Tag Archives: boundaries

Online Safety in the Home

I read a disheartening statistic today. A recent study showed that children are only three clicks away from viewing adult content on youtube. Since we don’t have cable in our home, we often turn to youtube to watch some of my son’s favorite shows together. He knows how to navigate the site well enough to get to the shows he wants, but now I’m not so sure that’s a good thing. The study showed that while watching Dora children were only four clicks away from a music video featuring swearing and nudity. While watching Sesame Street they were a mere … Continue reading →

Going with the Flow: Boundaries and Non-Coercive Parenting

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Kids need boundaries. I certainly believe this. Or rather, I believe that all humans need a sense of safe space. We all need to be able to move about in our worlds with a feeling of security, a feeling that we know what the rules are. However, we also need to be able to push and shape those rules as well. How much push you allow and how tight your rules are happen to be two of the defining forces in parenting. I consider myself to be a middle-of-the-road parent when it comes to rules, but I suspect that many … Continue reading →

Is it a Home Business or Free Babysitting?

My kids are older now, but when they were younger—still elementary school age—I was working in my first home business. I worked consulting with nonprofit organizations on management, structure and fundraising. Since I worked from home, my children’s friends and their friends’ parents often just assumed I was a stay-at-home parent and that I was available to supervise. Many home business owners wrestle with being treated like a free drop-in sitter. It can be tough because many of us ARE looking after our own children. We are available parents to them and trying to work at the same time. Part … Continue reading →

When They are Able to Un-do, Unbuckle, and Climb Over

As a new parent, you may have spent hours or days “child-proofing” your home. You figured out how to keep your child constrained and sequestered and provide for his safety and well-being. At some point, however, most children figure out how to get around much of that childproofing. They learn how to unbuckle the stroller belt and the seat belt, they figure out how to climb over the baby gates, and how to pry the safety caps off the electrical outlets. It can be scary and overwhelming trying to figure out what to do with the child who has discovered … Continue reading →

Do Not Let Yourself get Sucked In

We have more control over our lives and those we let in it then we may think. For many of us, is a matter of realizing that whether it is our parents, our children, coworkers, an ex, or other relationships in our lives—we have the power to say “no.” We do have the power to decide whether we are going to let ourselves get sucked into stress and drama or not. Maybe we don’t get to choose our coworkers, family members or even who we fall in love. I suppose I can indulge an argument that people come into our … Continue reading →

I Don’t Want My Kids to be That Coworker Who Won’t Do Dishes

We all know those co-workers—the ones who don’t clean up after themselves: they leave a mess in the company microwave and leave their dishes stacked in the sink, just assuming that someone else will clean up after them. I don’t know if I have ever worked at a job where there was not at least one of those people who had never learned the lesson of how to clean up after themselves and have some consideration for others. I am determined that my kids will NOT be that coworker. I know that I cannot fully control what sort of adults … Continue reading →

12 Suggestions For Raising Godly Children

So you want to bring your children up in God’s ways so that they will follow Him. Here are some suggestions for ways you can help achieve this. 1. Pray for and with your child. Let them see the reality of your faith as you turn to the Lord in prayer when problems or hard times come, or just for God’s help with decisions each day. Encourage them by your example to praise God for the blessings of life every day. 2. As you pray for your children, pray for those they will grow up to marry. From the time … Continue reading →

Whose Birthday Party is It, Anyway?

Ah the birthday party! Organizing and coordinating the perfect party has become an obsession with the average family—at least it can seem that way. We want our child to have a great day, sure, but we may also get caught up in trying to give the standard party for our socio-economic level, meet neighborhood and peer group expectations, and make sure that our child doesn’t feel slighted. What can get lost in the whole quest for the perfect party is just exactly who the party is supposed to be for anyway! There can be so many special interest groups influencing … Continue reading →

Setting Healthy Boundaries for Your Children (2)

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The most important gift you can give your child is a healthy set of boundaries. It is the ultimate gift of love, even though in setting boundaries, your child will probably tell you that you don’t love them. They may even tell you they hate you. But that is okay. The problem that many parents have in parenting their children is that they try to be friends with their kids. This is not possible. Parents and children are not peers and therefore cannot be true friends. That comes later, when the child matures into an adult and the parent-child relationship … Continue reading →

Are Your Customers and Clients Controlling You?

The other day I wrote about how we cannot control what our customers and clients do—no matter how much we might want to or how much energy we put into sales and customer service. There is a flip side of this coin, however, in that we might be letting our customers and clients control us! Do your customers and/or clients have more influence over your life and your home business than you would like? There is no denying that customer service is incredibly important in any sort of business. Even if you have a small consulting business with only a … Continue reading →