For most children, the magic of Christmas is waking to find new toys and games, each one offering the promise of sheer joy and hours of fun. Much is written each year about which toys are popular, which are age-appropriate, and which are educational. Far less is said about parents' role in child's play or how [...]
Try this the next time your children come to you with a complaint or a problem that isn’t completely outside of their ability to solve: Listen without interrupting, take a moment to acknowledge their emotional state (“I can tell that you’re mad”), and then offer this question, “What are you going to do?” In my [...]
The anniversary of my mother’s death is just before Thanksgiving, so at this time of the year my thoughts go to her—Erin McLavy Cavell. On the day she died, we drove to Louisiana for the funeral and I sat down and wrote these words, which my siblings asked me to read at her funeral: This [...]
