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Until When?
“The more I encourage a child to think for himself, the more he will care what I think.” (Unknown) I am still a bit surprised when I hear parents say that they aren’t interested in teaching their children to think for themselves. Their line of thinking goes something like this: “Children can’t be trusted to […]
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Keep Moving
“Success…seems to be connected with action. Successful men keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.” (Conrad Hilton) If you were to apply a traffic sign to your life right now, what would it be? A stop sign? A yellow light? Caution arrows? Speed bump ahead? Possibly. One other to consider is the rare, black […]
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Stop Being So Consistent All the Time
“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson) We’ve all been told that consistency is the key to so many things from exercise and diet to healthy relationships to finances. But it’s important to have the emotional maturity and self-awareness to be able to take a good, honest look at what […]
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The Danger of the Donut
“There can be no happiness if the things we believe in are different than the things that we do.” (Freya Madeline Stark) The other day, I ate a Krispy Kreme donut because I had a rough day, and I thought I deserved one. I treated myself, and I should have felt great afterwards. Right? Wrong. […]
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Slow Down
“America is a country that doesn’t know where it is going, but it is determined to set a speed record getting there.” (Lawrence J. Peter) Too many of us end up collapsing on the couch at the end of each day, exhausted from trying to get to everything on the “To Do” list. The ironic […]
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Sleep Better Than a Baby
“People who say they sleep like a baby usually don’t have one.” (Leo J. Burke) There are few things in life worse than a sleepless night — except for maybe an endless string of them. When you’re sleep deprived, food doesn’t taste as good, colors don’t look as bright, and things that normally wouldn’t bother […]
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A Word to You, Mothers
“A mother is not a person to lean on, but a person to make leaning unnecessary.” (Dorothy Canfield Fisher) This is a tough one for a lot of you mothers out there. You’ve been told that your job is to protect your children from the menacing world of predators and PG13 movies. Protection is certainly […]
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Mastering Adulthood
“From where can your authority and license as a parent come from, when you who are old, do worse things?” (Juvenal) Ever since the dawn of the Industrial Age in the 19th century, we started losing the ancient practice of mastery. With assembly lines and factories replacing artisans and workshops, gone is the age of […]
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Leave it to Beaver’s Dad
“Whenever you make a mistake, admit it. When you don’t, you just make things worse.” (Ward Cleaver) Regardless of how you feel about the idyllic show Leave it to Beaver, this little nugget of wisdom from the Beav’s dad is worth consideration. Its truth lies in its simplicity. Everything you need to know is right […]
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Needy Parents
“Learning to dislike children at an early age saves a lot of expense and aggravation later in life.” (Robert Byrne) This quote is obviously sarcastic, but sarcasm is only funny when it hints at the truth. Mr. Byrne has touched upon the truth that sometimes it’s almost impossible to like your kids. They annoy us, […]