Self-Respect – A Key Parenting Ingredient

Teaching our children respect for others starts with teaching them respect for us, and this can be done without sacrificing our children's individuality or personal development.  First, we have to believe in the importance of our role as parents,…

Three Important Parenting Questions

As JoAnn and I began navigating the parenting waters, we found that, in the process of defining our values, we were also determining some basic rules for running the family ship "our way."   These were our first three basic questions: Is…

Parenting – The Shared Adventure

What happens when two strong individuals come together to raise a child?  Are they able to surrender control?  How do they deal with sharing tasks?  Who gets to be right and who gets to be wrong?  How can they make positive communication…
,

The Blue / Pink Thing

The Blue Pink Thing is a simple term for the obvious (and not so obvious) differences between the genders.  If you’re raising both boys and girls, I’m sure you are already aware of the Blue Pink Thing.  As John Gray put it, “Men are…
,

Yes, I Locked My Kid in the Car

One day, when Aaron was about around two years old, JoAnn went out to runs some errands, leaving Aaron and me to wash my beloved navy blue two-door Fiat (because that's what guys do to bond).  The car, being a European two-door coupe, had…
,

EXCUSES EXCUSES EXCUSES

I meant to write this post last week, but… .......the dog ate it. As a world-class procrastinator, I’ve become pretty friendly with the concept of a decent excuse. But as the son of hard-working and “absolute” parents, I’ve also…

The Parent Questionnaire

Our own life experience is our greatest parenting resource.  In my book, Raising Children That Other People Like to be Around”, I suggest that parenting is like driving a cab: if you don’t at least ACT like you know the way, your passengers…

MY 5 SIMPLE “MUSTS”

I wrote "Raising Children That Other People Like to be Around" to guide parents toward a better understanding of their roles - as moms and dads, as well as parenting partners - because the core strength of a family comes from the leadership…

S.M.A.R.T.

We are days away from the release of my book, so I thought I'd share a little more... Everyone is capable of creating a wonderful family, and "Raising Children That Other People Like to be Around" is structured around five simple principles…
,

TEACHING GRATITUDE

Today, I am grateful that our eldest son is celebrating his 33rd birthday, so I thought I'd share this excerpt about gratitude. When JoAnn and I got married, a wise friend said that marriage is not 50/50 - it’s 90/90.  Essentially, he was…