Parenting: Stop That Runaway Train!
You’re under tremendous pressure these days to give your children every opportunity and advantage. Whether piano lessons at age four or being a part of a traveling soccer team at age eight, you feel compelled by popular culture to get your kids on the fast track as soon as possible, otherwise they’re going to be […]
Read MoreParenting: Raise Excellent – Not Perfect – Children
Perfectionism is one of the most destructive diseases among American children today. Perfectionism is a double-edged sword. One edge of the sword drives children to be perfect. These children push themselves to get straight A’s, be top athletes, and save the world on weekends. The other edge of the sword is that I have never […]
Read MoreParenting: Raise Happy Children
One of the most frequent comments I get from parents is “I just want my kid to be happy.” Though an admirable and common objective, happiness is one of the most neglected family values in twenty-first-century America. Few parents grasp the essential meaning of happiness for their children and fewer still understand how they can […]
Read MoreParenting: Raise Good Decision Makers
One of the most powerful ways you can encourage your children to become successful, happy, and contributing people is to teach them good decision making and then to allow them to make their own decisions. The decisions that your children make as they approach adulthood dictate the people they become and the life paths they […]
Read MoreParenting: The Lost Art of Play
Play is becoming a dinosaur in the lives of children in 21st century America. According to studies, school-age children’s playtime decreased by 25 percent and older children’s playtime by 45 percent between 1981 and 1997. Unstructured outdoor activities also declined by 50 percent. Between school, homework, organized youth sports—which is no longer real play—music and […]
Read MoreParenting: Teach Your Kids to Suck it Up
Popular culture conveys to children very unhealthy messages about responsibility. Through its focus on the pampered lifestyles of the rich and famous and advertising that suggests that life should always be a party, popular culture communicates to your children that if it’s not fun, easy, or interesting, they just shouldn’t have to do it. If […]
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