On the Ball Blog

It’s always bothered me to see kids brushed aside because they are “just kids”.  My feeling is that they have so much to teach the world, if only the world slows down enough to observe and learn.  Please take 5 minutes and 29 seconds of your day to watch this awe inspiring video.  You Tube Sara Tucholsky

When you’re done, please come back and answer these two questions.

1.  How have kids (your own or others) taught you a life lesson?

2.  How can parents slow down enought to notice?

Somewhere out there is Laura.  I don’t know anything about her except that she wrote this poignant poem titled “I Am”.  The poem has been used in anti bullying campaigns around the world, and today I’d like to share it with you.  Read more… »

Last weekend I was surfing through some of the free movie channels that my satellite company was trying to woo me with.  I stumbled onto the 2008 movie The Love Guru and watched for about 10 minutes only to find my jaw pasted to the floor in mortified disbelief.  This MPAA rated PG-13 movie was nowhere near appropriate for a 13 year old.   It had extreme sexual innuendo, profanity, and a boy who says “I want to be a guru so girls will like me and then I will like myself”.  Really?  In addition to finding themselves a shade of crimson, most adults I know would find such content highly inappropriate for impressionable teens and younger siblings who are often grandfathered in to a movie.  I’m not going to write about what I saw, because my mother will be reading this blog and I don’t want to offend her or, for that matter, you, dear reader! (Later, I’ll give you a website recommendation that you can use if you choose to read about Love Guru on your own.) Read more… »

Harry Potter and I go as far back as when J. K. Rowling enriched our reading lives with her first book about “the boy who lived”. I was instantly hooked on the exhilarating story that (dare I admit) I’m still addicted to. But what I value most are the rich characters that remarkably portray the realities of our human condition and social interplay! Think about it. If you’ve read the series, don’t you know wisdom packed Dumbledore, a derelict Draco, an intellectual Hermoine, or a loving, home cookin’ Mrs. Weasley in your own life? Not only do I know these kinds of characters, I interact with them routinely.

 
I’ll get back to Harry Potter in a moment. Until then, Read more… »

C’mon parents! Are you buying that Batman or Barbie underwear for your kids or for that aching need in your own heart to purge the Pamper? Admit it! You are over the diaper! But, “gasp”, what if your tinkling toddler isn’t?
The internet contains countless pleas from fraught parents wanting to potty train their toddlers. Timelines vary from a single day to a more leisurely schedule counting up to the first day of preschool. Aaarrgh! Can’t those preschools change a diaper? Why must kids be potty trained to enter? Don’t parents have enough pressure?!
I like to reach out to these parent predicaments with an emotional intelligence perspective that promotes peace and practical policy to the potty. Whoa, lots of p’s in that sentence. Now let’s get some “pee” out of your kid! Here is what I recently shared with a parent who asked on the internet for help. Read more… »

I love to laugh, especially at imaginative and funny TV commercials. However lately, I’ve seen a disturbing trend in the ones that poke fun at men and fathers as if they were congenital dunces!  In fact, this actually worries me!

Okay… I get it!  Read more… »

Last Friday, I attended one of my favorite events of the year.  It was the annual awards ceremony at my son’s School.  I’m a huge fan of this school which has a culture of academic excellence, letting students know it’s not just okay to be smart, but that it is wise to apply effort in its pursuit.  Those students who exemplified the highest effort and achievement in a particular subject were publically acknowledged with a certificate and handshake from the teacher administering the award.  

Now, some of you out there are likely feeling sorry for those students who don’t get awards. If you’re one of them, I must ask… where is the realism in this thought?  Think of the Olympic Committee.  They only award a gold, silver, and bronze medal to the three highest achievers.  Contestants who don’t achieve this don’t even go home with a consolation trophy.  Without the honor of achievement, how can a child understand the hard work and dedication that makes a fulfilling journey toward success?

Read more… »

Coins have two sides that often represent choices.  We might flip a coin to choose either pizza or tacos for dinner, or to decide who will be cleaning up after that dinner.  We often hear kids using the coin as a tool for decision making such as “heads I go first, tails you go first”.  But what happens when adults or kids need to make life’s harder choices?  I’m referring to the kinds that involve how we will respond to and process difficult situations and emotions.   Adults slave away at work to sometimes lose a lucrative business deal, or a child might train for weeks and fail to make the cut for an athletic team that they had their heart set on.  At these times, our personalities kick in and sometimes react in a way which doesn’t feel so good.  We react instead of responding and we’re often so emotionally distraught that flipping a coin doesn’t even occur to us.   When a coin can’t help us choose, the skill of resiliency very well might. 

Read more… »

Do you remember the Clean Up Song that your child’s favorite purple dinosaur, Barney, would sing and teach kids?  It went like this: “Clean up clean up, everybody everywhere, clean up clean up, everybody do your share.”  A generation of kids and more learned this song.  So what happened when they left their playrooms and went out into the real world?  Read more… »

Oh, I bet you thought this article was going to be about how you get your children to respect you.  I apologize… it is actually about asking you, dear mom or dad, if you respect your children?  Sounds a little like JFK doesn’t it?  “Ask not what how your child can respect you.  Ask how you can respect your child!”

Webster’s dictionary defines respect as:   “to take notice of, to regard with special attention, to regard as worthy of special consideration; hence, to care for; to heed.”  Based on this, most parents would likely state “of course I respect my kids” but “why is it so important anyway?”  I’m glad you asked!!  Read more… »