ParentingPanicButton » parenting advice
How much is your honor worth?
Whether you are parenting teens or thinking about your own habits, here is great test for your value system. Before doing something that has a feeling of dishonesty, or when trying to decide if something is right or wrong, ask yourself, “How much is my honor worth?” Here are examples of situations you might question: You keep the change when you give someone a $10 and get change back for a $20. Whoops, you get to the car with your bags of merchandise and notice a bag of M&M’s they forgot to charge you for. You figure what the heck and don’t go back in. You back into a pole in your own driveway and no one sees. You tell the insurance company it was a hit and run and collect the damages. You take a … Read entire article »
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An Open Letter to Fathers and Men about Daughters and Emerging Young Women
Dear Dads (and other Male Role Models), Our impact on our daughters, nieces, stepdaughters, and granddaughters is immense. They love us, look up to us, and even revere us. Sometimes they dislike us, resent us, are disappointed in us and wish we didn’t care so much. When we listen to them, understand them, advise them, and forgive them they appreciate and feel it deeply. When we manifest our “papa bear” desire to protect them from all mistakes and perils with anger, manipulation, and fear we alienate them and even sometimes push them to risky activity. When we manifest it in a loving, compassionate and mindful way, they will hear us. They need to make mistakes to grow, and their mistakes touch our heart in the deepest way. We work to separate sensible … Read entire article »
Filed under: parenting advice, parenting teens, parenting tips
Your Child’s Music Life
How can music live in a child’s life? How do children develop their musical taste? How do you choose the right instrument is for your child? What is an appropriate time to start lessons and how do we ensure it is a positive experience? These are all common questions we as parents have about how best to support and include music in our children’s lives. Music is a universal language, and it is rare to find anyone who just plain does not like music. Musical taste is subjective, and can vary with temperament, personality, mood and many other mysterious factors. Music has played an essential part in the developmental life of human beings since Primal times. As a violinist, music teacher, parenting educator, parent and grandparent, much of my … Read entire article »
Filed under: children's music studies, parenting advice, parenting tips
Pay now or pay later; Parenting Advice that Works!
There are a large number of lessons we have to learn from infancy to adulthood in order to make us functional, happy, well-adjusted, self-supporting adults. As a matter of fact, there are hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands. We learn most of these lessons from observation, being taught, or common sense realization. Others, we learn through experiencing consequences to our actions. As children we may be taught the importance of sharing, why we should not hit others, and why we use the toilet and not our pants. As we get older we generally learn things that are reflective of our age and maturity. If the sign says, “walk” but a car is speeding through, don’t walk. Don’t eat random wild mushrooms if you are not a mushroom expert. Don’t take a … Read entire article »
Filed under: parenting advice, parenting teens, parenting tips
Clear Way to Make a Good, Right Decision–Sentiment or Heart; Flip a Coin
Imagine you have a decision to make. It is a difficult decision and one that necessitates mindful attention. The decision is a huge one, one that will take you on a very different path than any other decision. Or, it is a small, but essential, pivotal decision of the moment. Try the following practice. Notice your sentiment. Sentiment is feeling based on emotion, opinion, self-concern, fear, sadness, nostalgia. It has the Latin root word for “feel” in its very fiber. It often starts with “I should…”, “I am afraid…”, “What if…”, “I will miss…”, “I fear..”, “I can’t…”, “I shouldn’t,,” It has lots of “buts” and “ifs”. After you immerse yourself in your sentiment, know that it is not a great basis for a decision. It could cause you to miss a great opportunity. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, parenting advice, parenting teens, parenting tips, Relationships
Letter to Fathers
Please enjoy this article in Common Ground: An Open Letter to Fathers about Daughters and Men about Emerging Young Women Rick … Read entire article »
Filed under: Common Ground, parenting advice, parenting teens, parenting tips
Back to School Pep Talk–Success Strategies
What kind of student are you? What are your gifts and challenges? Perhaps you are someone who tends to procrastinate, forgets to do your homework, has problems doing well on tests, does assignments but forgets to turn them in, has a reputation for being disruptive in class, is often tardy, can’t remember the assignment. Do you have time-management issues or are plagued by distractions of media, texting or lack of motivation? Is your backpack a disastrous, disorganized mess? Are you sometimes even tempted to cheat or plagiarize, rather than disappoint your parents? Maybe you are a student who is a perfectionist, a chronic worrier, or an over-achiever who is stressed, sleep-challenged and cannot turn it off. Do you have well-intentioned parents with high, sometimes unrealistic expectations, which may frustrate you and cause you … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, parenting advice, parenting teens, parenting tips
Inflicting Our Past on Others; Trying to Change Others; Changing Ourselves
Years ago I read a fantastic book entitled “The Drama of the Gifted Child”, by Alice Miller, who deals with many issues including how children cope with and survive child abuse. The lesson I learned from this book, I carry with me each day. You cannot change the past. You can forget it, ignore it, or come to terms with it, and then move forward. Inflicting our Past on Others; Trying to Change Others There is, however, one disturbing way in which some people attempt to change the past. Alice Miller explains that the most damaging and extreme form of “inflicting of the past on others by trying to change it” is when a person who has experienced abuse and mistreatment in their childhood transposes a group of people into “helpless, victimized him/herself” … Read entire article »
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Summer Camp Gives Many Gifts for Kids!
Enjoy this article from Common Ground about the benefits of summer camp. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Common Ground, parenting advice, parenting teens, parenting tips, summer camp