Peer-pressure. I grew up not giving a damn about it and I don’t know if that is any bad… In fact, I am convinced it is kinda good.
I remember how I was one of the few who didn’t have a Barbie doll. I was sad and even angry at my mother. But I knew that at the particular moment we could not afford this toy. I had a Cindy. A cheap version. Completely not the same as a fancy Barbie, but served the same purpose. What I learned was Continue reading Peer-pressure and standing out
Yesterday our daughter was once again drawing something weird on a piece of paper. Then she turned to me and asked the classic question: “Do you like my painting?“. I was tempted to reply the usual: “Yes, of course, very beautiful. Good job!” yet something stopped me this time. Instead I asked her back: “Do YOU like your painting?“. She was puzzled. To be frank, so was I. All this triggered me to think about external appreciation and consolation prizes. Continue reading Do you like my painting? or: Reflections on external appreciation and consolation prizes
They say a habit is formed in 21 days. So if for 3 weeks you have been persistently and consistently doing something, you are stuck with that habit. Some habits are great to be “stuck with”, like for example the habit of drinking a glass of water in the morning or an exercise routine, or the daily learning of 5 new words in a foreign language. There are, however, also less positive habits: watching TV while eating, spending hours playing computer games, eating candies in the evening, you name it. Your life is a matter of your choice, of course, and it is totally up to you to put a plus or a minus sign in front of a particular habit (as long as you are in control and understand what you are doing). Moreover, your attitude can also change with time. Thus, a habit that you enjoyed or accepted yesterday, might be a burden today and then the question comes: how do I kick the unwanted habit?
In this post I will share some of my tips on kicking unwanted habits: both those of your own and of your kids. As always, if you have some other nice tips to add, please share them in the comment section below.
To begin with, what do we understand as a habit? Continue reading Habits: what if you want to kick them?
Tantrums are simply unavoidable with kids. Sooner or later, some less some more, but any toddler has drama moments. Today my son was crying desperately that his sock was almost off, got twisted and he was unable to fix that problem. So he was shouting as if somebody was cutting him alive. Poor thing, such a horrible problem! Or my daughter, also today. She forgot that she has hidden her watch in the drawer, checked the closet and realized that the watch is not there. Poor thing! She thought that she was robbed and lost her precious belonging forever! I am being sarcastic, yet actually it is totally not to be done. It is for grown-ups that those problems mean nothing, but for a small kid those problems are real and important! If I look back at what I was worried about when I was 18, for me now that also seems somewhat stupid. Yet, I remember that back then it was a big deal. Why would kids’ problems be less important? Continue reading Lights! Camera! Drama! How to deal with kids’ tantrums
I have started discussing the subject of choosing extracurricular activities (further – ECA) for kids in one of my previous posts (see here). In that post I talked about the practical aspects of making a choice, like time, costs, balance with household chores and homework. Today I intend to start talking about a substantial aspect of this choice. In other words, how to choose which ECA kids should actually follow. The simple answer would probably be – find out the talents and preferences of your kid and find the respective ECA. Ha! Easier said than done. Moreover, I cannot help but wonder if talent is something that you are born with or something that you can train with the right focused effort.
If we look at the biographies of some of the famous athletes, we see an interesting pattern: the father of the famous Williams sisters chose that his daughters were going to play tennis. All family efforts, all money, everything was put on making them famous tennis players. Same story for Tiger Woods. His father was a well-performing amateur golfer who introduced his son Tiger to golf before the age of two and ever since pushed him forward. There are two things here. First, Continue reading Balancing act: Choosing extracurricular activities for kids – Part 2
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