How to make failure OK for your kids
Zoe, our six-year-old granddaughter, visited over the holidays. We play lots of games with our kids and grandkids, and as the youngest, Zoe wants to be included in everything. On this visit, she surprised me when, after losing a game, she wasn’t the least bit...
Ask for permission with teens….
Giving advice or feedback is something we do frequently with our kids. It’s part of the process of parenting. We do it frequently when kids are young because there is so much for them to learn. Young children want to learn and are looking for help. If we do hurt their...
A moment of silence
Today would usually see a new blog post. Like other parents around the globe, we are grieving for the families in Connecticut and thought it best to remain silent. Hug your kids, Paul
What do you say most often?
One of the key tenets in the book is that what you say to or in the presence of your kids makes a difference. For me, I remember lots of things my mother said. One thing she said was not to me, but in front of me: “Just give him a little time, he’s...
Listen when they are small…
In the book, we make the connection between listening to your kids when they are small so they have the opportunity to develop their speaking skills, as well as to create space within which your relationship can grow as your children grow to adulthood. I received this...
“I don’t know”…. it’s a really good answer!
Part of being effective in life is having the ability and confidence to say, “I don’t’ know.” If you think about it, there is much more we don’t know than we know. In fact, each time I learn something new, I usually realize there is even more that I don’t know,...
Thank you, Mom.
One of the important conversations to have with our children is letting them know what we appreciate about them as a person. This is also a conversation I also recommend you consider having with your parents. It’s so easy to fall short on letting them know that we...
Baby wants five…
Small children are learning machines. They are wonderful mimics, noticing and trying everything. They also practice until they get something. Give them language like open and closed or up and down and watch them apply it with everything they can reach. Small...
You are a perfect readout of your past…
I bet you can identify a couple of things you do that don’t work for others with whom you work or live. And there are likely to be things that you don’t do that others would appreciate it if you did. I’m not a fan of spending a lot of time worrying about how we got...
Oh, what they might share with you!
A young father sent this piece to me about his three-and-a-half-year-old son: “I am making a conscious effort to talk to my son, Cooper, on his level. It doesn’t happen every night, but it’s amazing what I find out when I do. We had a twenty-minute conversation as he...
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