"There is no way to be a perfect mother, but there are a million ways to be a great one."
Every morning I make my bed. It’s a habit, and a good one at that. I recently grew tired of seeing my children’s beds – covers twisted, pillows on the floor, and dirty socks stuffed between the bed and the wall – so I passed the bed-making habit onto my son. Aside from just cleanliness, there are some additional benefits to this often-overlooked daily habit.
I hang around; I hover; I watch. I’m a textbook helicopter parent. And that’s the same for each of my 4 children. But I recently learned the hard way that you can’t be a helicopter parent forever. At some point, it comes to an end, and your kids have to go it alone.
School age children seem too young to be anxious about things that are fundamentally out of one’s control, or so I thought when my daughter started talking about things that worried her. But mild cases of childhood anxiety are common. If you’ve got a worrisome little one at home, here are some books and resources, recommended by Dr. Samantha Ball, DO, that can help.
It’s inevitable. My oldest son just turned 10, and he’s caught the video-game bug. I dragged my feet on this for myriad reasons, despite my own passion for video games. But after further reading, I was reaffirmed that there are ways to enter this new phase of digital childhood pastimes conscientiously, and that there are, in fact, benefits to video games.
