Is Your Child’s Sport Their Passion or Yours?
I recently watched a documentary about four athletic kids and their parents. These parents had, according to their own descriptions, given up their careers to dedicate their time and money to their athletically talented child. In each case, the parent was visibly angered when their kid missed the basket or didn’t make the putt. There…
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Let Your Son Go!
I started listening to the Dr. Laura radio program a few decades ago while living in Los Angeles. Callers ask Dr. Laura Schlessinger questions, and she offers them blunt guidance and reprimands. Recently, I rediscovered her show on XM radio (Stars Channel 109). I especially enjoy listening to her when my fifteen-year-old is in the car with…
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Who’s Not Ready for College?
This is the text message I sent to two friends last week who were dropping their children off at colleges on the other side of the country: “When can we have our first MMD/MMS (mothers missing daughters/mothers missing sons) meeting? For both of them, this is their first child to leave home to go away…
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Life Changing Lunches
45 hours. That’s a conservative estimate of how much time I spent making my children’s lunches each school year until 2011. I used 15 minutes a day for my estimate, because I am not at my best in the early morning. I spent a lot of time staring at the lunch boxes, trying to remember…
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4 Ways to Make School more like CAMP
My dream is for my kids to attend a school they love as much as they love camp. Two years ago, when my son started at a new school and was having a difficult time, I wrote Why Can’t School be More Like Camp?, and that quote was how my post started. I went on to share some…
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3 Life Lessons Learned on a Tow Rope
The recreational sports we teach at camp include sailing, water skiing, rock climbing, and many more fun outdoor sports. But these are not the most important skills campers learn. We view the recreational skills we instruct as a means to a much loftier goal – teaching campers important life lessons like overcoming failure, keeping a…
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It’s Not All Bullying
A few summers ago, a ten-year-old camper wrote a letter home telling his parents he was being bullied at camp. His irate mother called to let us know. I was very concerned, so I went to talk with the camper right away. I expected to find a sullen boy sitting in the corner of…
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Focus on the “Do”s
Next week 100 counselors arrive to spend 10 days learning to lead campers to have fun, make friends, and grow this summer. As I prepare our training sessions and line up guest speakers each spring, I reflect on how all parents should be required to go through camp staff training. Seriously. There is some basic information about…
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One Important Thing
I overestimate what I can do. Every day. You would think after nearly five decades of living with me, I would know that there is no way I am going to accomplish the 11 items on my “to do” list with the “W” circled for Wednesday. You would think I would assess the situation and…
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Why Kids Flourish at Camp
Campers often describe camp as their “happy place”” or “the best two weeks” of their year. And, from my own observation, I’ve seen that kids and the counselors who work with them are obviously happy at camp. They smile a lot. They look relaxed. There’s a lot of laughter. So many fun things happen at…
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“Pay it Forward” Day is April 24
No act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted. -Aesop I usually rush through the day thinking about what I need to get done and consumed by all the stuff that weighs on my time and my brain. And yet, being aware of those around me and doing a simple act of kindness can change…
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Making Friends: Developing Emotional Intelligence
Why should we care so much about our kids making friends? Because children with friends show many positive characteristics that continue into adulthood, including more of all of these traits than their friendless peers: • Happiness • Confidence • Altruism • Cooperation • Ability to take different perspectives • Achievement and work-orientation But what exactly…
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