How To Break The Chain Of Inter-Generational Trauma
Did you know that you’ve inherited a lot more from your great-grandmother than her garish tea set? You’re probably storing some of her vintage baggage as well… the emotional kind. In every generation, the child unconsciously carries on a long line of past injuries into future spaces. It only needs to affect one family member, […]
Five Important Things That Dads Do
He can reach the top shelf and gives really big bear hugs. And while both of these are important, what is the real significance of a dad? Well, fathers are important symbols that imprint on our kids in really crucial and profound ways Here are five ways a fatherly presence positively affects a child’s development […]
Bodies and Bad Feelings: Re-Thinking Sensory Integration
Why is every other child in O.T.? So many moms list Occupational Therapy (O.T.) as one of their child’s many stops along the way to the Weekend. Every other kid these days seems to suffer from some sort of sensory disturbance, which comes with a range of physical and behavioural challenges and emotional backlash. I’ve […]
Five Reasons Why Kids Need To Hear “No”
Like a great annoying parent, Eskom said, “NO – you can’t have the lights on whenever you want!” Just as kids who want what they can’t have, us adults have also been dished out our fair share of NO’s lately. Then last week we were meant to have Load Shedding at 8 pm. But the time slot […]
Potties, Pacifiers and Pools: Symbols To Grow By
A milestone is a significant stage in a child’s development. But I wonder if it includes ‘stone’ in the word ‘milestone’ because there is something really rocky about navigating this terrain with our kids. Each child handles this individually and this has to be managed with absolute consideration. This is because the way a child […]
Where The Wild Things Are
Even moms get scared sometimes and often in pretty surprising ways. The other day I heard a funny story about a mom who confessed how in the middle of the night, she woke up to find an actual monster in her bed. She described how freaked out she was because this ‘thing’ glowed in the […]
Bedtime, books and big feelings
Twilight…a complex time for children. It’s a strange interlude between wake and sleep, doing and being, knowing and not. There are lots of reasons (besides exhaustion) that have many-a-mom dubbing the anticipation of bedtime, “suicide hour’”. Now as a fully-grown human, this is sometimes baffling. I often fantasize about someone creating a restful sanctuary for […]
Why moms can’t always be grown-ups
Us moms are always expected to act like grown-ups. We’re supposed to be the ‘bigger person’, act responsibly and lead by example. Not always easy when there’s a bunch of offspring pulling on your pant leg and begging for your phone. Truthfully, there are times when accountability can feel pretty unfair. Wonder why that is? […]
Good Enough Is Enough
The idea of the ‘Perfect Mom’ is an absolute myth and yet here we all are, chasing that fantasy of being ever-present; unconditional and producing happy and uncompromised offspring. For me, something very humbling happened when I first became a mom. The only ‘adult’ thing I had done pre-kids, was work. So when my daughter […]