Everyone remembers being a kid and running down the stairs on Christmas morning to find a brilliantly lit Christmas tree with toys under it. Sorry, I should have written “most everyone,” because back then, many of us didn’t have electricity or lots of presents under a tree—except for one Christmas. We had gone to Midnight…
Parenting Matters: The Powerful Influence of Good Parenting
Alec was a state-level long-distance runner. He started running in seventh grade and continued through high school. He won the state championship as a high school junior. I forgot why he came to see me that day, but during the visit, he told me that the next weekend he would be running in the state…
Parenting Matters: A Guide to Raising Good Kids
My wife, Mary, and I were talking about the shooting in Uvalde, Texas, when she brushed tears from her brown eyes and asked, “What could be worse than having a child shot to death in school?” I thought for a while and wondered aloud: “I suppose it could be worse to be the parent of…
Parenting Matters: Sleep as Medicine
Sometimes we forget that Mother Nature has as many “cures” as doctors have, maybe more. Case in point, sleep is medicine. One pediatric study found a robust association between poor sleep and a host of childhood problems. “Nearly every concern of parents and pediatricians can be brought on or exacerbated by inadequate sleep: from obesity…
Parenting Matters: The Miracle of Adoption
With Mother’s Day in view, I am thinking about mothers and what distinguishes them from other women. While no two women are the same, there is one major difference: mothers raise children. Some women look forward to having children but, for some reason, they or their husbands are unable to procreate. Many consider adoption, but some…
Parenting Matters: Teaching Your Kids About Money
I knew 15-year-old Pat and his family for many years. His dad was a highly successful CEO and it showed in the clothing he, his wife, and his kids wore so I was surprised one summer day to see Pat come into my office in dirty, smelly tennis shoes, and sweat-soaked shorts and shirt. He…
Parenting Matters: Food for Thought
Everything parents do is important. Recently, The Tennessean, a daily newspaper in Nashville, featured a chef I wish I could meet. When he was asked the secret to creating great food, he answered: Start with the best ingredients and don’t mess them up. With my passion for parenting, I immediately thought of this as a parenting lesson….
Parenting Matters: The Best Thing You Can Do for Your Children: Love Your Spouse
The best thing parents can do for their kids is to love each other. Recently, my wife, Mary, and I were in my doctor’s waiting room, where she found an old copy of Time magazine (May 20, 2019). Leafing through it, she came across an article with a very large headline, “LOVE YOUR SPOUSE MORE.”…
Parenting Matters: Make Having Fun With Your Family a Priority
When our family lived in Wisconsin, we took advantage of February’s cold weather by having a cookout on our pond. By Valentine’s Day, the pond was topped with 15 to 20 inches of solid ice, so we had no fear of breaking through. We invited every family we knew and borrowed grills from some of…
Parenting Matters: How to Talk About Politics With Your Kids
Today’s politicians are much like the blind men who “saw” the elephant in John Godfrey Saxe’s classic poem. Written almost 250 years ago, “The Blind Men and the Elephant” is based on a very old Hindu parable. It has been used for centuries as an aid to teaching philosophy, religion, and character development. In the…
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