Your Turn: How to Be an Adult by Julie Lythcott-Haims (Book Excerpt)

I’ll risk your eye-roll because this needs to sink in: Life is not about getting to some perfect destination that gives everyone else FOMO. When your death comes, and you’re sized up by your family, friends, God, and the universe, or whatever you believe in and wish happens at the end, the small moments of you just being you will form your final video. Whether you’re a good person or a bad person in the tiny little moments along the way is E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G. What we’re talking about here is your character.

That should feel like a relief. Because you actually have control over your character. But what is it? It’s the outward manifestation of your personality and behavioral traits, which others can observe and experience from interacting with you. You wouldn’t need to worry much about your character if you lived on an island alone. But we are a social species, so your character matters because it matters to others. Character can make or break you. You want to make your character good. 

THOU SHALT BE A GOOD PERSON—HOW TO GROW YOUR CHARACTER

Our son, Sawyer, was born in the early summer of 1999 and our daughter, Avery, was … Continue reading..

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Make Your Mess Your Message by Shari Leid (Book Excerpt)

Excerpted from Make Your Mess Your Message by Shari Leid. Copyright © 2021 Shari Leid. Reprinted with permission from Shari Leid. Seattle, WA. All rights reserved.

Chapter 49

Tiffani’s Story: Acknowledging My Adoption Trauma

Born in Seoul, Korea

Fun fact: Tiffani’s adoptive parents were both very fair-skinned, both six feet tall, and both very Southern!

Tiffani and I share a special bond that stems from our life experiences. We were both abandoned by our birth families in South Korea, and we were later adopted through the same adoption agency in the 1970s. This was at a time when interracial and international adoptions were uncommon, and Korea was the first country to export their orphaned children for adoption. Speaking with Tiffani during our Zoom date was the first time I had ever spoken to another Korean adoptee about our adoption experiences.

Date 49 — What is the mess that became your message?

It is the “luck of the draw” what family you will end up with when you’re adopted — especially back in the 1970s when international adoption wasn’t the somewhat well-oiled machine that it is today. Tiffani was adopted at three and a half years of age, when she … Continue reading..

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Ready or Not by Madeline Levine, PhD (Book Excerpt)

C H A P T E R 10

The Future-Proof Family

Building a Better Moral Compass and Stronger Communities

If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.

—African proverb

When it comes to preparing our children for an unpredictable future, no conversation is complete without stating the obvious: many of the developments that feel frighteningly out of control are caused not by nature or technology but by people. An unstable health care system, an inequitable justice system, and shortsighted energy policies are the result of decisions made by the people we have elected. Imperfect as our democracy is, we citizens do determine who our elected officials are and the choices they make. By exercising our voting rights and highlighting compassion and justice in our homes, we and our children will have a strong voice in determining who has access to the bounty the future will hold and who will be most vulnerable to its unforeseen consequences. Nothing we teach our children will be more fundamental to an optimistic future than ethical values based on respect and concern for ourselves, for others, and for our planet. The only thing that can come close … Continue reading..

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15 Minute Grocery Delivery in NYC (Sponsored Post)

NYC mothers know how stressful parenting in the city can be. You have to juggle a million and one things at once. Sometimes, some key to-do’s can slip our mind. Like stocking up on diapers so that you never run out again. Or preparing for your children’s favorite dinner and realizing you’re missing that one key ingredient.

That’s where JOKR comes in. We’re a 15 minute grocery delivery app that carries best selling products and local favorites, all priced the same as items from your local supermarket. We carry parenting essentials so that the to-do never slips your mind again. We also save you the time of going and getting groceries and help to prepare meals you’re proud to serve your families.

Yes, you read that right. We get you your groceries in 15 minutes or less.

All this without any order minimums or delivery fees.

It’s 6pm, it’s time to feed your baby, and you just realized that you’re out of diapers. We call that a stinky situation. What about that time you forgot to pack some baby food for that impromptu picnic and had to deal with a crying, hangry baby? Or even when your little ones are … Continue reading..

