Perfect Moment Monday: On Track for the Holidays

My Perfect Moment for this week involved taking my son on the Oregon Holiday Express train. He was over the moon with excitement as we were walking up to the steam train.

A good friend of mine organized a group of us to go, and it was one of the best mornings this year—at least, that is what my son would say if you asked. We know he likes Thomas the Train and enjoys playing with his train set, but we definitely knew Saturday morning just how much he liked trains.

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Divorced Parents: Friends?

I would dare to guess there isn’t a child of any age who holds the dream of his parents remaining together their entire lives. I consider myself very fortunate to have witnessed a parental marriage now lasting close to 45 years and am proud to say it doesn’t seem to have an end in sight. I also am aware of my good fortune and that there are many my age as well as older and younger who have gone through the experience of parents divorcing. At this juncture there is a percentage that holds the dream of their parents at least remaining friends, thus allowing holidays and other special events to be more amicable and pleasant. Staying friends after a divorce may be difficult, but a lot of parents try to maintain a relationship with their ex-spouses because of their children. The important question, however, is whether it is healthy for divorced parents to be friends.

In all honesty, this question can’t be answered with a simple yes or no; it all depends on the situation in which the two people find themselves and their emotional health. First let’s define friendship. In this instance we’ll refer to friendship as two individuals who can share a common space physically, emotionally and energetically while being supportive of the other individual’s personal choices and decisions. This friendship is not an intimate exchange but a human exchange. Ideally, it would be wise for divorced parents to become aware of where they are and work on improving some of the following areas (Note: this is only a partial list.) to successfully embrace and maintain a friendship.

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Perfect Moment Monday: Three Chats, Three Generations

My perfect moment this week wasn’t just an experience; it was also an emotional realization. As long as I can remember, I’ve always had a great relationship with my parents. Yes, we’ve had our ups and downs, but in the end we’ve spoken on average once a week with the longest stretch being just under a month between chats. Since my son was born, the telephone chats turned into web cam chats so they could see their grandson. I realized the enjoyment of the chats was declining as they began to take on a sense of obligation, and of course the stress of “are all grandparents being treated equally” set in about a year ago. The result was me pulling away and reprioritizing the importance of the web cam chats with my parents.

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Team-Building Games: Not Just for Kids!

Lessons learned in childhood stay with us forever, so it is therefore important we teach children the important social skills they will need in order to grow and succeed as adults. Team spirit is one such essential skill. No matter what profession a person takes up, she will have to work as a part of a team at some point in her professional career as well as in her personal life—which is essentially in almost every experience. Team spirit, in fact, helps inculcate many other important values in an individual like discipline, dedication, consistency and flexibility, to name a few.

As much as we would like team-building games to be focused just on children during the middle school years, most of the following games can be adapted for adults to enjoy. The following team-building games can play an important part of any co-curricular activities to encourage students and employees to become better team players.

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Nightmares: Room for Growth?

When we are moving through challenges or changes, we process these on all levels. How we deal with the changes and how we effectively process them can impact our sleep. In one way, we may manifest sleep disturbances via bad dreams or nightmares.

When we have a nightmare, it evokes feelings of distress, anxiety and fear. Nightmares generally induce complete or partial wakefulness, and people tend to remember them in more detail than normal dreams. Most people have a nightmare—a really serious nightmare, that is—only a few times in their lives. These dreams generally refer to emotional challenges relating to an issue they are too scared to explore while awake. The nightmare is a trigger for them to talk about it from a safer distance, thereby releasing what mental blockages were initially holding them back from exploring. Persistent or repetitive nightmares, however, can be a cause for a deeper concern, as not only do they lead to sleep disorders, but can be both the cause and effect of deeper psychological problems.

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CranioSacral Therapy Explained

Over 100 years ago Dr. William Sutherland made an amazing discovery regarding the existence of subtle breathing motions of every living tissue in our body. According to Sutherland, these motions were produced by the life force that exists in every living organism’s body; he called this life force “The breath of Life.” The spinal fluid is believed to carry this breath of life within and around the central nervous system.

A few decades later Dr. John Upledger used these findings to develop what is today called CranioSacral Therapy (CST).

According to the generally accepted CST philosophy, stress, traumatic events and physical injuries create blockages, preventing the fee flow of the spinal fluid. This in turn has a direct impact on our natural health and well-being.

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Understanding the Strong-Willed Child: Putting the "Temper" Back in Temperament

Today's guest blogger Krista Kleinwort's submission is ready to read. Here's just a tidbit:

Children are sort of like ice cream at Baskin Robbins: a million different colors, flavors and textures! Although we know they’re not ice cream, they sure are very different! Kids, just like all people, are born with their own unique temperaments. It’s the package they’re born with regarding the way they perceive and respond to the environment and the people in it. Consequently, understanding temperament can be helpful in parenting your children.

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Balancing More Than Just Our Checkbooks

The balancing act we all strive for can so easily be put out to pasture with a flick of a pen, the sneeze of a child, or when the heavens open up with some much needed rain. How are we supposed to live in the present when the present we face continuously changes? One of the hardest transitions a family goes through after a child has entered their lives is bringing back a sense of balance or normalcy to everyday routines.

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"Hurry Up and Eat!"

“Sit down!” “Sit up!” “Don’t play with your food!” “Three more…” Ah, the mantras of a parent at mealtimes. “I don’t like that” or “I don’t want that!” combined with gestural communication such as turning away, spitting out, mouth tightly closed: these are the mantras of children at mealtimes.

Does it have to be this way? Can kids learn good table manners and to eat a wide variety of foods? The answer is a resounding YES!

Continue reading guest blogger Krista Kleinwort's words of wisdom here.