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Color My World
“Life is like an ever shifting kaleidoscope – a slight change and all patterns alter.” (Sharon Salzberg) Ask a number of parents how they feel at the end of a particularly hard day with a child and one word will crop up more than any other: overwhelmed. It is easy to get lost in the […]
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Happily Never After
“But childhood prolonged, cannot remain a fairyland. It becomes a hell.” (Louise Bogan) Our children come to us as the most helpless of all species, and at first, they depend on us completely for support and sustenance. But they grow, and so should their world. The problem comes when we try to protect them and […]
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Come, Sail Away
“I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning to sail my own ship.” (Louisa May Alcott) Storms happen. That’s just the way life works. You don’t work on yourself to become ScreamFree so that your life can be free of struggle. That kind of life just doesn’t exist. You work hard on yourself […]
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Being your Child’s Maid
“Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing.” (Phyllis Diller) Model homes are beautiful, but sterile. There’s no personality there. There’s just no way the job gets done. until you stop having troops march their way through your kitchen every day. Trying to make your […]
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Room to Grow
“When they were very small I suppose I thought someday they would become who they were because of what I’d done. Now I suspect they simply grew into their true selves because they demanded in a thousand ways that I back off and let them be.” (Anna Quindlen) Our children are amazing creatures. From the […]
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End Game
“If your children look up to you, you’ve made a success of life’s biggest job.” (Author unknown) We all want our children to respect us. The difficulty is this: you can’t MAKE someone feel respect towards you. In fact, the more you try to force that respect, the smaller you become in their eyes. And […]
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Hooray For The Strong Willed Child
“Children in a family are like flowers in a bouquet: there’s always one determined to face in an opposite direction from the way the arranger desires.” (Marcelene Cox) When people tell me that they have a “strong-willed” child, I tell them, “Welcome to the club – and congratulations!” Children with strong wills are nothing to […]
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Ah, The Power of Pause
“The greatest remedy for anger is delay.” (Seneca) We would all be in better shape if we could manage to remember the words of this wise philosopher. The next time you feel your blood beginning to boil, take a step away from the situation, breathe deeply, and wait just a minute before reacting. By simply […]
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There are Stupid Questions
“He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever. ” (Chinese proverb) The only stupid questions are the ones we don’t ask. We weren’t given a manual when we left the hospitals with our babies, yet most of us feel inadequate when we need a […]
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Find Your Funny Bone
“The wit makes fun of other persons; the satirist makes fun of the world; the humorist makes fun of himself. ” (James Thurber) Thurber alludes to a truth about human nature: It is easy to make fun of others, but it is more productive to make fun of yourself. I actually learned this lesson from […]