Friday’s Child

August 14, 2009

Friday’s child is loving and giving, so TGIF!  Our children are actually hard-wired to be Friday’s child, particularly when it comes to their “mirror neurons.”  These are brain cells that respond to what they see and repeat it.  These neurons help account for why an eight-month-old, sitting next to the laundry basket, may pick up […]

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Thursday’s Child

August 13, 2009

Thursday’s child has far to go. I love Thursday’s child (but then I love them all, at least on my good days) because I relate to late bloomers. I was very late to grow, to hit puberty, to realize why one is supposed to study or get good grades. I was late to understand what […]

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Wednesday’s Child

August 12, 2009

Wednesday’s child is full of woe.  And woeful he or she may be, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they need to be medicated for depression.  Sorrow is part of life, and if Wednesday’s the day, then let’s strive to better understand, and love, our sad child on this melancholy weekday. Sadness has a way […]

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Tuesday’s Child

August 11, 2009

Tuesday’s child is full of grace.  Children are ambassadors of transcendent life spirit, of a consciousness closer to the animals, and thus to what we probably mean by “paradise” and the primordial garden.  Back in the day, before we humans got divorced from the animals, we were all full of grace—and utterly unself-conscious.  And while […]

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Monday’s Child

August 10, 2009

Monday’s child is fair of face.  Thus to a loving parent who is in a relatively decent mood, every child is Monday’s child.  And on those days when our child puts on his or her “wolf-suit,” to reference Max and “Where the Wild Things Are,” we have to work a little harder to get back […]

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Laughter is good parenting medicine

August 9, 2009

When asked if he liked children, WC Fields replied, “I do if they’re prepared right.”  Parenting may be a very “important” thing, and we may earnestly strive to get it right, and we may indignantly vilify those who get it seriously wrong… but sometimes it’s all just a little bit too much. There are times […]

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The Crying Woman

August 8, 2009

When I worked as a group home therapist, I heard a myth that always haunted and remained with me.  Several of the Mexican American boys would speak of “the crying woman,” (they also called her “La Madrona”), and like their own personal stories, “La Madrona” was a fragmentary myth steeped in deeper truths. The boys […]

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It’s cool to be kind—face to face and on-line

August 7, 2009

“Some of the comments on You Tube make you weep for the future of humanity just for the spelling alone, never mind the obscenity and the naked hatred.” (Lev Grossman) A couple of years ago my younger son wanted to make a You Tube video, and my first thought was to protect him from the […]

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Fear of the Dark

August 6, 2009

I had a client, a grown-up, who had a strong fear of the dark until he was twelve-years-old.  The way in which he got over it bears directly on parenting as an attitude and not just a state of having, or not having, children. It all came to a head when, as a twelve-year-old, my […]

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Loss, Marital Strife and Health

August 5, 2009

In a recent article in the New York Times it was noted that divorce, just like the loss of a spouse, was significantly associated with decreased health (even though with divorce one is presumably “losing” someone one no longer wants to be with). And on the other hand, the article concluded with:  “None of this […]

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