Best Parenting World

Youth Sports Goal Settings
 by: Ken Kaiserman

New Year’s day means different things to different people. Certainly, spending time with family and friends and watching some great college bowl games. In our house, a new year also means making resolutions.

It started about 15 years ago when my wife and I were on a ski trip together - before kids. It was one of those days in Taos, New Mexico where the snow was coming down so heavy that you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. For some people, the fresh powder might make for great snow conditions, but for us, it was a great day to sit by the huge fire in the ski lodge and “plan our lives”.

We had a great talk that included when we wanted to have kids, financial planning and lots of resolutions - including our goals for work, working out, sports, and how we wanted to work out our relationships with the people in our lives. Believe it or not, we sat there for 9 hours and we had fun doing it. Now, every year, we talk about goals with our kids.

The biggest complaint you hear from parents about their children is “they don’t listen to me and I have tried everything”

Then when you start talking, you find out that parents give in at the end because it is just too exhausting to be consistent.

For example–you want your child to go to bed at a certain time. Instead of sticking to that time and being consistent, your child starts begging or screaming or taking a fit to stay up later and you give in. What you need to do is just stick to the time for a short while and your child will adapt after 4 or 5 times.

I have an example again today from someone who has a 14 year old teenage girl. She lost her cell phone, and they still had another year on their contract. Her mother didn’t have the insurance on the phone. Now her daughter wanted a new cell phone. Well the cheapest cell phone to buy without a contract with Verizon Wireless was an ugly bulky phone for $129.00. But her daughter kept bugging her to get a new phone. Her mother had a flip phone from 2 years ago. The phone’s battery was dead.

I know as a single parent or even with 2 parents, it is hard raising a teenage girl or a boy.

I noticed throughout my son’s teenage life, his emotions were different than mine. There is a difference between girls and boy. The book that came out I think in the 1980’s - Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus really made sense. If you haven’t read that book, you could get the book or tapes and just get an idea of how we are different.

For me, I don’t fight very often with my son. He is more mellow than I am. What we do argue about is cleaning. He just hates cleaning but I don’t like it either. Who does? So what I try to do is talk with him the day before to let him know what we need to do. Again, you can write down what chores need to be done.

So if we discuss the cleaning aspect beforehand, we can deal with it when the time comes.

It seems that the days of naming your son or daughter with your own name and adding a second, third or a fourth sign in roman numerals at the end are fading away. This seems to be especially the case with celebrities. The more unique, the better! As to whether celebrities are simply a little loopy, or whether they simply like the attention that a unique baby name will bring, we do not know. What we do know is that the names just keep getting crazier and crazier. Below is a list of some of our favorite celebrity baby names over the years.

Banjo - Patrick & Rachel Griffiths. This choice of name was based on the main character from ‘The man who came to dinner’.

Apple - Gwyneth Paltrow & Chris Martin. We don’t even think the parents understand why they chose this name!

Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lilly, Fifi Trixibelle, Peaches Honeyblossom - Paula Yates. Definetely three of the most ‘out there’ names in the history of baby names!

Jett - John Travolta & Kelly Preston. Well, John has always loved airplanes, so we’ll let them get away with this one.

Nanny 911 Interview with Montel Williams

I saw an interview with Nanny 911 with Montel Williams and I have to say I was really impressed.

One of the clips that was shown was Nanny 911 going into a home with 3 or 4 boys. The mother, father and boys were out of control. The boys ranged in age, I think the one that was the most trouble was about 9 or 10 years old.

There was a lot of cursing and yelling between the whole family, especially the mother. The father had a home that was electrically dangerous. The father was sleeping on the couch and the boys were sleeping in the room with their mother because the other rooms were a mess and not finished. I guess the father was buying homes, fixing them up and then selling them. They had probably moved 6 or 7 x during the last 10 years.

The boy with the most trouble almost suffocated his younger brother. There was major problems in the home. The boys ran wild, didn’t do even the most simplest request by the mother. It was a mess.

Self esteem in an important quality for all children to have. As parents, you can help to boost your child’s self esteem by following the steps below:

Well first off, please to don’t institute the ½ hour of mandatory reading that so many schools and parents are so keen on these days. You want to encourage a life-long love of reading and frankly you would be much more likely to succeed by banning reading in your house then by turning reading into yet another chore that needs to be done.

Secondly, you want to make sure that your child doesn’t have some learning disability that makes reading hard and uncomfortable. Even a child who makes good grades can have some undetected condition that makes reading difficult. Check with your child’s teacher and/or have him tested if necessary. If there is a learning disability present, experts can help your child with strategies that will make reading easier and more enjoyable.

The best time to instill a love of reading in your child is before they can read. Read to them at bed time. Please don’t play a bedtime video. If you are too busy to read to your child then you can play a book on tape. Just make sure that reading is part of a bedtime ritual that is comfortable and pleasant.

Unfortunately each year many young children drown in swimming pools, other bodies of water, and standing water around the home area. Children must be watched by an adult at all times when in or near water. Children are very inquisitive and love to get themselves into trouble. They love to get there little frail bodies into buckets, bathtubs and such items. Did you know children may drown in an inch or 2 of water!

Always keep buckets and pails, especially 3 to 5-gallon buckets and diaper pails away from toddlers. Toilets are not just a favorite for dogs. Keep children away as they can drown in the bowl. Do you have fish? Make sure aquariums are placed high and above the reach of children. Children will be intrigued by the fish and may try to get in. Bathtubs, kids love to play in them, esp. with water and there toys. Always keep an eye on them and never leave them alone in a bathtub without any supervision. Bathtubs don’t only pose a danger of drowning but danger of scorching hot water as well. Set your water heater thermostat so that the hottest temperature at the faucet is 1200F to avoid burns.

It’s 2am and your baby is up for the third time since 7pm. She’s 2 months old and from all the books and magazines you’ve read SHE’S SUPPOSED TO BE SLEEPING THROUGHT HE NIGHT!!!!! How long can this go on?!!! As difficult as this is it doesn’t last forever.

The first few weeks of a baby’s life are key in setting a healthy sleep pattern that can last a lifetime.

At first your infant doesn’t know much about the differences between day and night. From what she is used to when the home turns quiet is the time to wake up and when there is movement and activity around her is the time to sleep. Slowly she will adjust during her first few weeks and as she does it’s important to set up nice bedtime and wake up time routines so she will understand her roll in it all. Here are some things to keep in mind…

1. Does your baby have a bedtime routine? Setting up a bedtime routine is key. Bath, book, etc. This can be added on to as the child grows.

One reason public schools get away with educational failure, year after year, is because they are run by school officials who passionately believe in what they are doing. As the great English writer C. S. Lewis wrote, "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. Those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."

Public-school true believers often fall into this category - for over a hundred years, education "experts" have been tormenting our children with public schools, allegedly for the children’s benefit. Like all true believers, these people believe that they know what is best for our children and society, and seek to enforce their beliefs on parents.

From the 1850s to the 1920s, public-school activists such as Horace Mann and John Dewey worked to create a public-school system like the one they admired in Prussia (Germany). Mann and Dewey considered public education a religion, with a holy mission to mold children and society. Simply teaching children to read, write, and do math was too commonplace a goal for them. Mann and Dewey wanted the schools to have total control over children’s lives. This meant removing parents’ influence over their children. Mann put it this way: "We who are engaged in the sacred cause of education are entitled to look upon all parents as having given hostages to our cause."