Κυριακή 12 Φεβρουαρίου 2012

What can we learn from our kids...

 

- It's more fun to colour outside the lines.

- If you're going to draw on the wall, do it behind the couch.

- Even Popeye didn't eat his spinach until he absolutely had to.

- If your dog doesn't like someone you probably shouldn't either.

- Sometimes you have to take the test before you've finished studying.

- If you want a kitten, start out asking for a horse.

- There is no good reason why clothes have to match.

- If the horse you're drawing looks more like a dog, make it a dog.

- Save a place in lines for your friends.

- Just keep banging until someone opens the door.

- Making your bed is a waste of time.

- Make up the rules as you go along.

- It doesn't matter who started it.

- Ask for sprinkles.

- Hang on tight.

- Ask "why" until you understand.

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Πέμπτη 9 Φεβρουαρίου 2012

I dont care if you smack or breastfeed: What really makes for great parents - Guest Post

Υπέροχο άρθρο απο το blog The Modern Parent:

  

As parents it seems there are 2 things most of us are pretty good at, and that is feeling guilty and judging, both ourselves and others. As a parent blogger and family counselor, there are some things I think we should all be concerned about and some things that we should leave up to the judgment of the individual and their families based on their own values and what it is they see as important to the running of their households.

So for me, these are examples of some of the things that we shouldn’t be so concerned about, the things that within reason the individual has the ability to decide without having to defend or justify:

  • Whether you breast or bottle feed your baby
  • Whether you co-sleep or control cry
  • Whether you have smacked or have success with star charts
  • Whether you let your kids watch ‘M’ rated movies or use flash cards from the moment they can see
  • Whether you feed them organic, preservative, colour, additive free food or give them take-away twice a week
  • Whether you home school or privately educate
  • Whether you’re a full time worker or stay at home mum
  • Whether you grow your own apples, stew and puree or whether you use tinned fruit
  • Whether your kids are outside playing cops and robbers or inside playing computer games.  
Now I certainly have opinions on these such things and I may even suggest making alterations to your choices if it is not doing the following things……which to me are the most important elements of parenting, and the things we should all be concerning ourselves with, both as a society and as fellow parents.  

I do care about:
  • Your children being respectful to other people and to you as a parent
  • Your children knowing that you are in charge and there are some things that are not negotiable
  • Your household, whilst not perfect or stress free, is a place where for the most part there is joy, stability and security
  • Your children are valued, loved and cared for unconditionally
  • You provide an environment where children are encouraged to be independent, responsible and resilient
  • Your children have the boundaries they need and that parents have the skills, and ability to enforce these boundaries on a regular basis.
These are the important aspects of parenting. How you achieve these outcomes can vary greatly, depending on your values, personal principals, ideals and circumstances, but achieving them is not always easy. It is never done perfectly. It is never without its challenges. And sometimes it is not without a little help. Sometimes we all need that extra pair of eyes to help us see more clearly. Being a parent can sometimes render us ‘too close’ to the situation and leave us gasping for a clearer perspective to help us mesh our own personal practicalities with the greater ideals we hold for our children. 

There seems to be a lot of discussion, judging and criticizing of parents and some of the choices they make, when sometimes we need to be reminded that there is more than one way to effectively parent. Whatever choices you make on a daily basis are exactly that, your choices. As long as those choices allow you to make the bigger picture a possibility, then that is all anyone should be concerned with, both as fellow parents and as a society.

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Πέμπτη 2 Φεβρουαρίου 2012

53 of the Best Quotes On Fear - Guest Post

Πολύ καλό post απο το The Bold Life:

Reality of Fear
 
I offer you these quotes as a gift of encouragement. If there is something you fear today let them guide you in the direction of your dreams!
 
1. Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears. ~Les Brown
 
2. The first and great commandment is: Don't let them scare you. ~Elmer Davis

3. I have accepted fear as a part of life – specifically the fear of change…. I have gone ahead despite the pounding in the heart that says: turn back.  ~Erica Jong

4. Do not let your fears choose your destiny. ~ Unknown

5. Fear is never a reason for quitting; it is only an excuse. ~Norman Vincent Peale 

6. Ultimately we know deeply that the other side of every fear is freedom. ~Mary Ferguson

7. Where fear is, happiness is not. ~Seneca

8. Fear is a habit, so is self-pity, defeat, anxiety, despair, hopelessness and resigination. You can eliminate all of these negative habits with two simple resolves," I can! and I will!" 

9. Do what you fear most and you control fear. Tom Hopkins

10. Procrastination is the fear of success. People procrastinate because they are afraid of the success that they know will result if they move ahead now. Because success is heavy, carries a responsibility with it, it is much easier to procrastinate and live on the 'someday I'll' philosophy. Denis Waitley
  

11. Fear is faith that it won't work out. 

12. There are four ways you can handle fear. You can go over it, under it, or around it. But if you are ever to put fear behind you, you must walk straight through it. Once you put fear behind you. Leave it  there. ~Donna Favors

13. Fear can keep us up all night long, but faith makes one fine pillow.

14. Confront your fears, list them, geth to know them, and only then you will be able to put them aside and move ahead. Jerry Gille
   
15. Fear isn't an excuse to come to a standstill. It's the impetus to step up and strike. ~Arthur Ashe

16. Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy. ~Dale Carnegie

17. To be a star, you must shine your own light, follow your path, and don't worry about the darkness, for that is when the stars shine brightest.

