Traits of Healthy Families – Part 5

Ready or not, the holidays are upon us!  Hopefully this means you are excited and in the spirit rather than stressed out by this holiday season. It has worked out well that this last column on traits of healthy families will cover traits that show how important the holidays can be to your family wellness.  This is the last installment in a series on the 15 traits of healthy families identified by family expert Dolores Curran.  The three traits left to discuss are that healthy families have rituals and traditions, value service to others, and have a shared religious core.
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May 15, 2007 | by
Categories: Family.
Tags: christmas, Family, Holidays, religion, and service.

Traits of Healthy Families – Part 4

This is the fourth installment of a series exploring 15 traits of healthy families, identified by Dolores Curran as vital to family success.  Traits nine through 12 will be covered in this column.  The four traits we’ll examine this month all have to do with boundaries.  In every family, there are physical and relational boundaries.  Healthy families are those that; 9) share responsibilities, 10) have a sense of right and wrong, 11) respect the privacy of one another, and 12) admit to and seek help with problems.   These traits have to do with boundaries between family members, the boundaries of
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May 12, 2007 | by
Categories: Family.
Tags: boundaries, parents, privacy, relationships, and self-esteem.

Traits of Healthy Families – Part 3

This is the third installment of a series exploring 15 traits of healthy families, identified by Dolores Curran as important to family success. This month’s column will look at traits six through eight, which state that healthy families; 6) are playful and have a sense of humor, 7) have a balance of interaction among family members, and 8) share leisure time.  These three traits discuss important ways in which healthy families share and participate in each other’s lives.  As I write these columns on the traits of healthy families, I am struck again with the truth of how important these
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May 9, 2007 | by
Categories: Family.
Tags: activities, Family, happiness, leisure, play, and Stress.

Traits of Healthy Families – Part 2

Last month’s column introduced the traits of good communication and valuing family time and conversation.  In this issue, three more of the 15 traits from Dolores Curran’s book, “Traits of a Healthy Family” will be covered.  Traits 3 – 5 have to do with providing every family member with a sense of inclusion and acceptance. Trait three, “affirming and supporting one another”, really starts with the parents.   Happy parents make for happy kids.  Affirming parents have good self-esteem, and work to instill a positive mood in the home.  This positive tone in the home creates a general expectation that everyone
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May 6, 2007 | by
Categories: Family.
Tags: affirmation, communication, Parenting, respect, support, and trust.

Traits of Healthy Families – Part 1

The summer season is entering its final stretch now.  Families will be trying to squeeze a few more valuable vacations in before school starts.  Sometimes August feels like “the calm before the storm” because the new school year often hits like a strong wind that scatters the children and blows apart the parents’ schedules.  I want to encourage you to take what time is left this summer to shore up your family relationships and overall functioning.  Now is the best time to change and improve things in your family, before the frenetic pace of school begins.  Rather than worry about
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May 3, 2007 | by
Categories: Family.
Tags: Children, communication, conversation, Family, Holidays, listening, Stress, and tv.

Resolve to Be Positive

Happy New Year!  Have you made any resolutions for the New Year?  Making New Year’s resolutions is a very good idea.  They really do work! Research by John C. Norcross has shown that compared to people who don’t make resolutions,  people who make New Year’s resolutions are actually twice as likely to successfully change something in their lives.  Whether you have resolved to get physically fit, quit some bad habit, or chosen not to make a resolution, let me suggest a resolution that will change your life.  This year, resolve to develop a positive attitude. Having a positive attitude is
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May 3, 2007 | by
Categories: Mental Health and Stress.
Tags: attitude, depression, goals, happiness, positive, and resolutions.

CARP: Couples Acquiring Relational Principles

In families, the most important relationship is the mother-father relationship.  You’ve heard it said that “happy parents make happy kids?”  It’s true.  The stability of the family rests on the mother and father (or parent and stepparent) maintaining a strong and healthy bond.  Every so often, this column will be devoted to providing information that is designed to enrich the couple relationship.   This month, I want to share a couple of important relationship skills.  The first is called “Sharing Withholds,” and the second is “The Habit of Happiness.”  Both of these skills were taught to me by Dr. Les Parrott,
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May 3, 2007 | by
Categories: Marriage.
Tags: communication, Couples, habits, happiness, les parrott, relationships, and withholds.

Unstructured Play is Really OK

Whenever I get together with other parents, conversation inevitably comes around to what activities their kids are into these days.  Some parents rattle off half a dozen activities in which their child participates; piano lessons, scouts, soccer, baseball, Odyssey of the Mind, dance, gymnastics, and the list can go on and on.  Add to this all the homework demanded by “No Child Left Behind” and you have a very busy child!  Don’t misunderstand; supplementing our children’s development with structured activities can be very beneficial.  However, too much structure can be harmful to a child.  If you, as the parent, feel
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May 3, 2007 | by
Categories: Parenting.
Tags: activities, Children, intentions, kids, play, structure, and success.

Women’s Health: What Social Science Research Tells Us

This month’s focus on women’s health provides an opportunity to share some valuable information regarding family dynamics.  Recent research has taken a serious look at the effects of marriage and family life on women’s well-being.  Much of the research in the social sciences suggests that marriage is beneficial to women’s health.  For the women who are reading this article: Before you start laughing at that last statement please understand that these studies are based on huge amounts of data from surveys of thousands of people.  The findings are based on averages, and comparisons of married women to those who are
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May 3, 2007 | by
Categories: Marriage.
Tags: Divorce, domestic violence, emotions, Marriage, mothers, research, and women.