It was messy…. Although the afternoon began well, with my daughter giving me the sweetest Valentine’s card ever…melting and opening my heart… a few very small conventional candies later (that I allowed from the bag of way too much sugar brought home), both of my children were exhibiting the very real emotional/behavioral consequences of processed [...]
Continue reading »Sabriel Caius’ birth…. (grab a cup of tea) Being five days overdue I awoke on the morning of august 24th with incredible energy and a resolution to enter the day fully and simply ask, ‘what would be fun to do with this ‘free’ day?” rather than wallow in limbo land. So off we went to [...]
Continue reading »Lately it has become even more apparent to me that parenting has less to do with what we say or do, but rather where we are coming from when we do. The other day my son Lucas who sprained his ankle, remarked at how he liked “feeling like a king!” because we were all doing [...]
Continue reading »A day early, my dear friend Erin and I took our children to the beach to celebrate the Autumnal Equinox. Over the years we have come together as kindred spirits in our love of nature and the rhythms it helps us keep in life and our hearts. So after much delighted wave diving and frolicking, [...]
Continue reading »I originally posted this many moons ago at www.innerbonding.com and thought I’d share it here… inspired by a conversation with a mama at the mini retreat this Saturday….this issue is timeless…. —- A few months ago, I attended an amazing dance workshop led by Vinn Marti, focused on helping us reconnect with our authentic selves [...]
Continue reading »Our family is blessed to have vacationed in Maui many times over the years. Every time we arrive and I feel the warm winds blow, I take a deep breath and feel my body melt with relief: here is a place that moves at my pace. In Maui, my efforts to slow down are not [...]
Continue reading »I am really enjoying my re-read of Gordon Neufeld and Gabor Mate’s book, Hold Onto Your Kids. In this book, they describe how children’s excessive attachment to peers sabotages their development. What our children really need, they say, is a strong attachment to their parents and other positive adults who can provide the invaluable support [...]
Continue reading »We see it often in parenting literature: in order to be as patient, kind, loving as we want to be as parents, we need to fill our cup. This series of articles is intended to help parents explore self-care and recognize the pitfalls faced in implementing it. We’ll begin with a focus on the underlying [...]
Continue reading »A parent’s self care is often a missing piece in parenting advice. We need to be as loving and respectful to ourselves as we are with our children. Therefore, when addressing whining and complaining, we must strike a balance between attending to underlying feelings AND setting loving boundaries to avoid negative behavior and communication patterns. [...]
Continue reading »A client asks, “How can I help my child have good self esteem, when I don’t?” The fact that she can recognize that this is a problem is the first step! So often, parents, particularly those that have personal histories to heal, focus intensely on helping their children to have the confidence they don’t. However, [...]
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