Tidal Pull
My heart lifts when I see my daughters cradled in healthy conversations with my parenting helpers.
My heart lifts when I see my daughters cradled in healthy conversations with my parenting helpers.
Replacing lies with truth in moments that incapacitate us, is the mental martial arts basis of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).
One of my happiest childhood memories is snuggling in bed with mum or dad each night as they read to me. It was these moments that instilled in me a lifelong love of reading. It’s still one of my absolute favourite things to do, even though it’s a rare treat for me these days. What I didn’t realise back then was that this simple habit gave me so much more than ...
Joe is a mate of mine. “Mate” hardly describes our connection, yet the sporadic contact belies a relationship that holds strong meaning for me. Joe is pretty much anonymous to most, but that is of his own making. He is humble at a time when indulgence and opulence seemed to be currency. For a long time, he struggled as an artisan. Other carpentry shops that ran slave labour gazumped the hand-crafted ...
Fatherhood is to a son’s manhood, as manhood is to a dad’s fatherhood. They’re inseparable elements in the way fathers raise their sons to be men, because they reflect each other. A few points in a recent piece from All Pro Dad’s BJ Foster hit a six on the subject. Role Models Foster offered four ways to father their sons into manhood, introducing his argument with a simple: ‘Sons need their ...
A majority of dads bond with their daughters through shared activities. Dad and daughter bonds are linked to what a 2013 Baylor University study called ‘closeness in the doing.’ “This is,” Baylor affirmed, “the masculine style of building closeness.” Mums tend to bond through the “feminine orientation of talking” -- an observation the study described as “closeness in dialogue.” Building Memories Leaning on experiential data, Baylor noted, “When asked what key ...
Research shows that there are some basic habits that combine to make a winning formula for families with successful, well-adjusted children who will flourish in life. “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated,” are the wise words of Confucius. Albert Einstein said it this way: “Everything should be made as simple as possible but not simpler.” And one final word of wisdom from Steve Jobs is, “Simple ...
I know that I gravitate to the happy, good things that each day of adventure delivers. Still, there are those occasional times when I struggle as great joy butts squarely up against sadness. I can have tears leak out while wearing a delighted smile. The simultaneous happy-sad thing doesn’t happen too often. Typically, it comes of wondering where my children are right now, wanting a moment to walk a bit with ...
Some time ago, Steve De Keijzer told me a humbling but wonderful experience he had with his 16-year-old daughter. Steve’s daughter had an assignment from school to write a story on a person who had a profound impact on her life. She chose to write about her dad. Steve's story is printed in full below: "My 16 year-old daughter came home recently and told me of an assignment that she had ...