Celebrating Grandparents
This Sunday is Grandparents Day. I’d like to share some of my longing for that day. I long for a day when all grandparents receive appreciation for an important job, sincerely undertaken, on a daily basis. I long for the day when we share our appreciation of grandparents from a place of true honesty rather […]
Does your child know how much you love them?
I don’t agree with everything in Ross Campbell’s 1977 classic, How to Really Love Your Child, but I do admire that he is brave enough to put in print what many psychologists and psychiartrists, therapists and counsellors can recognise but don’t usually put into such clear words: There are times when your child does not […]
Help! It’s pass the parcel!
Here’s a quote from The Telegraph last weekend “Pass the parcel must be ruthlessly rigged to avoid tearsâ€. I guess the parent who thought of putting a packet of sweets between the layers of pass the parcel was very pleased with the innovation.  I remember when I first encountered it I thought “oh, nice idea!†[…]
Saying Yes to our children
It’s ok to say “Yes.†to our children. Last weekend my children and I were choosing a DVD for a family movie night. We had narrowed down our choices to four possibilities. I was unwilling to pay for the most expensive option which happened to be the one they really wanted. It was three times […]
What’s the best compliment a parent can receive about their kids?
I read a story online recently where British actress Kate Winslet shared about how she was recently complimented by a fellow traveller about how well-behaved her children were on an airplane. She went on to say how she loved when strangers commented in this way on how nicely behaved her children were. I really understand […]
Can you love your kids without getting tired?
Do not think that love, in order to be genuine, has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired. Mother Teresa, Roman Catholic nun and Nobel Peace prize winning humanitarian.  20th century saint (1910 – 1997) It’s hard for me to love without getting tired. Some mummy-friends of mine refer to […]
How much should you give your children?
You give but little when you give of your possessions.  It is when you give of yourself that you truly give. Kahlil Gibran Until I had children, I had no idea just how much giving was involved in being a parent. As a teenager, I can remember thinking “I never asked to be born†and […]
Let’s tell our children the truth
When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it…always Mahatma Gandhi, ideological leader of the Indian independence movement (1869 – 1948) When […]
Power + Love = Justice
Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love. Martin Luther King Jr., American clergyman and civil rights activist (1929 – 1968) Children have […]
More unconditional love…
The only love worthy of a name is unconditional. John Powell, British composer (b.1963) I once had a discussion with my mother when I tried to tell her that she loved me conditionally. She disputed that. She was adamant that she loved me unconditionally. In our hearts we all love our children unconditionally. In […]
