Today, my wife and I celebrate 15 years of marriage. I have learned so many valuable lessons in that time. To keep the post from being 10,000 words long, I’ve condensed it to 15. 🙂
This is a guest post by John Anderson. He is a freelance writer for Executive Street, a daily resource blog for leadership, marketing, business finance, technology and communication. Follow him on Twitter or connect with on Facebook.
In working with teenagers and their families for the past 18 years, I’ve dealt with numerous situations that involved their teen, the police, and jail time. It’s an unfortunate reality but, for some families, they will walk this road.
I used to be hung up on how weird our adoptive family was. But then, my heart changed, I stopped caring, and started celebrating our wonderful, glorious, weirdness.
As the father of four girls, I have an expectation for any suitor who will one day desire to marry my girls. So when I heard Magic’s song “Rude,” I couldn’t resist writing a response. If for nothing else, the song drives me crazy. But simply, the song is a gross display of disrespect and disregard by a young man who supposedly is too blinded by love to take “no” for an answer!
Being part of a family is hard. There’s no question. Out of every other human being in the world, your family knows the darkest parts of you. They know what the rest of the world doesn’t know. That’s why when you fail them (and you will), your next step is critical.
It’s something all of us are looking for- more time with our families. But we often focus heavily on the big moments. Maybe we are missing more than we think we are by doing this?
I posted this in November 2012, just a few short months after Confessions Of A Parent was born. I wanted to repost it because, more and more, I am having conversations with adoptive parents who have a mixed up view of their role in their new son or daughter’s life. It’s easy to view yourself as a rescuer or a savior, because your heart is full for the children you are bringing home. However, this viewpoint can be toxic if there’s not a clear understanding of what adoption really is.
This is a guest post by Kimberly Grimms. She is a futurist who spends most of her time monitoring social behavior in search for new consumer trends. She uses the information to create viral and useful content as part of the new media strategy. She’s interested in technology, market behavior, new media, environment, sustainability, futuristic scenarios and businesses. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook.
The other night I sat in a restaurant watching a mom deal with her 2 kids. I say “deal with” because that was literally what she was doing- dealing with their poor behavior. As she crunched her forehead with her hand I could tell it had been a long day.
