This Christmas I received a special and unique gift. My sister took me to Cancun, Mexico. She took me to an all-inclusive resort called Excellence. It is a spectacular place full of great service, mouth watering food, and caters only to adults. We had beautiful skies, warm water and met lots of interesting people from all over the world. I recommend you check out the place. It was the last in luxury, service and relaxation. It definitely lives up to its name! As an aspiring entrepreneur, I was so excited that on my fifth day there I met the inventor of the most interesting self-defense weapon I have ever heard of. I was water walking in the pool, when I overheard a lady discussing her worries for her college aged daughter who was walking campus at night. Dani one of the wives of the founders and it's spokesperson was saying ,"this is the best thing a women can carty and be both safe and get way from her attacker." I just had to turn around and check out this product. She showed me how to hold it and squeeze, three claws came out. "I excitedly asked is this the Tiger Lady?" All bedlam broke loose. LOL! Apparently, I was the first person to recognize this product when shown what it was. The family was ecstatic to meet someone who recognized their product. Then I met Josh the marketing director for the Tiger Lady. He asked me a lot of questions about where I heard about the product, what I thought of it and would I use it? I answered his questions and told him I would use it and recommend all my fellow visually impaired folks add women use it too. tigerlady.com Afterwards, we talked some more and I found out Josh and his wife Heather were with his family on vacation while their six month old son was back in DC with her parents. I was so pleased for them and I told them so.
I was excited to see a couple take the time for each other especially because they were both so busy with full-time jobs, starting a new business, and being new parents. Josh's Mom told me that he and Heather were sleeping in, getting to the nightclub for dancing, and generally spending good quality time together. I loved hearing that, I told them their relationship is the foundation of their family and taking time to build, preserve, and shore up this relationship was the glue which would hold their family together! After thinking about this I asked Josh if I could use he and Heather's Christmas vacay as an example to show other young and even older couples what it can look like to keep your marriage the priority in your lives as a way to do these three things.
Keeping in mind you are a man and a woman, and a husband a a wife before you are parents.
Remind both of you the foundation of your family life is the relationship between the two of you.
Give your kids a living, breathing, vibrant example of what it means to be an energetic, happy, fulfilled couple who love one another deeply and are committed to one another.
I really enjoyed my Christmas vacation the best present ever! I got to go to the beach, meet some interesting people, got a great new self-defense tool, and found a great example of a couple doing it right. I am so grateful to my sister for an amazing trip. I hope your Christmas went as well as mine! I am looking forward to 2018. Believe in Parenting! Want more information? ptanda.org
Reading together as a family was very popular a few years ago when families read the Hunger Games together. Moms, Dads, kids, grandparents, aunt, uncles, etc all got to read the story and discuss what was going on in the books. This was a good way to form deeper relationships among family members because it allowed families to discuss, poverty, life, death, what would you do in this case, what do you like or dislike about the character? Also, it puts the family on an even playing field everyone has an opinion no one is right or wrong, everyone can discuss their point of view. The holiday season is a great time to build relationships among the family. I suggest doing so by reading together. I suggest picking a classic children's story that has been made into a movie. Spend the week reading the book together. You can actually read it or listen to it via audio book. Then take the time to discuss it together. You can make it a discussion over lunch or dinner. Or you can make it a discussion over snacks and hot cocoa. I love this idea because it allows the family to share an experience in this case a story, Then gives them a chance to talk agout what happened how it made you think and feel. It opens lines of communication and when the whole family participates it opens up how each other thinks and feels. This brings people closer to understanding each other. It is this understanding which enriches, deepens, and strengthens relationships When you have read the book together the next step is to watch the movie. After you watch the movie, talk about the choices the screenwriter made when editing the book for film, do you like what they did. Do you feel key elements of the story played well to the people who will never read the book? What in the movie would you keep or eliminate? Here is a list of book/movies I suggest reading. The Secret Garden The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe Hunger Games 1, 2, or 3 Anne of Green Gables Little Women Charlotte's Web Charlie and the Chocolate Factory James and the Giant Peach Matilda If none of these strike your fancy here is a list of others from wikipedia. I hope you take this opportunity to use reading to set an example for your children on the importance of reading and perhaps start a new holiday tradition. Happy Holidays for PT&A and welcome in 2018! Believe in Parenting Want More Information? ptanda.org
Yay! Christmas is 12 days away and we all know and love the song the 12 Days of Christmas. A couple of years ago Hallmark Channel did a movie about how w woman who died of cancer sent her husband a Christmas gift where he received these gifts literally. LOL she wanted to remind him that though she was now gone life moves on and is to be celebrated! Hopefully, you do not find yourself in a similar position this year but if you do. I encourage you to just love those around you. Hold them a little tighter and smile. Even when you do not feel like it. Feelings follow actions the more you smile the more you will feel like smiling. For the rest I want you to relax. There is no such thing as the perfect holiday. The stress and pressure we put on ourselves to strive for the impossible takes all the joy out of it. During these last few days try focusing on what you want others to feel. Happy, safe, comfortable, well, healthy, and loved. If you concentrate on this rather then trying for perfection you and everyone else will be more joyous. Perfection is unattainable, joy, laughter, peace, and goodwill are the hallmarks of this season. Focus on those things and you will find that perfection is over-rated. You can not give your child the prefect Christmas. What you can do is focus on giving them all the love, and joy you feel in having them in your life. Celebrating with them the joy, majic, and love this season has to give. Believe in Paretning! want more information ptanda.org
