Can you be alone?

At some point of your life you probably came across situations when you had to be alone, either because your partner was travelling; your children were at their grandparents house and many others. To some these situations can be dealt with no problem, but to others much harder. In these moments we can feel lost, not knowing what to do and often even bothered by this feeling. Of course it all depends on your age and the situation you are in, but overall this requires some reflection.

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.

Live among other cultures!

One of the great blessings and challenges of leaving our country of origin is living with people from different cultures. However, this is not an easy task for anyone; requires patience and the ability of knowing how to respect the habits and characteristics of other people.

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.

Being a parent X Being a spouse

Maybe you are not the only that think it is impossible to separate the couple's space and the parent's space. The difficulty in defining the functions of father/ mother from those of the couple is one of the causes of family problems.

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?

Betty & Cat: a bilingual book to kids!

As I wrote in others posts, one of the biggest challenges that families with children have is bilingualism. As I mentioned in this post, there are some strategies that you can follow to make this process easier. But to illustrate one of those strategies I am going to share a book that I got to know a few weeks ago and I feel in love with.

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.

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.

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.

How to talk about suicide!

                         

All the repercussion that the subject of suicide and related issues produced by the social media during the past few weeks has encouraged me to speak briefly on the subject. Suicide is a major public health issue in all countries. This phenomenon is present throughout the entire history of humanity in all cultures. It is a behavior with multifactorial determinants and the result of a complex interaction of psychological and biological factors, including genetic, cultural and socioenvironmental triggers.

How to deal with children's questions!

I've already written about the importance of dialogue between parents and their children, and communication within the family in general. As simple as it may seem, some people still have doubts about, or hesitate doing it. And there's nothing wrong as long as you're ready to change.

When children are very young, their questions generally turn into talks. To ask and to clarufy doubts is an essential part of the learning process. But not all children feel comfortable to say they didn't understand something or even to satisfy their curiosity, either because of shyness or because the environment at home or at school doesn't make them feel at ease to do so.

Communication between parents and kids!

As children grow up they are faced with new challenges and learnings, and so are their parents. That's when communication within the family undergoes transformations. The way we communicate with each other is a powerful tool for the relationship during their growth and also of the family's. 

Each phase of their growth involves obstacles and peculiar conflicts. As I've already mentioned in an earlier posting, during a certain phase of their growth children will ask and be curious about sex and about the human body, and new dialogues will appear based on this. So parents, as well as the family, must be willing and aware of new conversations and interactions that will eventually come up.

So Where’s Home?

Continuing the POLH theme (I suggest reading that post), I'd like to share a short documentary by a Georgetown University student with you.

The documentary explores the different perspectives and construction of the personal identity of the so-called 'Third Culture Kids', people who have spent a significant part of their development years outside their country's culture.