Childrearing Challenges
Guest Blogger Paul Johnson aka the Good Greatsby: Jealousy Thy Name is Parent
Editors Note: We wholeheartedly thank Paul Johnson, prolific, wickedly funny and intelligent blogger (for his own blog The Good Greatsby and the Huffington Post) for his generous permission to reprint his October 23rd post. This post struck a BIG chord with us at HySoS, the moment I/We read the title. I am a (happy/sometimes exhausted…
Read MoreHate and anger in children; allow them to be themselves!
Why is it that children grow up with anger, resentment and hate? They have no idea about the world. Here are two reasons: 1) they copy the behavior of their parents and/or 2) they are not allowed to be who they truly are, which equals to murdering their spirits. Is that upsetting enough? As a…
Read MoreAffirmations for Children: May You Know Love
This Post is dedicated to the Children and the Child in all of us–that deserve to be allowed to be loved for existing. Meet my Poetic and Parental Self at my most spontaneous best. What is the most important thing you can give your kids? Resilience? Emotional Security? A Good Education? Financial Security? This question…
Read MoreThought of the Day: September 6, 2012
How many of the people you know, actually seem to know themselves and be themselves–for themselves? Yes, I know it seems a circular question–and it is not. For some of us it is only as adults we may become truly true to our Self–and that is more work than we imagined.
Read MoreAs a Parent Will I Become My Mother?
There is a “revolution of revelation” going on inside of me and I am getting to know my Self better because of it. These past months of working as part of the Healthy Sense of Self team has given me many opportunities to explore deeply, why I am the me I am, the thoughts I…
Read MoreSandle Candle Lessons from my Mother
While burning a candle today I had a flashback of my mother, my adoptive mother, that took me back to a happy time in my childhood—as I understood it. Something else was going on I was unaware of back then. As an adult and mother now, I experience déjà vu in how I handle the…
Read MoreWill I Ever Outgrow My Parents? (part 2 of 2)
What is Internal Parental Judgment(IPJ) or Virtual Parental Judgment(VPJ)? IPJ/VPJ is the opposite of thinking with your own mind; the voices in your head that you have never questioned on the accuracy because they stem from people you believed to be selfless and invested in your interest: parents, teachers, ex(spouses, your closest friends. As you…
Read MoreWill I Ever Outgrow My Parents? (part 1 of 2)
Between the ages of 12 and 16, I lived with my dad who had remarried a women only 12 years older than I. And I don’t think it was because she was Eastern European, that she was controlled by her parents, but she still was. My step-mother in turn tried to control as much of…
Read MoreChildhood in a “perfect” world
In a perfect world, upon being born we would be loved for simply being born. In a perfect world, upon being born we would be allowed to become ourselves. In a perfect world, we do not live. I find this quote both resonating with me as I resist some of its imagery.
Read MoreDress codes by Marielle Higler
My mother was a very strict woman. She set very high standards for herself and therefor also for us, my four siblings and myself. Not an easy task if you consider we were born in war-crippled Holland during and shortly after WWII. She stood on etiquette and good table manners. She valued good schooling and…
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