Leisure on the expat's life!

Whether are men or women, single or married at some point on the your process of adaptation in a new country you'll feel the pressure imposed by family, friends and often by ourselves!

Parenting taboos!

Talking about sexuality, drugs, physical and psychological violence, gender and death are still taboos in our society. However these subjects are progressively being treated with more respect and freedom.

My son does not know how to lose!

Everyone likes to win, be it a football match or a race. When we are young winning is a necessity. Every interaction with parents or friends becomes a competitive environment and winning is the priority.

The jealousy of the children towards the couple!

The jealousy of the children towards the couple is more common than you think. You've probably witnessed some scene in your family and even found it funny or worried about the issue.

How to educate emotionally?

Dealing with emotions is not so easy, but the sooner we start the healthier our children's emotional inteligence will be. The parents should teach them to think about emotions so that they can identify what they feel and also how others feel. 

The mask you live in!

Have you noticed how difficult it is for boys to express themselves and talk about what they are feeling? And how dangerous it is for those who do, because they are soon the object of criticism and jokes. Regardless of the culture we are in, boys have never been given the freedom and the possibility to speak and feel what is happening to them.

How to deal with the expectation of parents!

To talk about what parents expect their children's lives, caution must be exercised. You have to get out of the question if the expectation is "good or bad" and evaluate how parents and children deal with those expectations.

Talking about stepfathers and stepmothers!

I believe the role of stepparents is one of the most delicate in the family! Those roles are no longer seen as taboo and currently are more frequent than we imagine.

What's it like to be a parent in a war zone?

What's it like to be a parent in a war zone? Perhaps this is not the first question that comes to your mind when you watch the news about armed conflicts, wars and refugee families. Perhaps this theme raises several feelings and questions in you, but this was one of the doubts that came to mind the psychologist Aala El-Khani.

Respect for the rhythm !

                                                                           Photo by @sysmstudio

In some situations we use to say children are slow…slow to eat, to dress, to walk, to obey and many others. But are they indeed slow ? And compared to what?

How to educate financially!

Educating is not an easy task and we can not only reduce to academic issues. The education that you give your child has the family and personal luggage, involving world views, values, beliefs and other factors.

Different from those years when the financial education was the subject only for adults and a taboo theme among families, today families are introducing it to their children. Some factors as the globalization and the consumerism led to a transformation of man's relationship with money.

How to talk about drugs!

Each day more children and teenagers are being exposed to drugs. We know that the exposition can have different sources such as the social media, friends and even relatives. This week's post don’t have the intention to discuss the hereditary factors or environmental predispositions and also individual or family factors that can lead to drug abuse, such as social vulnerability and low self-esteem.

My goal is to help parents and relatives talking with the children and teenagers about drugs, since talking about it can cause discomfort and embarassment to parents and fear and curiosity to children and teenagers.

It was nothing!

You've probably heard the phrase "it was nothing" several times when you've gotten hurt, cried, or got mad at things that are apparently small. This behavior is learned and is usually directed at young children.

But have you stopped and thought why we do such behavior? Why is it hard to recognize and welcome someone's pain, however small? I am not talking about tantrums, but about the difficulty we have in identifying that crying or sadness should be embraced.

How to Talk About Racial Differences with Children!

As I previously mentioned talking with children and teenagers is a skill that can be improved over time. As I wrote in other posts, some parents might be tempted to avoid certain topics as these force the parents to question the right moment, age and situation to discuss them.

I've already written on the blog about some common subjects such as sexuality, jealousy, lying, adoption, disability, money, drugs and Alzheimer. I invite you to take a look at these posts and, if you wish, send me a message with your question, since answering them might helpt others in similar situation. 

Perhaps talking about racial differences can be easy, even common, for your family; for others, not so much. But how can talk about this subject with children?

Why do parents question their role so much?

Raising children today is different from fifty years ago and this is nothing new. Children who were seen before as economic goods, who worked and helped the family income, started going to school instead of working. Their rights and responsabilities were recognized and the childhood became an important stage in human development.

How to deal with lies!

It comes as no surprise that at some point of your life you have lied to someone. This behavior can be seen more frequently in children, but unfortunately we see it in teenagers and adults. 

To children, lying can be related to desires and fantasy or sometimes used to avoid consequences of any behavior. Young children are used to lie to express desires and what they think, without realizing the bad connotation associated with this act.

Body X mind? Does this still exist?

Unfortunately in our society we value the body over the mind. This is a fact and it is not only up to me change it. But what do we know about maintaining our psychological health? What do we teach our children about emotional hygiene?

Educational cartoons, what's behind them?!

Did you ever stop and think about why cartoons are how they are and what they teach us? Cartoons appeared at the end of the 19th. century and since then have gone through big changes. In the early days the were colorless and whitout sound, today it's an explosion of colors and yelling. Every cartoon had a message related to the social and political structure of its time. 

Then came the 50's, 60's, 70's and 80's with cartoons which portrayed the family's everyday problems, regardless how weird. Some examples are Felix The Cat, Mickey, Betty Boop, Bugs Bunny and Tom & Jerry .

Raising children in another culture!

As I wrote in other posts, leaving your home country involves many gains and losses. Most of these will not be so noticeable and it may take you some time to get everything in perspective. 

When a family with children, whether they are small or not, leaves its country of origin, it also affects the pros/cons and new challenges appear.

Take care of yourself!

It's been a while that I'm thinking about caring. I don’t refer to taking care of others, such as a spouse or relatives but taking care of yourself.

We can say that is normal to have some time for yourself, going to the beauty salon, doing nails or hair, buying news clothes... just to feel a little prettier and generally better in some bad days. But is that enough? Does taking care of appearance really make we feel better about ourselves?