“I’ve never gotten a present from Santa Claus,” said Iliana, my 12-year-old seatmate on an east coast flight. “My parents thought I should only be given verifiable facts. They told me there is no veracity in Santa Claus.” “It’s too bad that no one ever told your parents about the Secret of Santa Claus. When […]
Category Archive:
Great parenting tips
Priceless Presents
Do you ever worry about selecting the right gift for the special people in your life? Let’s take a few minutes to consider gifts that are free, yet priceless. Download the article and audio recording below: ARTICLE: Priceless Presents AUDIO: Priceless Presents Leave your comments below!
Cultivating An Attitude of Gratitude
How can we cultivate gratitude in ourselves and others? A few years ago a friend of mine with young children asked my advice about how to help her children appreciate the good life they had, a life full of love and comfort. She told me that when she looked at the ads of children in […]
Ideas For Great Parent Teacher Conferences
Want some tips for having a productive parent/teacher conference? For many of us, the most dreaded event during our school years was…being sent to the principal’s office. Unfortunately, some of those childhood memories make it difficult for us to be enthusiastic about going to meet with our child’s teacher. I’ll share a few tips on […]
Listening To Ourselves With Compassion
When we do something that later we wished we hadn’t, we rarely give ourselves the level of forgiveness and understanding that we give to others. If we evaluate ourselves and subsequently change our behaviors due to negative emotions–shame, embarrassment or fear, to name only a few–we are feeding self-hatred. We are our own worst critic. […]
Receiving Information With Understanding And Compassion
Listening is a difficult activity to do well. We have distractions that never seem to end—telephones, television, radios, personal music devices, computers, deadlines, schedules, personal agendas and the list goes on and on.
Learning To Request What You Need
At the heart of our relationships is the need for effective communication. Our objective is to build a relationship based on honesty and empathy. The two basic components of effective communication consists of two skills: Expressing observations, feelings and needs honestly while withholding blame and criticism. Receiving information from others without hearing blame or criticism, […]
When Needs Are Not Fulfilled
Effective communication is at the heart of strong relationships. Our parenting and teaching work with children is dependent on vital relationships and communications. Effective communication is based on two essential skills: The ability to express honestly how we are, and The ability to understand from others how we are, all without giving or hearing blame […]
Connecting Needs To Feelings
A critical aspect of effective communication is learning how to express our needs. In our efforts to communicate effectively with others, we need to learn how to observe behavior, without evaluating, to figure out an individual’s needs. For effective communication, we need to differentiate between feelings and thoughts. We need to be aware of how […]
Learning To Express Needs
Be careful for what you ask for–you might get it. To communicate to the heart of our relationships, it is important that we learn to state our needs with clarity and positiveness. Negative requests can confuse the listener and provoke resistance. When we make a request in the negative–I don’t want chocolate ice cream–the request […]