Search Results for: blog raising our children in the world

Gen X Parents Raising Connected Children

The world has changed, in so many ways, between when you were a child and today. Parents who are part of Generation X are the first to raise children (and teens) in a world where the internet is so prevalent. Times have changed, in so many ways! The Washington Post has an article titled “Parenting as a Gen Xer: We’re the first generation of parents in the age of iEverything”. It was written by Allison Slater Tate and posted on September 19, 2014. In it, she comments on the difficulties faced by parent who can’t understand why their kids won’t … Continue reading →

Praising Correctly

Who knew paying your child a compliment could be so damaging? According to researchers in the Netherlands, all praise is not created equal.  In fact, you may even harm your kid if you don’t applaud him properly. Oh, the horror! Scientists at Utrecht University claim certain types of praise have the ability to sabotage self-esteem in children with fragile egos.  The researchers categorize effort-based praise as the good type of praise and personal praise as its evil twin. For example, if your child scores a touchdown during his school football game and you shout out:  “You are the most awesome … Continue reading →

Raising an Independent Child

As a parent you’ve probably heard the all familiar phrase, “I can do it myself!” Logan’s been a pro at this one for about as long as I can remember. He always wants to do everything on his own, if you try to help him he smacks your hand away, until he’s succeeded on his own. While this can be rather annoying for a parent, as it does tend to take about ten times as long, it is actually a very crucial step in your child’s development. You may be tempted to take over for your child, to speed things … Continue reading →

Teens Can’t Be Our Entire World

When my children were younger, it felt like they made up my entire world.  And in many ways that is true.  Yet in the midst of raising small children, I still tried to find things that I was interested in, outside of parenting. This can still be a problem when our children become teens.  If our lives revolve solely around them, it’s going to create certain challenges for them and us. The first is that we won’t be prepared for the season when we eventually become empty nesters.  This can be a difficult period for many parents, but it can … Continue reading →

Teaching Your Sons to Be Better Men

In a world where playing video games is more appealing than providing for a family or going to college it is especially important to teach our sons the value of working hard and growing up. While I intend to keep my son little forever, eventually the universe is going to combine against me and make him grow up. For some men, this doesn’t mean much. They are grown up but living in a child’s world. Believe it or not the number of men playing video games between the ages of 18 and 34 surpasses those between the ages of 13 … Continue reading →

Disney Parks Raising Ticket Prices

It might really be time to take advantage of those cheaper flights to Orlando, because Disney World’s just raised its ticket costs. The Orlando Business Journal reports that over the first weekend of June, Disney World bumped its one-day, single-park ticket to $89, when previously it cost $85. This might have been in response to Disney World’s biggest competitor, Universal Studios Orlando, raising its one-day single-park ticket price to $88. I think not, because the prices on many types of park tickets are going up this summer. Four-, five- and seven-day tickets to Disney World now cost $256, $268, and … Continue reading →

Be Present and Connect With Your Child

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I live a busy life. As a single mother with a full time job, I don’t always have the time to do what I would like to do. One of the things that is most important to me is connecting with my daughter. I want to be present for Hailey’s life, I want to be involved, I want her to know that, not only do I care about her, but that I’m interested in her as a person. The challenge is always, how to find the time to really connect with my child. Time is precious but so is a … Continue reading →

Raising a Moral Child

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Have you thought much about your child’s moral upbringing? Unfortunately it is one of the things that can fall by the wayside when you are a single parent. With all the other things that need to be done every day you may think that as long as you model good morals your children will learn by example. In some cases, this is true, in others, not so much. I’m not saying you have to take your kids to church every Sunday, I’m just saying that teaching morals needs to be a more active thing than simply modeling what you want … Continue reading →

Working Through Situations With Your Intense Child

If you are not a temperamentally intense person, it can be difficult to understand a temperamentally intense child. I am definitely not what you would call an intense person, I’m pretty easygoing and generally go with the flow. Dylan, on the other hand, is very intense. He reacts to things, both positive and negative, in a very strong way. It is never difficult to know what he thinks about something. Children with intense temperaments bring a depth of experience into our worlds that we have not previously known, if we are not intense ourselves. When they laugh, it comes from … Continue reading →

Raising Teenagers

Raising teenagers, I don’t think there are scarier words in the world, when you are a single parent, that fear and stress is multiplied. First, because we all remember what we were like as teenagers and we know this is not going to be an easy ride. When Hailey was born one of the first things I did was apologize to my mother, I was a mean teenager who thought my mother knew nothing and I knew everything. I know that is pretty common but I was still devastated that I had behaved that way, especially once I held my … Continue reading →