How Being a Mom Makes You a Better Professional
August 26, 2006
“Becoming a parent can make you a better worker,” New York Times writer Lisa Belkins said in a recent column.
I’d always heard that becoming a parent made MEN better workers. The common “wisdom” said fatherhood made men more stable and better motivated.
Women, the old prejudice held, would become unreliable once children arrived. Motherhood would bring distractions and increased sick days on account of small, runny noses at home.
My own experience has been mixed. In my early days of motherhood, I concluded that each sleep interruption meant a loss of 10 points from my IQ the next day. And small, runny noses, fevers and upset tummies did indeed take a toll on my work attendance.
At the same time, I began to discover professional advantages to being a parent. For example, I had a whole new way to connect with other parents and with children.
When preparing children’s sermons for the various churches where I preached, I could tune in to preschoolers’ joys, questions and fears in a new way. As a hospital chaplain, I better understood the anguish of dying parents who were leaving young children behind.
Who Are Your Kids Talking To Online?
August 26, 2006
Studies have shown that:
1 out of 4 children were sent pictures of people who were naked or having sex?
1 out of 5 children were solicited for sex on the Internet
50% of people have made phone calls with someone the chatted with online.
Do you know what strangers are saying to your kids?
What can you do to protect your children from unscrupulous people in the Internet?
Today’s children, and specially teens, spend more time on the computer. Even though the Internet is nowadays the primary source of communication for them, it is also a dangerous place.
There are some unscrupulous people out there that would go to any extent to engage in indecent conversations and relationships with your children.
A study done with 1,200 teenagers revealed that 30% had been sexually harassed online and about 50% had conducted cyber love affairs, visited porn sites and read their parents’ e-mails.
Curiosity can be very dangerous. Even though this is normal at their age, curiosity can lead to giving out personal information such as names, addresses, phone numbers, school names and more.
Attaboy! Encouraging Phrases That Build Confidence
August 26, 2006
Home, home on the range,
Where never is heard
A discouraging word
And the skies are not cloudy all day!
Oh, that would be wonderful but most parents and bosses tend to feel that criticism and pointing out what is wrong will make others want to do what is right. However, people cannot improve unless they feel good enough about themselves to believe they are capable of improvement. An encouraging parent stops using negative comments about a child and uses methods, words and actions that indicate a respect for the child and a faith in his abilities.
Jack Canfield of Chicken Soup for the Soul fame often cites a study done by some graduate students who followed a normal group of two-year olds around for a day. These average kids from average homes received 432 negative statements as opposed to 32 positive statements daily. The teachers, aides and other children were constantly saying, "Don’t touch that." "No, it is done this way" "No, you are not big enough." The national PTO (Parent teacher Organization) found the ratio of praise to criticism of school age children to be 18 negative to each positive. It is such automatic action to state things in the negative; we have to learn the words to use in encouraging our children.
Where Will You Give Birth To Your Baby?
August 26, 2006
Where To Give Birth..
You have a choice where to have your baby. As long as there were no complications with your pregnancy, you can give birth at home, at a birth centre, or in hospital. You also have the choice of pain relief, no pain relief, a water birth, an active birth, and you may be able to opt for a planned caesarean.
Hospital Unless you request otherwise, your doctor will book you into a hospital for your birth. You’ll be in for between 7 hours and 4 days depending on how you recover from the birth, and if there were any complications.
Whilst there you will have access to a team of expert medical staff and the full range of pain relief. You may be able to opt for a water birth or an active birth.
Some women who give birth in hospital feel the atmosphere is too impersonal and that they are part of a production line.
Home If you choose to give birth at home you will have two midwives in attendance.
Naming Your Baby Is Part of The Challenge of Being a Parent
August 25, 2006
Baby names are as diverse as the people to whom they are given. Choosing the right name for your baby can be a very challenging yet fun exercise! This is my story.
Before I was married I used to work as a midwife in a Labor Ward. I have helped deliver over 1,000 babies. It was an awesome feeling every time I placed the baby in the mother’s arms for the first time. Often I would ask, ‘What’s your baby’s name?’ The mother would look up at me with such pride and say, ‘His (or her) name is….’. I loved sharing their joy. Seeing the mother snuggle up to her baby and announcing her baby’s name!
I was destined to be married! An unmistakable inner thought filled my mind at the age of sixteen. I knew then that I would do nurses’ training, two years of bible college and then I would get married and go to Ethiopia as a missionary.
At Last Announcing The Winner Of The Top Toy For 2005
August 25, 2006
At Last Announcing The Winner Of The Top Toy For 2005
by: Peter Legrove
Wouldn’t you just love to know.
On the market there are millions of toys now, so picking the Top Toy for 2005 would be quite daunting, and I would say a disappointment as everybody has their own favorites. This year the Toy Industry Association (TIA) Top Toy was something that very few industry insiders actually picked.
