Kids Worry, Too
May 27, 2007 at 1:22 am | Posted in Family, Home, Kids, Kids writing, Life, Parenting, Parents, School, Writing | Leave a comment
This is no earthshaking news. It’s obvious that kids have worries. We worry because we’re afraid of something. We worry about monsters under the bed or being in the dark. We worry about mom and dad getting along. We worry about how we look, or what other people think about us. We worry about grades. We worry about money. We worry about being made fun of – and all the usual stuff there is to worry about.
Worry is part of life. Everybody does it. The thing is, we kids don’t know how to deal with it. That’s were you parents come in. We need your help to learn how to take care of worries on our own.
There are lots of things parents can do. I think these are the 4 most important:
1) Acknowledge that my worries are real
All kids’ worries are real – even if there’s nothing real to worry about. A child who knows it’s safe to talk about the monster under the bed, is going to be a lot quicker to make friends with it.
2) Be honest with me
Worries are part of life. Parents have them, too. When a kid realizes they are not the only one in the world worried about getting pimples, they have an easier time looking in the mirror.
3) Affirm me
Love covers a multitude of worries. A kid who knows he is loved and appreciated just as much when he’s worried about something is probably not going to be as worried.
4) Look worries right in the face
A child who is encouraged to openly look at what he’s worried about, is a lot less likely to be overwhelmed by it. When kids can name their worry, it’s easier to deal with what’s causing it.
So what’s the outcome when parents help us kids with our worries? Well, one giant thing is it develops trust between kids and their parents. We’ll know that later in life when more serious worries hit us, like SATs, drugs, peer group pressure and so on, we can count on you to be there for us.
Another thing is we’ll be more self-confident, as we get better at using the skills you helped us learn.
Plus, we get your affirmation, love and acceptance all along the way.
Aren’t these things that every parent wants their child to have?
‘Nuf said.
Learning
May 12, 2007 at 4:10 pm | Posted in Family, Friends, Grades, Home, Homework, Kids, Kids writing, Life, Parenting, Parents, School, Uncategorized, Writing | Leave a commentYou know that story about how Thomas Edison did hundreds of experiments before he got it right and created a light bulb. Well thats a great example of what all of us kids go through. Its just part of our learning prosses, we try things and sometimes it takes us a lot of tries to get it righ, thats just how we learn.
It really helps us kids when our parents are supportive of this. Sometimes parents want to just do everything for a kid instead of letting him or her figure it out for themselves. Which is okay in some situations. But I would advise any parent to make it a habit to let their kids get hands on life experience. Sometimes the best way to succeed is to fail.
The First Swim of the Year
March 23, 2007 at 6:20 pm | Posted in Family, Kids, Writing | Leave a commentToday we went swimming in our neighborhood pool, well at least we were planning on swimming. When we got there my little sister jumped right in and began to scream. As it turns out the water wasn’t quite warm enough yet. In fact it was icy cold. But the hot tub was nice and the sun was out so I got to take a nap while I listened to the yells of my siblings as they persisted on going in the freezing water.
I’m in a fine mood today and I plan on getting some writing done on one of my new special reports called “21 Money Management Tips for Kids”. I’ve decided that all the rest of the things I write in the “21 Things” section will be in the format of special reports which will be shorter and simpler. They will contain lots of great info but wont take up a bunch of your time in the reading. I realized that most of this stuff can be said simply and without having to read (or in my case write) a hundred plus page books. So all the valuable information is there without needing to take up a bunch of your time. A special report is kind of the opposite of this paragraph, its short and succinct and not long and annoying to read…
Tip of the day: Kids and Money.
This is something that I could write pages about (in fact I have) but for now I’ll just give you basic run-over. This is a list of things money is and things money isn’t.
Money is:
1) A medium of exchange
2) It represents the value of work
3) It represents the value of products
Money isn’t:
1) A reason for living
2) Something to accumulate for the sake of having it
3) A god
4) A measure of self worth
5) Something to brag about
6) Something to worry about
I find that remembering all these things when I’m dealing with money is helpful and it helps keep me from making mistakes or bad decisions.
Friends
March 20, 2007 at 3:13 pm | Posted in Family, Friends, Home, Kids, Parenting, Parents, Writing | Leave a commentThis has been a great spring break for me so far. After school on Friday I got to spend some time with a new friend and then on Sunday me and one of my friends went with my Dad to a forest and spent the day there. He got to spend the night and most of the next day (yesterday). I’m thinking of other plans for getting together with my buds and in fact we may be going to ‘Mammoth Caves’ with one of my friend’s family. So I’m enjoying spring break as much as I had hoped I would and I have been doing lots of good writing.
I don’t have much more to say so I guess I’ll go and write some more during this beautiful morning and I will catch up with you guys later. 
Tip of the day: A friendly reminder for parents. You know there always comes a time when you have to discipline a child. And its a good thing to give a child firm boundaries (I’ll talk more about that later). But there is one very unnecessary thing that parents sometimes do. Yell. Everyone needs to yell sometimes when there is a lot of stress but yelling at someone should be a last resort. I’m not a parents, I’m a kid, but I can tell you that yelling is a bad habit and it really doesn’t work any better than simply talking firmly. I’m not trying to lay a guilt trip on anyone here, I just (for the good of all parent-child relationships) want to help parents and kids get along really great.
Great Days
March 15, 2007 at 12:28 am | Posted in Kids, Kids writing, Writing | Leave a commentI’ve been doing lots of writing lately which is something I’ve not been getting enough of. Its hard sometimes to find a flow when your writing. You may have a great idea about what you want to write but then the right words just escape you. Its important to just be relaxed and let the sentences form in your mind. I find sometimes also that my brain is working faster than I can type (which is pretty fast) and its kind of like running with one leg thats slower than the other and triping over yourself all the time.
The story I’m working on now is one that I’ve been composing in my head for a long time. It started as just a make believe game that me and a friend played, complete with a very intricate story line which I unfortunately didn’t write down. And now its hard to remember all the details. In the end I think it will come out to be one of the best things I’ve ever written but it will take time no matter what.
Tip of the day: Money management tip for kids. When you own someone money make it a priority to pay them back. Getting into debt is a bad habit for anyone to have. Its kind of like fooling yourself saying: ‘I have this much money’ when you really own some of that to someone else. And when they want their money back you may feel pretty stupid for buying that new video game with the money you owed them.
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