Live, learn, grow, share
In hard economic times, deciding to turn away a salary is a huge decision to make. Therefore, deciding to become a stay at home parent can be difficult and scary for any man or woman. There are so many things that come into play and so many things to consider.
So, is it a good idea to become a stay at home parent? How do you decide whether or not it’s right thing for you? Hopefully, this will help.
You are a family, yes, even when it stops feeling that way. The kids are growing up, your partner is buried in work and you are absorbed in your everyday. You not spending time together as a family is something that becomes virtually inevitable. It is down to you now, to put back together what seem like pieces of your family. This is no mean feat and will require some effort from each of you. It is, nevertheless, achievable.
Here are 10 things to do together that will help bridge the gap.
Some teens have experimented with prescription and recreational drugs without becoming addicted or suffering other negative consequences. But, they aren’t the norm. For numerous others, the addiction kicks in after the very first time they use. For these teens, drug use leads to problems with home, school, work, relationships, shame, helplessness and isolation.
As a parent, you’re always worried about teen peer pressure that could lead to using drugs. And, if you find that your teen is using, it’s your parental responsibility to get him the help he needs fast. The best way to help your teen is to become educated about the warning signs and steps to take to guide your teen into living a drug free lifestyle.
No matter where you are in your personal or professional life, you can still learn and do more to become a better person. Investing in your personal development can help you be a better leader at work, a better spouse or a better parent to your children. What can you do to continually get closer to reaching and fulfilling your potential?
Never Be Afraid to Do Something Outside of Your Comfort Zone
One of the worst habits you can get into is staying inside of your comfort zone and becoming stagnant in your career or in your relationships. While there is nothing wrong with having a favorite restaurant or appreciating certain traits in a friend or colleague, you should make time to do something that you might not usually do.
It’s quite easy to become lax when it comes to taking care of ourselves as adults. Normally, we don’t have that nagging voice in the ear telling us when to sleep or how to eat as our mother’s once did. This sad realization comes to many of us as we stand in front of the mirror after stepping out of the shower.
The phrase, “What happened?” usually crosses our minds. Right there is when we make a crucial decision. Do we commit to taking better care of ourselves, or do we put it off until tomorrow? You must fight the urge to procrastinate decisions affecting your physical needs. What do you do when it comes time to take action?
When you are growing up, your parents are the ones that take care of you. They make sure that you have enough to eat, give you a roof over your head, and are there for you whenever you need to talk to someone who really understands and cares. It seems as if they are going to live forever – and it is hard to imagine the day when they start to slow down or need your help to cope with life.
That’s why it is so surprising when you finally realize that your parents are starting to get on in years. Perhaps they are not as agile as they used to be, or they may find it a bit difficult to handle all of the day’s challenges. When you reach this point, it is often very difficult to know what the best approach to take is. On the one hand, your parents are still your parents, so you don’t want to take control away from them. On the other hand, you want to make sure that they are safe and secure, and it is clear they might not be unless things change.
The single most important thing you can ask yourself is whether your parents are able to continue living in their own home. If they are, this is the best thing for them – it is somewhere they know, it has happy memories, and they will still feel that they are in charge of their lives. Many more people are doing this now as they age – in fact, aging in place is becoming a common trend in the US, and there are lots of resources available to help people who want to do this.
As a kid, I was never interested in sports or exercise. I did dabble in ballet as a very young girl and enjoyed riding my bike in primary school, but other than that, regular exercise was not a part of my daily regimen.
In fact, I had no real reason to exercise until a few years into college. I had gained about 20 pounds and wasn’t feeling as energetic as I once had. My sister (who is 11 years older than me) knew exactly what I was going through and suggested that I start working out a few days a week.
I have to admit, I wasn’t too worried about losing the 20 pounds I had gained, because I didn’t feel uncomfortable with the way I looked. Plus, my Body Mass Index (BMI) was still in the healthy weight range, which meant I didn’t need to lose weight. As a stranger to physical activity, I always believed that regular exercise was only for people who wanted to lose weight, but my sister helped me see the other side of exercise; the side that’s about how exercise makes you feel not how it makes you look.
Motivation, as you may know, has two sides: pain and pleasure. Unfortunately, pain is a stronger motivator. At the same time, being inundated by threats creates an atmosphere of fear and stress. Who wants to live like this? One day, I was standing at the post office, waiting to be served, and in front of […]
Some time ago, I attended a seminar, which wasn’t supposed to be about personal growth (it was meant to be rather technical), but ended up having more personal growth content than anything else. Unlike others in the room, I was pretty happy about it.
Let’s face it, most of the people we know measure themselves and others by the perception of their “net worth”. They may not know what others are “worth”, but that doesn’t stop them from making wild guesses, based on external appearances, like clothes, cars and house, and decide whether a person is successful in life […]