18. Always do what you are afraid to do. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

19. You can conquer almost any fear if you will only make up your mind to do so. For remember, fear doesnt exist anywhere except in the mind. Dale Carnegie
  
20. Thinking will not overcome fear but action will. ~W. Clement Stone

21. Do the thing you fear to do and keep on doing it…that is the quickest and surest way ever yet discovered to conquer fear."

22. The key to change….is to let go of fear. ~Rosanne Cash

23. Somebody should tell us…right at the start of our lives…that we are dying. Then we might live to the limit, every minute of every day. Do it! I say. Whatever you want to do, do it now! There are only so many tomorrows. ~Michael Landon

24. Fear is a darkroom where negatives develop.  ~Usman B. Asif

25. Feed your faith and your fears will starve to death.  ~Author Unknown

26. A cheerful frame of mind, reinforced by relaxation… is the medicine that puts all ghosts of fear on the run.  ~George Matthew Adams

27. To fear is one thing.  To let fear grab you by the tail and swing you around is another.  ~Katherine Paterson

28. He has not learned the lesson of life who does not every day surmount a fear.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

29. Many of our fears are tissue-paper-thin, and a single courageous step would carry us clear through them.  ~Brendan Francis

30. Panic at the thought of doing a thing is a challenge to do it.  ~Henry S. Haskins

31. Obstacles are like wild animals.  They are cowards but they will bluff you if they can.  If they see you are afraid of them… they are liable to spring upon you; but if you look them squarely in the eye, they will slink out of sight.  ~Orison Swett Marden

32. I've got more energy now than when I was younger because I know exactly what I want to do. ~George Balanchine

33. You block your dream when you allow your fear to grow bigger than your faith.  ~Mary Manin Morrissey

34. What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?

35. Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most. ~Dostoyevsky

36. I am kind of paranoid in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy. ~J.D. Salinger

37. I was never afraid of failure, for I would sooner fail than not be among the best. ~John Keats

38. Go back a little to leap further. John Clarke

39. I was never afraid of failure, for I would sooner fail than not be among the best. ~John Keats
 
40. I failed my way to success.~Thomas Edison

41. To use fear as the friend it is, we must retrain and reprogram ourselves. We must persistantly and convincingly tell ourselves that the fear is here–with its gift of energy and heightened awareness–so we can do our best and learn the most in the new situation. ~Peter Williams

42. "Fearless" is living in spite of those things that scare you to death. ~Taylor Swift

43. I must not fear.

Fear is the mind-killer.

Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.

I will face my fear.

I will permit it to pass over me and through me.

And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.

Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.

Only I will remain. ~Frank Herbert

 
44. Start a huge, foolish project like Noah. It makes absolutely no difference what people think of you. ~Rumi

45. To live in the world of creation—to get into it and stay in it–to frequent it and haunt it…to think intently and fruitfully, to woo combinations and inspirations into being by a depth and continuity of attention and meditation–this is the only thing. ~Henry James

46. Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is  more important than fear. ~Ambrose Redmoon

47. We are all of us failures–at least, the best of us are. ~James Barrie

48. Where ever fear shadows…. that always means there is a light shining somewhere. ~Jonathan Santos

49. That feeling isn't fear, it's just telling you to MOVE !! ~Rancid

50. The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one. ~ E Hubbard
 
51. Decide that you want it more than you are afraid of it. ~ Bill Cosby
 
52. A mind focused on doubt and fear cannot focus on the journey to victory. ~ Mike Jones
 
53. Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy. ~Dale Carnegie 

If you need to make a change and fear is holding your back, ask yourself these 3 questions:
What is the best outcome that can happen?

What is the worst outcome that can possibly happen?

What is the result of remaining the same?

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Τετάρτη 1 Φεβρουαρίου 2012

9 most unintentionaly confusing things mom say to their kids - Guest Post

Καλημέρα σε όλους! Το ξέρω πως εχω πάρα πολύ καιρό να γράψω - και πραγματικά τσαντίζομαι με τον εαυτό μου αλλα πραγματικά περνάω εναν πολύ πολύ απαιτητικό μήνα απο πλευράς δουλειάς.

'Οπως και νάχει δεν μπορούσα να μή μοιραστώ μαζί σας αυτό το πολύ αστείο post απο το NickMom:

9 most unintentionaly confusing things mom say to their kids:

Women lose a lot of things when they become moms — dignity, hair, time to bathe — but the worst one is logic.

9. “I can tell when you’re lying! So tell me: are you lying?”

8. “Stop crying or I’ll give you something to cry about.”

7. “You’re full? Then eat the rest of your broccoli!”

6. “STOP ACTING LIKE A CHILD.”

5. “I don’t want to repeat myself. But let me repeat myself.”

4. “It’s not good enough just to think it. You have to do it. Give THAT some thought.”

3. “There are people starving in Africa. Now finish your dinner.”

2. “Be quiet and tell me what’s going on out there!”

1. “I know you don’t want to go out and play. So go out and play"


OK, μερικά ειναι χαζά αλλα τα αγαπημένα μου σας τα έκανα bold (έτσι για να ξέρετε ποιά μου αρέσαν).

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