learn at an early age that their parents find the word “boring” painful. They know their parents feel uncomfortable when they hear it, so it becomes a “button” to press. This happens when the parents see themselves as being in charge of their children’s entertainment.

I am sure you have heard many mothers say that they can’t leave their babies on their own for 2 seconds. Those babies grow up to be kids who can’t entertain themselves, and later on, they become adults who can’t entertain themselves.

Read Boring: What Does it Really Mean? »

Published: April 3, 2019 by Ronit Baras
Last modified: August 13, 2020In: Parenting Tags: tv, activity, kids / children, tips, behavior / discipline, guilt, emotional development, practical parenting / parents, responsibility, motivation

Raising Gifted and Talented Kids with Music

Girl playing the piano

Every parent wants their child to be gifted and talented. We want our kids to be able to manage themselves throughout the challenges of the education process, which takes between 13 and 18 years. My kids have done that, and people who know them often ask, “What have you done to raise such gifted and talented children?”

Recently, I was at an event, where my son Tsoof performed a piece he had written in front of hundreds of people. After the event, some people came to me to congratulate me for his successful performance, and I stood there like a peacock, as if I had played it myself. It felt great, but the real benefit of playing music was in the development of his brain.

I specialize in children with learning difficulties, as well as gifted and talented children. After studying and doing Special Education work for many years, I developed methods to make sure my kids wouldn’t develop learning difficulties, and if they did, to get rid of them quickly (I am a great believer in the plasticity of the brain). But beyond that, I used these methods to make them gifted and talented.

Why? Because life is easier that way.

Read Raising Gifted and Talented Kids with Music »

Published: March 13, 2019 by Ronit Baras
Last modified: November 9, 2021In: Parenting Tags: music, how to, gifted, research, video, academic performance, practical parenting / parents

Speak Your Truth for a Strong Relationship

Weird Old Couple

I’ve been in a relationship for 38 years, and I know it’s not always easy to speak your truth. When you bring two people together, they both need to compromise a lot and can’t easily balance the ratio between “give” and “take”.

Just recently, I had the chance to be on my own for 6 weeks when my husband went to drum in Africa. I realized that as partners and parents, we compromise many times, to the point where we might forget who we truly are.

When I say “compromise”, I don’t mean that anyone has any bad intentions. It happens naturally. When you live with other people, you can’t just do what you feel like doing. My son was also in Africa and my youngest daughter, who is 17, spent her time studying and having get-togethers with her friends, so she was not home either most of the time.

During those weeks, I examined 3 of my habits: sleep, eating and fun time. I realized I didn’t follow my natural cycles of sleeping, eating or doing fun things when my family members were around, because, first and foremost, I think of their timetable and their needs, and I juggle everyone else into a plan that would work. Me and my cycles are normally not part of the picture.

Don’t get me wrong. It was my choice. I just realized I had neglected part of myself.

Read Speak Your Truth for a Strong Relationship »

Published: March 7, 2019 by Ronit Baras
Last modified: June 5, 2023In: Parenting, Relationships / Marriage Tags: communication, emotional intelligence, how to, choice, truth, relationships / marriage, acceptance / judgment / tolerance, self confidence / self esteem / self worth, personal development / personal growth / personality development / self improvement, partner

Best Family Quotes by the Amazing Virginia Satir

Virginia Satir

The family quotes in this post were written by Virginia Satir, the mother of Family Therapy. I appreciate her and have learned a lot from her over the years, and some of her best quotes hang where I can read them again and again.

Virginia Satir’s quotes about family and her philosophy about family relationships have become a great compass for me. I would like to share them with you and inspire you to consider and adopt her ideas about family.

One of the reasons I enjoyed Virginia Satir’s work was that she started as an educator, and so did I. I have a soft spot for people who are educators as, because I think their spin on their work is different and more effective.

Read Best Family Quotes by the Amazing Virginia Satir »

Published: January 30, 2019 by Ronit Baras
Last modified: September 7, 2020In: Parenting Tags: how to, wisdom, society, family matters, affirmations, acceptance / judgment / tolerance, self confidence / self esteem / self worth, practical parenting / parents

Best Family Quotes that Will Change Your Life

Happy family on Whitehaven beach

Family quotes, and other quotes, have been part of my life and personal growth since I was 16 years old.

For the first time, I had my own room. I took a sheet of thick paper that looked like an old scroll, burned its edges with a candle, wrote some quotes on it (by hand) and put on to my wall with sticky tape.

Recently, my sister helped clean up my parents’ house and found the quotes I left there 38 years ago. One of the family quotes was from the book Illusions by Richard Bach, which I had received as a gift.

