Tag Archives: parenting

FMM 5 17 2024 Half the Story

“Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.” ~ Lao Tzu. Mother-daughter relationships are complicated.  I have no idea why they have to be, but it is an altogether different vibe from mother-son connection.  Having one daughter and three sons, I learned that early on.  There was a […]

FMM 3 22 2024 Simply the Best!

“Love is a friendship set to music” ~ Joseph Campbell. The other day I reread something my father had written.  It was his tribute to and summary of his father’s life, on the 100th anniversary of his birth.  This was a man I did not know, as he had died before I was born.  I […]

FMM 10 8 2021 Me and Mrs. Jones

“Don’t worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you.” ~ Robert Fulghum. The soundtrack of my teenage years was mostly composed of reggae (along with its forbears the ska and rocksteady), with a layer of ‘soul’ music flowing through.  It took a while for original Jamaican music to be […]

FMM 4 10 2020 A Social Conundrum

“There’s a difference between solitude and loneliness.” ~ Maggie Smith. My father was an eclectic music lover.  Brought up in a Welsh chapel, he had an abiding love of hymns, especially as he grew up to be a minister of religion.  In his collection of LPs (long-playing records, from the olden days!), and then later […]

FMM 3 24 17 Do it Myself!

“You show your vulnerability through relationships, and those feelings are your soft spot.  You need to have a soft spot.”~Victoria Pratt. I was a prickly child.  If anyone smiled at me and called me the ‘baby’ of the family, I corrected them “No, I’m the youngest.”  I despised being picked up.  I was a big […]

FMM 4 5 13 What is holding you back?

“The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser men so full of doubts.” ~ Bertrand Russell.   I have been teaching for over four years, yet my career choice still seems new and surprising. I find myself trying to analyze my students to determine what […]

FMM 10 19 12 Nurturing vs Enabling

It is not easy raising African American males in the USA. Parenting is tough, period. For many single parents, there are hard choices to make, and it is often only in hindsight that we see our mistakes. Assisting our bright young children to stay focused and motivated in a world where the messages may conflict […]