Beyond Just Mom

As he jumped in, I flashed back to five or six years ago.  I had almost forgotten the drama over this.
He’s my water boy.  He takes marathon shower/bath extravaganzas every evening, and as a preschooler he loved to play in the pool.  Suddenly though, he balked at swimming lessons:  too cold, too tired, or just too scary.  I [...]

When I started this site a few months so very long ago, I wrote a few foundational posts on the key words of my byline:  reflections on family, faith and the flux of life.  At that time no one was around to read them, so I thought I’d start the new year fresh with a [...]

If your child showed you a project you wanted to praise, what would you say? 
Most parents in my workshops respond, “Good job!  Nice catch.  Wonderful story.”
There are two parts to every verbal interaction with our kids:

1)  Our words (good job!)
2)  The child’s internal words (“cool!” or maybe “whatever, mom” or “not really“)

Which one carries more weight?  [...]