Parenthood HQ

From criticizing a spouse, to claming up about one’s own feelings, there’s no shortage of mistakes made by new dads and dads-to-be.

Here’s a Top 10 List of New Dad Mistakes and some suggestions on how to make the transition to fatherhood a bit smoother.

Saturday mornings. Cold cereal and Scooby Doo. How many parents started out our childhood weekends with this simple ritual? The trick was to wake up early enough to see all of the Saturday morning cartoons because after about 10 am, the children’s programming was over until Sunday night’s Wonderful World of Disney show came on.

My kids also like to get up on Saturday morning and watch cartoons. And on Sunday. And Monday? and Tuesday? You know the rest. While I had only a couple of channels to choose from, my kids have access to 24 hour children’s programming on several channels, compliments of cable television. If you have a satellite dish, your children have access to even more programming.

The distressed adolescent often has feelings of abandonment, emotional detachment, withdrawal, and isolation. These children begin to develop an intense anger directed towards an adult society that they feel has hurt them and does not understand them. Parents need to to learn how to build relationships with these children and this can be accomplished through a process of emotional coaching, of allowing the child to express their feelings without judgment while providing clear guidance, limits, and expectations. It is often inconsistency and lack of clear guidance from parents that further the struggles for these children who then begin to seek guidance from misinformed peers. These children need love, affection, and a non-judgmental atmosphere. If love does not come from a meaningful and sustainable adult relationship then it will take on a new and contorted character where the concept of ‘love’ cmes from trying to be accepted by peers (even if they be negative ones) as the child will know that they will find a source of non-judgment and will be ‘liked’ even if it causes their eventual self-destruction. Affection that is not provided by adults who should be responsible, is then replaced by irresponsible sexual activity where the teen not only seeks for pleasure in a world that often provides only hurt, but feels once again that through sex, they can find a sense of acceptance and supposed emotional connection.

I WAS AMAZED

I could hardly believe what I was hearing. A father and his son had entered the men’s room. While I was washing my hands, I listened as the father wielded a series of demanding and demeaning statements at his son as if they were swords in a battle for … who knows what?

And all about going to the bathroom quickly!

It was the perfect victory. The enemy (the son) had been slain. The battle was won. The general had summoned his one-man army to do his bidding.

7 Safety Tips For School Kids
 by: Janet Booth

Travelling to and from school is often not very safe. However, there are some simple rules that can help to make the school journeys safer, ensuring peace of mind for both children and parents.

1. Waiting for the school bus in the mornings, while traffic is at it busiest, requires a degree of commonsense. Try to have a safe place for children to wait at away from the street and heavy traffic.

2. Don’t let children move close to the school bus until it has come to a complete stop and the driver has signalled that it is safe to board.

During one “generation gap” quarrel with his parents young Michael cried, “I want excitement, adventure, money, and beautiful women. I’ll never find it here at home, so I’m leaving. Don’t try and stop me!” With that he headed toward the door. His father rose and followed close behind. “Didn’t you hear what I said? I don’t want you to try and stop me.” “Who’s trying to stop you?” replied his father. “If you wait a minute, I’ll go with you.”

This is a joke doing its rounds on how the new generation gap has taken shape!

Before reading this article keep in mind that most doctors don’t recommend the use of aromatherapy on babies that re less than three months old. This is because the nasal and skin tissues of an infant are very sensitive and easily irritated by anything but the blandest of substances. Once your baby is past that age consult with your doctor to make sure that the use of essential oils is right for your child.

One of the best things you can do is set some goals for yourself. Goal setting is an important aspect of any successful weight loss strategy. The type of goals you set will depend on the amount of weight you have to lose and your personal fitness goals and desires.

It is important that you set goals that are SMART. What are smart goals? They are goals that are:

- Specific

- Measurable

- Acceptable

- Realistic

- Tangible

Even as a busy parent, I’m sure you’ve seen a poker show on TV or at least heard your friends or relatives talking about it. You might even be someone who’s caught up in the poker craze of the past two years, riding the wave of a steep learning curve. As an avid poker player and father of two, I realize more each day how my poker skills help me raise my kids. Want to know how? Here are four ways to turn your poker skills into parenting thrills:

One of the most difficult parts of being a father is learning to accept your children’s mistakes. It certainly can be easy to be loving, supportive, and helpful when your children are mistake-free, but most fathers who are paying attention don’t find too many mistake-free periods of their

children’s lives.

Let’s be clear about our kids and their mistakes. There aren’t too many kids who get up in the morning, rub their hands together and say," I wonder how I can screw up today and really bother my dad!" Kids don’t enjoy or want to make mistakes, it’s just one of the ways that they learn about the world.