Last weekend in an art workshop, I had a front-row seat watching the activities of a bonified helicopter parent. On jet fuel. If you’ve read this newsletter for any time at all you know that my childrearing style is closer to boot camp than a luxury spa, but I am always fascinated to watch the [read more] …
parenting
Is Depression Lurking?
The world is a tough place these days. Uncertainty, incivility, loss, injury, illness, and alienation can conspire together to take us or our loved ones to a dark place. We can get so overwhelmed that we often do not know what steps to take. If you begin to suspect that depression might be lurking in [read more] …
Do They Have the Tools Needed?
After spending a couple of weeks in an intense fixer upper mode which required the use of multiple tools (belt sander, biscuit cutter, drill, palm sander, and cabinet clamps to name a few), I’ve been thinking about tools and how they impact our lives. There are physical tools that we hold in our hands and [read more] …
An Off-Road Education
Years ago, when we made the heady decision to bring our children home to educate, we didn’t foresee how difficult it would be. Had I stayed with the status quo, there would have been no parent/child conflict over academics or schedules, no sleepless nights questioning my ability to do this crazy thing, no defending [read more] …
Optimizing Opportunity
Many modern parents feel they don’t have too much to teach their kids. I, for one, couldn’t help mine with calculus or programming. In fact, the world of technology was changing so fast that they were often teaching me. It is enough to cause many parents to step back and rely on “experts” to do [read more] …