Here it is: the **Vsmile TV Learning System**. This electronic toy ended up with Toy Of The Year and Best Educational Toy Awards for 2005. Just plug it into your TV and away you go. It seems to be a cross between a video game and educational game and it should keep the kids happy for hours on end, or that is what they say.
I’m not really into anything that involves the TV, as I try to keep kids away from the TV. I prefer games where the kids are sitting around doing something as opposed to watching the box. So to be honest my kids or I have not tried it so I can’t comment on it.
Disciplining the Wild Child
August 25, 2006
Do you have a wild child? Then this article may be for you. Do you just blow up when you can’t take it any more? Then this article is definitely for you.
Abuse victims, when they become parents, are handicapped in two ways. One, they have no clue how to give good discipline because they never saw it done. A parent who knows how does not resort to abuse. Or, I should say, a parent who knows how deep in his/her bones, not just intellectually, does not need to resort to abuse. So if you were beaten, humiliated, yelled at, ignored, neglected, abandoned, criticized, or any of the hundred other ways of being abused, you never saw good discipline in action. So you just don’t know what it looks like.
Now, suppose you take a parenting course. Here’s handicap #2. Even when you learn–intellectually–what it is, many parents who have been abused have a gut-level abhorence of anything that remotely looks like violence. Any form of discipline that is perfectly “kosher” may look to an abuse victim like something harsh, mean, and hateful. And those parents just can’t seem to put it into action. That’s when the leniency paves the way for the very abuse they don’t ever want to be guity of doing: Because they have failed to discipline their child, the child, of course, gets out of hand, eventually. That’s what normal children do, if unstopped. So then, these sweet, lovely parents who couldn’t bring themselves to discipline their child lash out at them angrily. And they actually feel justified! “I’ve had enough!” They exclaim.
Weight Gain During Pregnancy: Choosing The Right Foods
August 25, 2006
So you need to gain weight but don’t want to gain too much weight during your pregnancy right?
There are many things that you can do to improve your diet and ensure that you gain a minimal but healthy amount of weight during pregnancy.
Choosing the right foods is important because you will be able to loose weight more quickly after delivery if you manage your diet during pregnancy.
So here is what you need to do during pregnancy to ensure weight loss success after:
Tip #1
Choose whole foods. Whole foods are foods that are dense in nutrients. Think wild rice, whole grains, and unprocessed foods. Whole foods don’t include waffles and pancakes!
Tip #2
Add calories during the second trimester. Eating for two doesn’t literally mean eating for two. In fact during your first trimester your baby is about the size of a small bean! Most women don’t actually need to start adding 300 calories a day to their diet until the second and third trimesters.
Examining Drugs for ADHD, Particularly Strattera
August 24, 2006
In memory of 14 year old Matthew Smith; 11 year old Stephanie Hall; and 10 year old Shaina Dunkle and other children who have died from the use of psychotropic drugs for “ADHD”.
The Eli Lilly company has been marketing a new drug for those who are labeled as ADHD known as Strattera. This drug is purported to be a non-stimulant medication, however the side effects are similar. Rather than effecting the dopamine system as do the stimulants such as methylphenidate and dextroamphetamine, it works upon the norepinephrine neurotransmitter. Strattera is considered a Norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor. Norepinephrine is the brain’s adrenalin. Norephinephrine is involved in the increased rate and force of the heart muscle, constriction of heart muscles, pulmonary function (Hedaya, 1999).
If these functions are increased, it would be evident that Strattera could produce possible untoward effects on the cardiovascular system. It is interesting to note that in the safety information that Eli Lilly provides on its website, it refers to possible hazards to those who have heart disease or high blood pressure. Information provided by Eli Lilly accompanying prescriptions of this drug note the possibility of tachycardia, and increased blood pressure. Tourette’s disorder, though the etiology is not fully known is being examined as difficulties arising in the metabolism of dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine. it is known that stimulant drugs can produce Tourette’s like behavior in some children (Breggin, 1998).
Hearing Our Seriously Distressed Children
August 24, 2006
How do we deal with our seriously distressed children and adolescents?
Adolescents are in a period of seeking autonomy and self-determination. These qualities can aid them in becoming agents of active transformation in their own lives. For one to recover from distress they are in need of being able to regain hope and to have an effective exercise of their free will. (Breggin, 1996). Adolescents based on their experiences formulate thoughts and feelings and begin to create values and meanings for themselves.
Those adolescents who are suffering from serious emotional distress have become lost on this path to finding meaning in their lives. Once this occurs, they begin to develop anguish and self-defeating responses to life. This creates in them anxiety and despair leading towards what some would call ‘madness’ (Breggin, 1991). These adolescents must learn to feel empowered once again, and not to feel labeled as an ‘it’, not to be viewed through the lens of their particular diagnosis and categorization they have been ascribed. These adolescents need coaches and individuals who will aid them compassionately and empathetically in navigating and negotiating through life’s stresses.
