Archive for December, 2006
Listed by most recent articles first.
- How To Fight Fairly
From suburban parks to professional stadiums, team members follow pre-established rules when playing baseball or football. Boxing has the Marquis of Queensberry rules that turn what might have been a melee into a sporting event. ...
- Dealing with Transitions
The arrival of fall signals changes. Summer fades and, in many areas of the country, leaves turn from green to multicolored hues. Children go to school. Some are returning, others are going for the very ...
- Healing Your Relationship
Did you ever stop to think that some of the most important things in life are not taught in school? Nobody teaches us, for example, about relationships: how to choose a partner, how to stay ...
- Facing Enduring Differences and Getting to ‘We’
Been there, done that, but keep doing it: These are the hallmarks of an argument involving an "enduring difference" between you and your spouse. Mary and Bill are typical; an "enduring difference" has, for some ...
- Betrayal and Its Aftermath
Mary had been married to Jim for 12 years when she discovered a necklace in his jacket pocket. She was surprised at first, but put it away and forgot about it. Several months later, Jim ...
- Will Working with Family Ruin Your Family Life?
Todd looked at me bewildered, as if to ask, "Can't you make her see reason?" The tension in my office had been mounting between Todd and his wife, Laura, as they discussed the likelihood of ...
- Aging Means More than Getting Old
Who is engaged in the process of aging? Your grandparents? Your parents? YOU??
The fact is, we are all progressing in age and moving through the normal stages of life we have come to know as ...
- Should I Work with My Spouse?
MAN SEEKING WIFE/BUSINESS PARTNER
Successful businessman seeks life partner to share my entrepreneurial dream. Must believe in me and be supportive of the long hours required of a start-up venture. Nothing is too much for ...
- Affairs from A to Z
Everyone knows someone whose life has been touched by an affair. One researcher reports that 60 percent of marriages are affected by extramarital affairs. Although few of us choose to think about these sobering ...
- Teaching a Work Ethic
It's a familiar scene in my office. A family comes in with two or three kids. Mom, especially if she is single, complains about overwhelming exhaustion from her job and ungrateful kids. Doing double duty ...
- School Phobia: ‘I’m Not Stupid, I’m Scared’
The most important thing to understand about phobias is that they are not rational. A child who is afraid of dogs isn't going to be talked out of it, scolded out of it, or punished ...
- Roots and Wings
"There are two lasting things we give our children. One is roots and the other is wings."
I have had this quotation on my wall since my children (now grown) were very young. This phrase sums ...
- Money Matters
"She's my expensive one." The mother sitting beside me at the local community pool points to one of her three teenaged daughters. "She's the one who just has to have clothes from the GAP. She ...
- Do the Write Thing
At the first parent-teacher night we attended when our older son entered kindergarten, the teacher took a poll:
"How many of you consider yourselves to be readers?"
Almost every adult in the room raised a hand.
"How many ...
- Parenting Tips: The Secret to Being Loved
One of the most important things we can teach our children, perhaps the most important thing, is how to be loved and loving. We can't protect them from the many difficulties, even tragedies, of life. ...
- What’s So Great about Summer Camp?
Kids who are fortunate enough to go to summer camp are lucky indeed. Assuming that the program is safe and well run, summer camp can open a whole new world of friendship, interests, skills, and ...
- Parenting and Sports: Bleacher Buddies
I'm sitting on a bleacher again. I think I've clocked a million hours since my kids started participating in sports and things artistic. By now I'm a pro at it. I have my book, my ...
- The Value of a Child’s Bedtime Routine
"But I don't want to go to bed. Why does Jimmy get to stay up later? It's not fair. Just let me watch this show. It's my favorite! It's a special! I always have to ...
- Adolescence: A Time of Growth and Change
Adolescence in American and Western European cultures is a time of enormous emotional as well as physical changes. Although each child is an individual and grows and develops in his or her own unique way, ...
- Preparing Children To Leave Home
Leaving home. Every healthy child eventually does it. Every healthy parent wants it to happen. But the actual leaving (and being left) can be extraordinarily painful for everyone involved.
Parents frequently ask me how to make ...
- The Gift of Learning
It's a new school year. The headline of a local paper reads: "Only 179 Days to Go Before Summer Vacation Begins."
An area supermarket chain, trying to be cute in advertising school supplies, runs a radio ...
- Success in School Begins at Home
Homework — work a student does at home without the monitoring of the teacher — is an important part of the school day. Homework is about learning to be self-disciplined. Homework is about learning to ...
- Lessons in Fairness from Salt Lake
Millions of us watched the Olympic Games for two wonderful weeks in February 2002. Millions of us watched beautiful young people compete for glory, strive for their personal bests, and play for the sheer joy ...
- Let’s Talk about Homework
For those of us with kids in school, the start of the new school year is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, the stress of making sure the kids are occupied every day is ...
- Single and Dating. . . Again!
In the immortal words of Neil Sedaka, "breaking up is hard to do." But it isn't the hardest thing to do. Finding yourself newly single after an extended romantic relationship and facing that awful question ...
