What is the main culprit of marriage problems?

Many say it all boils down to communication. Or communication problems to be exact. You either communicate ineffectively or worse, you don't communicate at all.

However I choose to think differently. While communication is important (as you will see later), but the foundation of a good marriage is nothing more than to feel loved and appreciated by your partner.

But there’s a trick…

Photo Credit: nattu

Parents sometimes need to be cruel for the good of their children

One of the hardest things to come to terms with when you become a parent is the realisation that sometimes you are going to feel you are mean, or even cruel.

It is not that you are going to cause your children physical pain, but sometimes you have to allow them to try things out even if they fail in their attempts, or even miss out on things.

My 7-year-old daughter has been going to Primary One since January this year.

I am glad J would share with us stories of what has happened to her in school that day, especially during dinner. I encourage that. After all, that is the best way to find out more about her school life.

Here are a few stories I pick up along the way and I would like to share them with you here. Also I am going to tell you how I (my wife too!) handled each one of them.

Passive copying and writing will not turn children into creative individuals.

Photo Credit: Pink Sherbet Photography's

In a class of five- and six-year-olds, there will be children with different levels of abilities and interests. Some like to sit quietly to listen to stories, while others prefer to tell their own stories.

Whether it’s reading or maths lesson, children need to work off their irrepressible energy.

They want to be able to show off what they already know and can contribute.

"Petang" by Abd Rasid Yusuf

I saw this event on TV last Thursday morning.

There were a few reasons made me want to go for it. Among others were:

• I was amazed by the art pieces I saw. I wanted to see the real thing.
• One of J’s strong interests is exactly painting. I wanted to expose her more to this.
• I wanted to decorate my home with paintings as the walls now are plain and empty.
• And the theme of the then showcase was nature - one of the things I love dearly.

My daughter, J, celebrated her 7th birthday on a moderate scale recently.

My wife and I vaguely suggested to our son to make a birthday card for his sister – thinking it could be an impossible dream.

But to our surprise, K took up the challenge right off the bat.

Do you have problems managing your child’s anger? Or does your child get angry easily?

This might be the solution you are looking for: Child Anger Revealed, which is a child anger management guide written by Jamie Sullivan. As the title says this guide talks in-depth about how to teach your child manage anger.

Disciplining young children is one of the key jobs of any parent — most people would have no trouble agreeing with that. But whether or not that discipline should include spanking or other forms of corporal punishment is a far trickier issue.

Parenting books often forget parent-child relationships.

Before I proceed, let me tell you this: I shouldn’t have written this article because it doesn’t look good on me. I could have chosen to hide this from you.

But I go ahead and complete it despite my initial hesitation, for one main reason: I want you to know we are not perfect. And everybody has one or more weaknesses (in parenting our children). Despite this fact, I also want you to know what is more important is we do our best to minimize our weaknesses, or better still get rid of them.

I am not shy to admit I have some weaknesses myself. This is one of them...

It just comes with parenting!  It seems so easy to notice when our kids are behaving in ways that need improvement.

While there are many things over which we have no control, the following are ten key elements that set the tone for positive behavior. Notice that none of them refer to time outs or spankings. If you are a modern parent who is ready to release self defeating discipline patterns and give birth to a style that is free from suffering and judgment, read on.  It holds everyone in the family responsible for the choices they make but it is done with a non-punitive, joyful, wide-open heart.

Photo Credit: Arwen Abendstern

Parents spend the first years of their children’s life trying to protect them from boo-boo’s and the ever-elusive boogeyman. As their children age, parents shift their energy to protecting their little ones from playground bullies, and later, the inevitable heartache that comes with teenage love. With time, all parents come to the difficult realization that it is impossible to protect their child from all things dangerous, sad or harmful.

What should a parent do when they are unable to protect their child from the emotional pain and sadness that occurs when tragedy strikes? Toledo area parents have been forced to answer this question in recent months, as our community has been rocked by the tragic deaths of several local teenagers.

Right before school holidays ended, I took the family to Lumut last weekend.

The original idea was only Segari Turtle Conservation Centre. To make it even more worth our time, the trip had grown to include Bidor, Sungkai, Teluk Intan, Seri Manjung, and Sitiawan – though we didn’t include Sungkai and Seri Manjung initially. These two places were added as and when we went along about the trip.

While I might be a little biased to focus too much on food, I did not want to neglect the need to include other interesting sites for the kids.