Sunday, January 21, 2007

Parents Can Gain Perspective!

As their children grow and develop, parents may find themselves
next to other parents with children of the same age - standing on the
sidelines of a soccer field, sitting in the bleachers of a baseball or
basketball game. During the half-time or in-between innings, parents
may take the opportunity to exchange updates on their offspring's
antics, tendencies, and inclinations. This exchange is valuable
for easing frustration.
What can also be valuable is to have conversations with parents
whose children are 3-5 years older. These conversations can
help parents have perspective on their children's behavior,
help them see what is typical of a developmental stage, even
when a behavior lasts for six months! These conversations
may be even more valuable to have in today's world of
computers and cell phones, so that parents can thoughtfully
develop their family's technology policies.
Parents may have to make some effort to create the opportunities
to speak with the parents with older children as they might not run
into them as readily. And then, parents can return the favor!

Tuesday, January 9, 2007

Mendelson Leads the Way in Career Planning

More than one hat could fit!
This post is about a book, Home Comforts The Art and Science of Keeping House
, and its author, Cheryl Mendelson. While my attentiveness to home care is not as high as that of the author (you need only refer to the prior post to discern that) what I most appreciate is the author's courage to be multi-faceted. On reading the book's jacket I discovered that besides being a homemaking guru Mendelson "daylights" as a lawyer.
While classifications serve to give us speedy answers (searching by occupational codes, keywords, etc.) they make us vulnerable to missing the complexities and subtleties of human knowledge and experience. How wonderful for Mendelson that she has multiple channels through which to implement her skills!
Perhaps some of us really do have one passion, and pursuing that singularity in a positive manner benefits both the individual as well as others. Let's realize, too, that there is value in mental diversity. Some innovation comes from intensive pursuit in one field; some develops as a result of meshing together unique threads of thought.

Sunday, January 7, 2007

One Good Shortcut Deserves Another!

We had made plans for another mother to bring her child
over to our house for a playdate. On that morning I quickly
went around, trying to get the most amount of improvement
in the appearance of the house for the amount of time at hand.
When I spotted the unwashed frying pan on the rangetop, I
decided to make like a magician and simply place it in the oven.
Unbeknownst to me, the other mom had also taken a shortcut
that morning, preparing a coffeecake which she figured could
very nicely be baked in..... my oven!
Have you had a shortcut backfire?

Wednesday, January 3, 2007

Take a Break at the Computer!

Some of us are spending more time in front of our home computers.
Keep some things nearby to help stay comfortable:
  • a closed bottle of water to regularly hydrate.
  • barbells (or equal-sized soup cans) for some light lifting.
  • nailclippers to use while doing computer maintenance.