A Lesson in Proportion

Sometimes, the things we expect the least – both good and bad – can teach us the best lessons in life. Last month, I said to a group of 26 child leaders that in many things of our life, the important thing is not what others give us, but what we choose to take. When I said that, I did not consider the possibility of taking a lesson from others without any intention on their part.

Two weeks ago, we learned a very valuable lesson from a good friend of ours. Tom, our friend, had never planned on giving us this lesson. In fact, if it was up to him, I think he would gladly not teach us this lesson at all because of the heavy price he had to pay for it.

I hope that when you read this story, you will choose to take as much as possible from it. Remember, it is not about what I write, but what you choose to receive.

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Are You Listening?

In our modern life, one of the things we have the least of is time. A common expression I hear from people every day is “I’m very busy” and even “No time. Too busy”. We go to work, we work under pressure all day, we come back, we hurry our meals, we resent having to drive our kids to their various activities, we sleep less than we should, we have less quality time than we want to have and we finish every week completely exhausted from trying to do more than we can, only to start another week that feels exactly the same, if not worse.

But maybe that is only what we think. Maybe it is this tendency to rush into and out of things as quickly as we can that makes us waste more time than we would by relaxing and “taking our time”.

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Happy Birthday! I Did it Again!

Yesterday, when I picked my daughter up from school, she told me what kids said about her late birthday party and I said to myself “Yes, yes, yes! I did it again!” I was so happy and proud I decided I would share this with you as soon as I could.

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Confident Kids

Most kids develop some kind of a hobby as they grow up – dancing, basketball, music, art and so on. Nowadays, this usually means their parents have to shuttle them to and from practice, games, concerts and other events. Whenever the parents see their kids perform or display their results, they are pleased, but treat the whole affair as something the kids will eventually grow out of.

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TV Diet (5): Parent-Child Relationships

Last week, I wrote about the influence of TV on kids’ outlook on life. We risk them being emotionally numb or developing fears that will translate to a life of anxiety and distrust. Today, I will touch on the effects of TV on the relationships between parents and kids.

When I was a kid, there was only one TV channel, which went on strike for over 3 months. The radio and papers were full of jokes about how that was affecting relationships.

The most common joke described people coming home and discovering their family – “I didn’t know my wife had a new hair style” or “The kids have grown so much”. While this was a funny way of expressing the effects of watching TV, I believe things got even worse since.

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Make a list: Birthday Presents to Ask for

Birthdays should be wonderful events in everyone’s life. For some reason, however, grownups do not think of birthdays the same as kids. While kids see it as a happy moment with lots of gifts, grownups think of the birthday party as a checkpoint for their life and expenses, expenses, expenses.

Obviously, when you are happily wealthy, this is not a problem at all. I remember the stage in our life when we could spend money on everything we wanted and the dilemma was whether to travel to China for my daughter’s birthday for 3 or 4 weeks.

This may be fun, but most people do not have this luxury.

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Motivating Kids (18)

In the process of motivating your kids, you will find that your kids are also influenced by others. If that influence is positive – great! But sometimes, others’ behavior and words might be de-motivating for your kids.

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100 Ways to Say “I Love You!”

Giving flowers is a great way to say "I love you"

There are many ways to say “I love you” to someone – partner, children, family members and friends. But as you may know, not all of them are as effective. That’s simply because people are different. So here’s how to come up with 100 ways to say “I love you” and choose the best one for each person.

As you probably know, love is one of the most wonderful feelings. Some people claim there are only two feelings: love and fear. Every good thing in life is a form of love and all the bad things are forms of fear. A stronger version of this only recognizes one feeling: love. All the rest (fear, anger, sadness, etc) is lack of love.

Voltaire said, “Love is a canvas pattern furnished by nature and embroidered by imagination”. Whether you define love as the ultimate feeling or just an important one, there is no doubt that being loved and loving can make us the happiest ever.

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Telling Parents the Truth (3)

When Amanda had her second child, she invited us to stay over for the weekend. Her older son, who was at the same age as Eden, was the most wonderful kid and we got to their place to see Eleanor, who was a 3-month-old baby. Eleanor was gorgeous and while Eden and Amanda’s son went to play, we spent a wonderful weekend talking to Amanda and her husband Peter. All day long, Eleanor was either in their arms or crying. I had heard many crying babies, but I had never heard any baby cry that much. Amanda said she had been like that since she was born.

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Make a list: Friends and Friendships

Our definition of friendship evolves over the years. At first, our friends are the kids we play with, even when we envy them or hate them. As we grow up, our definition becomes deeper and more meaningful, but also more selective.

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