In talking with a dad of two boys, ages 9 and 7, he proudly told me the story of how his boys overcame adversity this past weekend. He had volunteered to be their basketball coach and, as such, was faced with corralling boys and girls into some sort of team, teach them some skills, and identify various positive qualities within each of them over the course of the season. It’s not about winning. The season [...]
Whether it’s preschool, kindergarten, elementary school, middle school, high school or college, May is a big graduation month. It marks the ending and the beginning of a new season of life. This can be an exciting, emotional, daunting, and joyous time for the graduates and their parents! With Alex graduating from Arizona State University last week, we are reminded of what a significant milestone each graduation has been for both our boys and us. In [...]
With Mother’s Day this past Sunday, Shelly reflects on four areas from her motherhood journey. _____________________ I feel truly blessed and grateful for the journey I’ve been on with Rich in raising our boys, now 24 and 22 years old. We were in our mid-thirties when Trevor and Alex were born and we thought we would be great parents. We quickly discovered all the ways parenting was going to challenge us. As a mom, the [...]
Our mindset has everything to do with our happiness and success in every area of life. What we’ve experienced over the last couple of years has certainly amplified that in so many ways. Dealing with the impact of the Pandemic, Politics and Unrest in the world has definitely affected our mindset. Navigating change, disappointment and uncertainty takes a lot of emotional work. We’ve all been under more stress and feeling more anxious which can manifest [...]
Children make mistakes. Just like when a toddler learns to walk, by leaning too far one direction then too far another, they learn balance. It’s during those countless “mistakes” of not getting balance exactly right that they learn to balance. A child has getting up and falling down experiences that supply a massive amount of information about gravity and strength. Then back and forth with use of hips and toes. Then staggering and eventually running. [...]
Have you ever been asked a question about the very thing you just communicated and you can tell your message is not getting through? We’ve all been there and it can be frustrating. Active listening may be a “blind spot” for those we are speaking with and for us as the listener as well. If you’re honest, when was the last time you intentionally listened in order to comprehend meaning, to show love and honor [...]
Every one of us has been on the receiving end of being wronged, injured, bumped and bruised physically, emotionally, and psychologically. Alas, we have all too many times been on the giving end of causing harm or offense in some way, large or small, by accident or on purpose, thereby injuring a relationship. That’s just the way of it – Life doesn’t allow us to progress very far without reconciling when we cause a break [...]
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. For 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. As a result, [...]
“You can do anything for 1 minute” is not just an easy phrase for parental encouragement, it’s a brick in the foundation of a child’s life. It isn’t long after babies become toddlers that parents should begin the long process of building character through self-discipline. Every era in childhood will present new opportunities for parents to develop in their children the ability to face the arduous ability of sticking with a task and persevering through [...]
Last fall, we were invited to be a part of a parenting program where would we record video segments and offer parenting advice to young parents – much like these Tuesday Letters. After a couple months of recording and producing a couple video segments, we submitted them for upload on their website and mobile app. To our stunned surprise, our initial video discussing toddler obedience, was rejected by their content committee and we were told [...]