A couple of weeks ago, I delivered a Parenting Skills workshop for the Mullumbimby High School parents and friends. It was great fun and I was honoured to have the school principal and the mayor of Byron Shire attending. Here is an inspiring true story I told them about the important messages kids & teens need […]
In her article More male teachers needed, Gayle wrote about the reasons male teachers are needed in the education system. She expressed it from a mother’s point of view and described how beneficial it is for children to have male figures in their life, especially in a society where many kids do not live with mum and dad in the same house.
Now, although the education system’s purpose is to mould the habits and mindset of society, what happens when the teachers says, “Men can be whatever they want and women can be whatever they want”, but when the kids go home, they see dad fixing electrical appliances and mum cleaning. YOU, the parent, are still the most influential agent in your kids’ life. Compared to you and your thoughts, beliefs and ideas about gender, the education system stands no chance.
Read Gentle Men and Strong Women – Avoiding the Male Teacher Trap »
Sometimes, the appreciation of what we have in life is the only thing we need in order to paint our life in bright colours. It is as if the greatest way to overcome stress and distress or to stop taking life for granted is to look at our life and notice all the good stuff.
As part of the Be Happy in LIFE mission, we dedicate much of our time to learn and teach happiness and, let me tell you, some of the lessons are amazing and strong, much like the one I want to share with you here.
What is an enemy? Is it a person who wants to hurt you? Most people would agree to this description. In fact, here is what the dictionary says: Enemy: One who feels hatred toward, intends injury to, or opposes the interests of another; a foe But I think there is no such a thing, because […]
Read Do We Have Enemies? »
If you are a parent of a teenager, every bit of advice is welcomed. This is what I thought before I read what Busy Mom wrote in The Ten Commandments of Being the Parent of a Teen. And I ask you, “With parents thinking like that, who needs enemies?”
Do you really, really believe that the day her kid reached his thirteenth birthday, something in his head started going wrong and turned on the “reputation” light? Or maybe her kid really gave her a crash course in parenting teens.
I think that our kids are like little mirrors of us, reflecting back everything we do and say. Parenting teens is no different than parenting younger kids. The only difference is that teens are much larger mirrors.
So I have revised the Ten Commandments of Being the Parent of a Teen.
Read “The Ten Commandments of Being the Parent of a Teen” – Revised Edition »
This week, I received a post that Jennifer Satterwhite wrote called Parenting a teen and other things that make you stupid. “Catchy heading”, I said to myself, “It is about teens and it is close to my heart, so I went (well, I clicked a few clicks) to read it. It was very sad to read how terrible teens seem in some parents’ eyes. Parents interpreting everything their teens do as negative and disrespectful do not leave much room for the teen to grow and evolve.
The most famous research was done many years ago when two great teachers were given 2 classes to teach. Back then, they used to put all the “good” kids in one class and all the “not so good” kids in another class. They told the teachers with the “good” class, “Unfortunately, this is the worst class in the whole school”, and to the other teacher with the very troubled class they said, “Lucky you, you have the best class in the school”. And what do you know, at the end of year they realised that the grades in the “good” class dropped and the grade in the “not so good class” went up high. You probably ask yourself, “How could that happen?”
Read Teens Don’t Stand a Chance Against the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy »
Telling left from right is very useful in life. Without it, we lose our sense of direction. Every parent tries to teach their young children to tell which is their right hand, and which is their left, so they can do basic things.
Many parents ask me why their children confuse right and left and how to teach them easily.
The reason children confuse between right and left can be organic (learning difficulties), emotional (stress and low emotional intelligence) or bad teaching.
Read When Do Kids Learn Left and Right and How to Teach It Best »
For most of us, the word “judgment” has bad connotations. It is almost equivalent to criticism. We associate it with laws, trials and with sentences – with power. There are judgmental people; there is a judge in court and even a “judgment day”.
In the personal growth process, we aim to solve the puzzle of our right to judge. Are we allowed to judge? Is it good for us? How to live with the label of being “judgmental”?
When judgment is the weighing of evidence and feelings in order to make a choice, the real question is “Can we be non-judgmental”?
Read Windows of the Heart »
As part of my personal growth journey, I have been studying other personal development gurus like Steve Pavlina. I like him because he likes to write and I love to read what he writes. He is a great inspiration to me. In his article about motivation, he talks (well, he doesn’t talk. He writes, but […]
Research with parent and children indicates that one of the most effective methods to prevent young people from using drugs is a devoted parent who spends time with their teens, talks with them (not to them) about their friends, their school, their sports and what interests them. The research also reports that teens appreciate parents’ advice and care a lot about what their parents think of them, their actions and their friends and consider this parental feedback a sign of caring.
But how do we get to be our teens’ friends?
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