All I Really Needed to Know I Learned At Summer Camp
Through ample outdoor, unplugged group play and adventure, traditional summer camps offer the ideal setting for kids to grow important social skills and character traits.
Topic: Parenting
Authoritative Parenting vs. Helicopter Parenting: What Parents Should Know
A recent article from the Opinion section of
Just Thinking…
I’ve been thinking about this little word “just”.
Unsolvable Love: The Final 30 Alternative Visions of Parenthood
This will be the concluding post in the “Unsolvable Love” trilogy, 30 more epigrams that endeavor to honor and respect the ever-changing, many-sided complexity of the parent-child relationship.
A New “Normal”
I recently spent time with some friends who are sending their 6thgrade son to farm school. Their son is a bright, engaged student and young person. He isn’t going to farm school because he can’t do “real” school. His parents aren’t conspiracy theorists, or off-the-grid enthusiasts, or Luddites.
Unsolvable Love: 30 More Alternative Visions of Parenthood
As I mentioned in my last Challenge Success blog post, I have taken up the challenge of trying to condense what I have learned about family life over the years into a series of aphorisms that (hopefully) illuminate in valuable ways the many fascinating facets of the parent-child relationship.
Unsolvable Love: Alternative Visions of Parenthood
Over the years I have offered countless lectures, workshops and seminars for parents on the wonders and woes of childrearing. Invariably, during the question-and-answer phase, an attendee will make an inquiry along the lines of the following: “If you could leave us with just one piece of advice, the most important takeaway from your presentation, what would it be?”
Ask What Matters, Not Where
Here’s the deal: There are over 3,000 4–year colleges and universities in the United States. There are more than 1,500 accredited 2-year institutions – which are great options for lots of kids for lots of reasons. All kinds of kids go to all kinds of schools, and go on to live all kinds of lives. I know this. And yet, as a parent of a high school senior bound for college, I sometimes find it challenging to remember that (as Frank Bruni reminds us) – where he goes is not who he’ll be (and where he goes is certainly not who I am as a parent).
What Parents Say Matters
When I overheard a troubling conversation at a recent dinner about a child’s academic performance, it reminded me about the importance of the words we use when speaking with our kids
Our Kids Are Listening: Election Results and Rhetoric
My office phone has been ringing lately. A lot. It’s been a while since parents were quite so worried about the impact of media coverage on their children’s mental health.
Pulling Anchor, Setting Sail
I always chuckle at Norman Mailer’s pithy depiction of masculine rivalry: “When two men stop in the street to say hello … one of them loses.” But it would not be difficult to extrapolate a bit and substitute “parents” for “men.”
Calling Into Question
We are all familiar with the adage, “Ask a silly question, you’ll get a silly answer.” The questions that parents ask children are worth considering because the depth of the questions that we present to them correspond closely with the depth of self-awareness and understanding that will be engendered by those questions.