The definition of integrity covers two parts that sometimes seem to be talking about two different things. Integrity is "1) the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles, moral uprightness, and 2) the state of being whole, undivided." While many use the second definition to talk ...read more
Put Your Oxygen Mask on Yourself First.
Have you ever listened to the security instruction on airplanes about what to do if the oxygen mask drops and you are traveling with children? They tell you to put them on yourself before you assist your children. That's because if you don't take care of yourself first, you can't actually help ...read more
Is it screen time? Parenting the digital child.
Facebook. Snapchat. Instagram. Kik. Yik Yak. Tumblr. Twitter. Vine. Google+. What's App?. Whew! How in the world to keep up with parenting the digital child today? Every day it seems that there are more and more social media sites parents need to be aware of and understand. A recent Pew ...read more
Free Play is Important to Success
How many times have you heard that the best way for kids to learn life skills is through involvement in a team sport? While it is true that playing organized sports does have benefit, the way in which society in the United States now approaches youth sports often means kids have very little, if ...read more
A Blue Christmas: When Holidays are Missing Someone
Christmas is next week and many are looking forward to spending time with loved ones: family and friends all around. For many, Christmas can be an especially hard time because someone they love isn't there. Whether it's because of death, illness, military deployment, extended work travel or a ...read more
“Home” for the Holidays!
Here it is, the thick of the holiday season. Between the just past Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa and New Years we have so many opportunities to gather in groups and families to celebrate things. Funny how the very celebrations we look forward to all year also bring so much stress and ...read more
Responding to Tragedy
Last week's terrorist attacks in Paris gave the world another unfortunate opportunity to try to figure out how to respond to tragedy. These broad scale tragedies can leave us all feeling off kilter, a bit insecure in life. Questions may arise all over the place. How should I talk to my kids (if ...read more
The Art of Compromise
Let’s just start by acknowledging how sweet it would be if we could always have our way in life. Nice, huh? Well, and then we woke up. In real life and in real relationships, no one person gets their way all or even most of the time. Given that each relationship is a combination of two different ...read more
How to Allow Influence and Win People
Dale Carnegie published his famous book, “How To Win Friends and Influence People” in 1936 and it’s remained a best seller. In today’s culture we are often more interested in how to be the one doing the influencing that we forget the importance of allowing others to influence us. Well, to be more ...read more
Mom, I’m Bored! 8 Ideas For Summer.
Parents often approach summer with a combination of excitement and dread. We LOVE having more time with our kids (if we are fortunate enough to be able to be home with them) and we also start to dread the need to keep kids occupied.Let's face it, summer can be a challenge for parents whether it's ...read more