As you probably know, one of my biggest goals in life is prevention, especially in the lives of young children. Why wait when it's just easier to fix something sooner? That's why I sometimes get frustrated when I can't control what's happening in the world.
And I will admit to having a bit of an issue with liking things to stay the same. Like my living room furniture. It hasn't been seriously re-arranged since 1992. I have old photos of childcare kids, still hanging from their toddler days that are now graduating from college! Yikes!
So, changes can be hard. Yet the bigger question for me this week, my friend, is this. What's going to change and what's going to stay to same in the near future? And what, exactly will we have control over? Double Yikes!
Some things I'd personally like to see stay are:
more family bonding, more dog walking, and more gardening, finding new and creative ways to learn, exercise, and communicate, Finding new ways to get what we need and re-thinking what it is we really do need.
The two things I 'd love to see less of are violence and abuse. I know a change like the one we're experiencing can be a huge trigger for violent acts. I wish I knew what to do about that but I'll leave acts of adult violence to the experts on that.
I choose to focus on prevention. Believe it or not, the best age to teach anti-violence, anti-bullying techniques is around 18 mos-3 years. Here's the link to my latest article about what to do when very young children hit and hurt each other. If we have any interest at all in the long-term but essential goal of world peace, we need to look long and hard at what experiences our youngest children are getting today.
We also need to be intentional about what we do with our time, what we choose to spend our money on, and what kind of nourishment we give to our bodies and our minds to keep them well. If you're interested in learning a great anxiety-relieving one-minute breathing technique for your family, click here.
If you have kids you might be interested in reading my article about how their moods are affected by foods.
Thanks for stopping by! Maybe family, as well as quality, will finally be re-prioritized in people's lives as we move into our new phase of reality.
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Click here if you'd like to find out about booking a consult with Nanci, BS edu, MA human dev, 43+years experience with family and young children
Nanci J Bradley, 60+, is an early childhood and family educator, author, teacher, SELF-care facilitator, family aerobics instructor, and an all-around fun-loving person. She believes in the power of sleep, healthy eating, lifelong learning and most of all, PLAY! She studied early childhood ed at Triton College and received her BS in education in 1986 from NIU. She received her MA in human development from Pacific Oaks College in 2011. She lives and teaches in Madison WI