This is the third installment of this series on how to deal with the demand of electronic media in our kids’ lives. Part 1 acted as an introductory post based on the question: how are we as parents supposed to guide our children in an aspect of their lives that didn’t exist when we were children ourselves? Part…
Author: JMartin-Weber
Circumnavigating the Media Black Hole as Parents (part 2)
This is the second installment of this series on how to deal with the demand of electronic media in our kids’ lives. Part 1 acted as an introductory post based on the question: how are we as parents supposed to guide our children in an aspect of their lives that didn’t exist when we were children ourselves?…
Circumnavigating the Media Black Hole as Parents (part 1)
I’m going to be completely honest here: I used the word “circumnavigating” purely because I think it’s a cool word. But I do think it fits pretty well with what I’d like to discuss today, so that worked out well. Another open confession: Jessica and I were not prepared to deal with the omnipresence of…
Determining Age-Appropriate Experiences for Our Children
At what point should parents allow their children to get places on their own? What is the perfect age for kids to go to the local playground without supervision and play for a while? Or just go on a bike ride around the block? These are difficult questions, especially in an age when it feels…
Teaching What it Means to Be a Man. Or Woman.
We were recently invited to have a conversation with a bunch of 6th and 7th graders about what it means to be a man or a woman, including answering any questions they had about sex. After balking at the idea, and bringing up all the reasons we weren’t qualified to guide such a talk, only…
The Importance of How We Communicate
“Haven’t your parents taught you any manners?” Taken aback by the aggressive and rather rude question, I tried to find a quick and appropriate response to the question – not an easy task for my slow-processing brain. “Um, what is this in reference to?” “Haven’t your parents taught you any manners?” Taking my cue from…
Our Key to Staying in Love: Intimacy
Jessica and I ended up having an unplanned couch date last night. Little kids were in bed, big kids were headed in that direction, and Jessica and I snuggled up and watched an episode of Call the Midwife (great show – we give it the highest recommendation). Part of what we love about that show…
The Importance of Shared Experiences
My kids are in our “library” – a fancy name for a room that has a collection of books, a piano, and our beloved television set, which, as we strive to understate its importance we won’t reward by naming a room after, choosing to emphasize our beloved books instead even though library sounds so much…
Sexual Abuse, Body Image, and The Healing Power of Dance
by Ophélia Martin-Weber You can learn more about Ophélia’s future in dance and support her by going here. Ballet requires dedication, strength, confidence, bravery, endurance, grace, hope, joy, passion, concentration, memory, self-esteem, flexibility, knowing who you are, critical analysis, adaptability, ability to learn quickly, pain tolerance, and eventually, really ugly feet. Sometimes, when I…
Wonderful, Messy, Children
In the last few days, my children (all girls, in case you’re just tuning in), have: – created saw dust paths throughout our entire yard, calling it snow, which came from cutting up our fallen tree, and there is now “snow” all over the inside of our house. – made it “snow” on their 2…