Tag: lessons

The guiding rule of action should be to intervene too early rather than too late. ~ Dan Olweus, PhD, and founder of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program

Although bullying prevention efforts tend to focus on middle schools and high schools, bullying behavior begins at much younger ages.  According to researchers and developers of the Eyes on Bullying Program, Dr. Ronald G. Slaby and Dr. Kim Storey, it starts as early as 4-years old:

No one goes through divorce school when they’re getting married. We barely go through marriage school, never mind parenting school while interviewing caterers or picking out flowers for the wedding reception! So when a family falls apart and divorce is imminent, it can be very upsetting. And when divorce is unavoidable because you didn’t have a say in the decision, and you’re still in love with your partner, it is most certainly devastating. It completely rocks your world.

Children can be reflective of you, but they are not you. Their choices will be different from those you would make, as it should be. The paths they are destined to walk are different from your own. As parents, we may instinctively want to shield them from making the mistakes we made. However, we might discover that in our attempts to do so, sometimes our children overreact to that guidance (no matter how well intentioned it may be) and end up doing something worse.

Are you surprised to know that love tops the list of Americans' reasons to marry? Probably not. "About nine in ten Americans (88%) cited love as a fundamental reason to get married, ahead of making a lifelong commitment (81%) and companionship (76%)," according to a Pew Research Center survey."

Marriage is hard, so being in love is an excellent place to start the journey if you're going to do it. But if most people get married for love, why does the divorce rate still hover around 50% for first-timers and even higher for second and third marriages?

We each have our own reasons for participating in a sport or supporting our children in their endeavors. Many athletes are revered because we all know the commitment that is required to excel.

When my 17-year-old son decided he didn’t want to play travel hockey this year, we were surprised and disappointed—felt kind of let down actually. Why did I feel this way? Was I too attached to the outcome because of the money "invested" for the past eight years? He’s the one playing hockey, not me or my husband.

My best friend and I had a vigorous discussion recently about the relative merits of process versus results. She was extolling the virtues of process and processing, and I was nattering on about "results, results, results." Yet the obvious conclusion at the end of our conversation, was that both are necessary and valuable. Without process/processing, there is no valid result. Without a result in mind, process/processing is so much mental-meandering.

Every parent wants his or her child to have a successful school year. Here are four lessons you and your spouse can teach your kids at home so they are better prepared for the lessons they learn at school.

1. Teach Your Children to be Organized

When children feel organized, are confident that they know what to do, and have all their needed materials, confidence rises, and so does the quality of their work.