This book has made a huge impression on my life and this quote changed the way I looked at family and life.

Read Best Family Quotes that Will Change Your Life »

Published: November 14, 2018 by Ronit Baras
Last modified: November 30, 2020In: Parenting Tags: responsibility, wisdom, happiness, family matters, positive attitude tips, personal development / personal growth / personality development / self improvement, practical parenting / parents

Open Home: Guests Welcome

Guests raising their glasses at a party

Good families don’t just happen. They are made with awareness and action. As a parent, I encourage you to write family goals, so you can lead your family to a happy, healthy and wealthy lifestyle. I didn’t grow up in an open home, and I decided to change that, so I set some goal.

In this post, I want to share one of my family goals, which I wrote to replace a behavior form my parents’ home I didn’t like at all – closed doors.

My mom was always preoccupied with what other people thought about her. I never blamed her for it. Well, that’s not true. When I was very young, I even hated her for it. It was exhausting.

Anyway, when I was 16 years old, I realized that this was how she had grown up. What other people think about her was her reason for living. She dedicated much of her life to please people whose opinion mattered to her. This took over her life and, as her children, also ruled our lives.

One thing that bothered her greatly was having a clean house. The problem was not that she wanted the house to be clean, but that she panicked whenever we had guests.

This post is part 6 of 7 in the series Family Goals

Read Open Home: Guests Welcome »

Published: November 7, 2018 by Ronit Baras
Last modified: November 7, 2018In: Parenting Tags: practical parenting / parents, goals / goal setting, change, lifestyle, family matters, acceptance / judgment / tolerance, personal development / personal growth / personality development / self improvement

My Personal Tips for Important Family Goals

Father playing water games with 3 kids

This post is personal, because I’ve been asked by people to share my view of the ideal family and how I reached that point in life when parenting was such bliss for me.

I have to say that I don’t think we are the ideal family. We have ups and down and challenges with our children. We just sort them out quickly and in a very efficient way.

Why do I say that? Because even if you are doing all the right things – give good instructions and coordinate things with your partner – you’ll face traffic jams. For more about this, read the Family Goals series from the start.

Why? Because that’s life. You take a deep breath, overtake the traffic jam and sometimes just need to meditate until the road is clear from glass scattered on the road from someone else’s accident but there is no life without it. I clarify this because some of my clients just collapse when they think they do everything well and still, there are parenting accidents.

So, here I’m sharing some of my goals (I’ve had thousands over the years). I hope it’ll give you some ideas of what you can aim for. Take only the goals that matches your philosophy in life. Remember, most of our decision making is done by the subconscious mind, if a goal that I chose to peruse is against something you have in your subconscious, you’ll go through lots of self-sabotage and experience lots of frustration.

This post is part 5 of 7 in the series Family Goals

Read My Personal Tips for Important Family Goals »

Published: October 24, 2018 by Ronit Baras
Last modified: October 24, 2018In: Parenting Tags: personal development / personal growth / personality development / self improvement, practical parenting / parents, goals / goal setting, responsibility, success, how to, dreams, family matters

Sharing Clothes in the Family

Eden, Tsoof, Noff and Ayla

Over the years, I’ve set thousands of goals, and still do. Not because I haven’t achieved my goals, but because my family grows and evolves, and I never stop adding wants and desires, with action, into my family journey. As an example, here is how I’ve achieved the goal of sharing clothes in the family.

The first time I asked the hard questions was the time I woke up. You need courage to do that and I had it when I was 16 years old. I asked myself “What do I not like about my family and how can I change my life without getting rid of any family members?” Obviously, getting rid of my family was not an option, and understanding this was enlightening by itself.

I asked and asked and asked for weeks without an answer. Then, it hit me that the answer was to change myself. That was a very hard understanding and I went through some resistance to it for a while.

I believed my family members “wronged” me and changing myself meant they could keep doing what they’d always done, which was unfair!

Fairness has always been my weakness (still is in some ways). I’ve always wanted things to be fair and had this internal sense of justice my family just didn’t get.

So, I asked myself “What does fairness mean?” It was amazing what came up, which was different from the dictionary definition of the word.

This post is part 4 of 7 in the series Family Goals

Read Sharing Clothes in the Family »

Published: October 3, 2018 by Ronit Baras
Last modified: October 1, 2021In: Parenting Tags: personal development / personal growth / personality development / self improvement, practical parenting / parents, responsibility, goals / goal setting, success, siblings, sibling rivalry, how to, action, change, dreams, family matters, justice

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