I don’t think I have ever seen so many hugs delivered by grown men in a 22-hour period. I was riveted, along with one billion other viewers. I kept count, wanting to stand vigil along with the president of Chile, until every single miner was up and accounted for. Thirty-three was the magic number. I…
Halloween, among all our traditions, has a visceral feel of tapping into something very deep in our psyche. I am going to talk about fear. There comes a day when a young child suddenly realizes that bad things can happen to those he or she is attached to. Something might have already happened such as…
As I give each of my children a goodnight hug and kiss, a final check for water and bathroom, and a gentle tuck of blankets to surround them with cozy warmth, I think about how far we’ve come… I reflect back on the Level I Intensive: Making Sense of Children with Dr. Neufeld in Montreal,…
And as a parent you likely will have discovered by now that people feel no shyness about commenting critically about your child’s behaviour and the way you are dealing with your child. It is hard to read the parenting literature or the newspaper’s reports on the latest release in research or the latest parenting advice…
My daughter recently turned eight, just weeks before her brother reached his sixteenth year. Their grandparents gave them a gift everyone would enjoy – two plane tickets to come spend time with them. For weeks my daughter looked forward to this adventure with her beloved big brother. But as the weeks turned into days, the…
Lately I have been thinking about how vital it is that I convey to my children how important they are to me. In our busy lives with so much to accomplish, simple acts of showing our children they matter can get lost in the shuffle. We know we love our children, but sometimes we forget…
It is clear to me when I watch many popular programs geared to the adolescent population that there is a definite absence of parent in the lives of the characters. In some of the more popular programs, the teens are placed in boarding schools or the parents have either died or had to travel far…
“All work and no play make Jack a very dull boy” What is the role of play in children’s lives and why would we want to make room for it? Play is often seen as free time that is spent without care and work. They formed some of my happiest memories as a child and…
Fall has arrived. School is in. It’s possible your child might not be happy about it. For many parents it may be a time when young children have difficulty separating. A child is crying and clinging at the classroom door, unable to make the transition from home to school. We often make the mistake of…
With a tummy ache, and trying not to disturb the household at 2:30 am, my daughter paced the halls of our home last night in anticipation of her first day in a new school. I noticed the lights were turned on, and I knew in my heart that something was wrong. I went to her,…