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High Five Discipline: Positive Parenting for Happy, Healthy, Well-Behaved Kids

Chapter 4 – Top Model

You’re always live when it comes to your kids watching you. They have front row seats to your conversations and interactions with others. They are privileged to who you really are, behind closed doors. They watch what you watch on TV and learn your opinions from your phone conversations. They sometimes watch you eat unhealthy foods, while you demand that they eat healthy ones. For most parents, knowing that your kids are watching you is just the thing you need to know to check yourself and model appropriate behavior. But let’s be honest, sometimes it isn’t that easy being clean. So even though this chapter focuses on the importance of being a positive role model for kids and how to do it, sometimes parents can mess up. I know I have. And it’s OK. Even models sometimes fall on the runway. So, do what they did—jump up and keep strutting. And don’t forget, your kids are watching. You just have to be more careful next time.

All parents want to raise kind, respectful, honest, and productive kids. One of the most important pieces for making that happen is being a positive role model. It starts … Continue reading..

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“Pooling to Paradise” Indie Film, Review by Andrea Santo Felcone

What happens when an uptight Mommy Blogger, a heartbroken Talent Scout, and a struggling Actress all share a ride to Paradise, Nevada? Don’t answer before knowing that the driver of this ride is a self-proclaimed “Shaman”, a hipster, and a recreational drug enthusiast. Well, perhaps surprisingly, not much, at least at first.

The beginning of the film “Pooling to Paradise” shows each character in their “before” form: a bit wooden, overly stereotypical, and predictable. However, as the film and the characters’ literal and figurative journeys progress–things get more engaging as the characters reveal different parts of themselves and start to form friendships with each other.

Mommy Blogger, Jenny (Lynn Chen) is more than just a little excited to leave her family for a few days to attend a Mommy Blogger Convention in Las Vegas. She’s the stereotypical Type A: making kale smoothies for her children; not trusting that anyone other than herself, including her husband, can handle things. She has made life so hard on herself that she’s extremely excited to leave the perfectly stylized nest she has created (and photographed at every angle). So excited, it seems she has inadvertently tapped “pool” on her rideshare app. (A fairly contrived … Continue reading..

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BFF or NRF (Not Really Friends)? A Girls Guide to Happy Friendships, By Jessica Speer (Book Excerpt)

Chapter 9: Making New Friends

Sophie’s Story—Always the New Kid

“My mom has a job that makes our family move almost every year. I’ve been to four schools already. Just when I get used to a new town, new school, and new friends, I have to start over.

I get really worried each time I start a new school. I wonder how hard it’ll be to meet new friends. I wonder if the kids at my new school will like me. But even though my stomach’s all tied in knots, I try to smile and be friendly. I figure nobody wants to be friends with a grump. The first few days are kind of lonely and awkward, but then it gets better and I meet some new friends.”

At some time or another, everyone needs to make new friends. Possibly your best friend moves away, or you realize a close friendship is unhealthy. Starting over and finding new friends can feel scary, so here are some tips to help:

• Know what kind of friend you want to have and be that kind of friend.
• Be friendly, confident, and positive.
• Smile, say hello, and ask questions to get to know kids—people

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Slow… down. and glimpse the future. A mother’s moment by Pamela Francis

Yesterday Jun asked me what occupation I could see him as. I said Makers Lab instructor, like Omar at the Michelle Obama library in Long Beach, CA, where we used to live; He’d be in there making stop-motion animation films and trinkets on the 3D printer…, battery operated robots… and such. He really loved it in there.  I could tell all the kids did.  Today he said he wants to take up violin again. I went on my computer to look up that musical instrument place we used to rent Mal’s clarinet from when we lived in Sandy Springs, GA. I stopped briefly to glance at my emails and almost went off on that trip, but I SLOWED DOWN and asked myself, who’s it going to be…? Me or him…? them… that are looking for me…? or him? I thought about him playing the violin and Mal producing in studio.  Malachi just got accepted into the recording engineer program we’ve been dreaming about for over a year.  And I wondered… suppose they became the next Marsalis brothers…?

… Continue reading..

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