Do you give your children the freedom to fail or make mistakes? Or more appropriately, do you allow them freedom to grow with personal responsibility and ownership? Whether you are a child or an adult, failure is not failure if you learn and grow from it. As parents, it’s especially difficult for us to see our children suffer frustration, experience emotional pain or the discomfort that comes with failing or making mistakes. However, in order [...]
In our Five Minute Warning letter, we discussed the idea of creating an environment to succeed by establishing a time frame for obeying and honoring relationships through offering a window of compliance. Similar to that idea, last summer, a dear friend of ours from Trevor’s baseball team shared with us a pearl of wisdom she had heard in a sermon at her church and how she creatively applied it in her family – Take Five. [...]
“The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” ― Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) / Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153) This might be a bit overstated for our topic today, but it does drive home the point. How many times have we said this: Someday I’m going to… Once I get through this, I’m going to… This spring I’m going to… I’ll do it next time… …and then it never happens. You don’t follow through or, [...]
On a recent business trip, Rich encountered a special moment when he noticed an older business couple had brought along their two young granddaughters – maybe 6 and 8 – to help handout company literature at the business reception. Cynically, Rich initially thought “What a despicable and cheap way to use your granddaughters to promote your business interests… Why didn’t I think of that!” But, seriously, as the afternoon and evening wore on, Rich witnessed [...]
Have you ever considered the temperaments or taken a temperament test? Shelly and Trevor are Phlegmatic while Rich and Alex are Choleric. These are the temperaments in our family. Like love languages, temperaments are a tool that help us to describe our emotional/personality characteristics. We have found that knowing our own temperament and our boys’ temperaments has been very helpful in our parenting and understanding some of the dynamics in our relationships. We have also [...]
One of the greatest joys you can experience as a parent is when your child lets you into their private world. What is the private world? It is a special place where we hold deeper thoughts, treasured memories, and we feel the most vulnerable. It is the essence of who we are. The private world is what we share with our spouse and only our closest, most trusted friends. As our children begin to grow [...]
Current research shows us that having a shared Family Mealtime has huge benefits for marriages and families. A recent Cornell University Report tells us that families who share meals together, at least 3 meals per week, will: Have improved psychological well-being Increase academic achievement Establish healthy communication Significantly decrease the risk for eating disorders or becoming overweight Create “space/margin” from a hectic day Build healthy relationships among all family members Develop feelings of closeness and [...]
With New Year’s coming up, many of us are thinking about our resolutions for 2016. Losing weight, eating healthier, paying off debt, quitting smoking and drinking less are among the most common resolutions according to research. However, there is one resolution you might consider that will rejuvenate your spirit and help you with all your other resolutions. Engage in Community! When most people think of “community”, they usually think of volunteering or awkwardly associating with [...]
For the Howards, this is our favorite time of year. It’s a great time to reflect upon our blessings, enjoy many family traditions, and refocus our perspective on our life’s priorities. It truly is the most wonderful time of the year! However, in all that wonderfulness, it can also be the most stressful time of the year! Between Christmas shopping, decorating the house (Inside and Out), mailing out 10 million Christmas Cards, baking that never [...]
Throughout the years, manners seem to be one of those civilities that is often taken for granted. Which is why we hear the phrase, “Mind your manners!” It is a call to be mindful of our manners by showing respect others and to not take basic civilities for granted. But why should we be mindful of our manners? We believe good manners not only demonstrates respect towards others, but it defines our character as well. [...]