Welcome to the 5th part of the series. I hope you have found the previous tips helpful in bringing control and peace into your daily life.
Readathon: Pay Per Read
Noff is my 3rd child coming home with a note from school, which offers parents to pay their kids to read books. Since we arrived here in Australia, each of our kids has come home with some “incentive to encourage children to read” project, aiming to entice children to read more by participating in a “Readathon” – a reading marathon.
1. Kids go home with a form asking Mom and Dad to give them permission to participate in the marathon.
2. The kids need to go to grownup friends and relative (grandparents are the best victims for this) and ask them to commit to paying a certain amount of money for every book they read.
3. Then, the kids read as many books as they can.
4. At the end of the marathon, they bring the signed sheet with the payment and the money goes to the school.
Read Readathon: Pay Per Read »
Going Out: To Tell or Not to Tell the Kids?
As a parent, I am sure you are familiar with the “Mommy and Daddy are going out” storm. You put the kids to bed, kiss them good night, wait until everything is quiet, you sneak the babysitter in and just as you are about to leave, you hear a tiny, not-at-all-sleepy voice calling out, “Where are you going?”
In the next few minutes, you do you best to reassure your kids that you will be back, that the babysitter is a good and reliable person, who will take good care of them, and besides, you are going to be back in no time.
Alas, the little ones have you all figured out, and they cling to you, wail, throw themselves on the floor, pretend to be sick and put on various other unethical displays of utter desperation.
How Do You Feel About Abortions?
Did you know?
There are about 46 million abortions worldwide every year.
There are about 126,000 abortions worldwide every day.
On a worldwide average, each woman will go through at least 1 abortion in her lifetime.
Only 22% of abortions take place in developed countries.
Only 26 million (56.5% of the 46 million a year) are legal.
Hush Little Baby – Good Sleeping Habits for Kids
When my daughter was born, I did not attend a sleeping school to learn about good sleeping habits. Sure enough, we were so excited with the arrival of the new baby that we tried to spend every second with her. When she was 11 months old, we discovered that we did not have a life.
Eden was a “no-sleep baby”. She just did not want to go to sleep. Once she closed her eyes and stopped moving, she would sleep really well, so I am not complaining, because this meant that I rarely had to wake up in the middle of the night. But, the difficulty I had was in getting her to go to bed and fall sleep.
Even now, when she is 19 years old, we still see every night the struggle between her body and her mind. Her body tells her to go to bed and her mind still thinks that sleeping is the greatest waste of time.
Tips for a Stress-Free Lifestyle (4)
Welcome to the 4th part of the Tips for a Stress-Free Lifestyle series. I hope the tips from the previous posts were helpful for you. Remember, all you need is 3-4 tips that will make the difference in your life.
Tip #31: Time for everything
When you do something, focus on doing it. When you eat – eat! When you take a shower – shower, and when you read a book – read a book. When you are on holiday – have fun and focus on having a good time. When you enjoy something and do it 100% instead of doing too many things at the same time, you can significantly decrease your stress levels.
Things I Want My Kids to Know: The Door is Always Open
This week, I had a talk with my 19-year-old daughter about leaving home. Because some of her friends had left home and then had to come back due to financial difficulties, we talked about the emotional aspect of “going back home”.
When we talked, she told me about the feelings of shame, failure, disappointment and many other negative feelings that would be associated with having to go back home. It was after this talk that I realized there is one more thing I want my kids to know.
The following is a very true story.
Read Things I Want My Kids to Know: The Door is Always Open »
Great Expectations
When I was training to be a life coach, our instructor said to us that our level of disappointment is related to the gap between two things – our expectations and the facts. Although this may sound simple in principle and you may be saying to yourself, “Well, of course”, stop and think about real-life situations where you find yourself disappointed and you will soon see the problem.
I went out to lunch with a few other future life coaches, and one of them, Sarah, told me about some challenges she was having at the time with her teens. Sarah was married for the second time and had two teens of her own and two teens who were her husband’s kids. Most people would already cringe at this stage, right?
Anyway, Sarah said that her kids were well organized, but her husband’s teen daughter was “very messy” and kept leaving her clothes on the floor, which drove Sarah bonkers. When Sarah tried to confront her stepdaughter about tidying up her room, she got the “You’re not my mother” treatment.
Read Great Expectations »
97 Positive Thoughts for Your Kids
All parents want to give their kids all that they wish. Happy thoughts and a positive mindset are the tools to get them everything they want in life. Here is a list of thoughts you want your kids to have.
Before introducing them to your kids, try to find out what they think now, and slowly shift their thoughts towards better ones. Remember, what they think will determine how successful they will be financially, academically and socially. It will determine their appreciation and wellbeing.
Best Parenting Quotes that Will Change Your Life
Great parenting quotes are an awesome way to inspire ourselves as parents. These words of wisdom can help change our life and the life of our kids.
As you may know, I love quotes (and if you’ve had a chance to read my book or my life coaching website, you know). Since I was young, I believed that the quotes we choose to adopt help us plant thoughts in our mind.
If we choose inspiring, motivating and encouraging quotes, we develop have an inspiring, motivating and encouraging mindset. If we choose sarcastic, pessimistic and disappointed quotes, we will have exactly what we bargained for.