Effective Listening
Communication Requires One Person to Talk. - And, Equally Important, the Other to Listen Listening is the other half of communication. Our first thought, when we think about communication, may be to consider the speaker’s ability to convey ideas effectively. What we often forget is that without a listener the speaker may as well be […]
Crisis of Infidelity
The single most destructive threat to a committed relationship is when one of the partners engages in a sexual relationship with another person. This is not an uncommon event. Conservative estimates suggest that about a quarter of women, and a third of men, have violated their marital commitment to their partners. About 65 percent of […]
Ratios Predicting Divorce and Marital Dissatisfaction
When we make a commitment to our partner, our usual expectation is that our relationship will last for life and that our love will see us through the inevitable hard times. Yet, when reality sinks in, we have to acknowledge that while love is one of the components of a relationship’s longevity, it really takes […]
Encourage, Don’t Praise Your Child
We parents want to give or children high self-esteem and teach them to distinguish right from wrong. We’ve accepted the fact that too much criticism and punishment can breed resentment and is less effective than rewards. Our parenting culture now leans toward becoming children’s cheerleaders. We give trophies for non-competitive soccer games where there is […]
Natural and Logical Consequences
The Goal of using consequences is to help our children learn self-discipline by allowing them to make choices and to be responsible for the results of those choices. How consequences are different from punishment: Consequences are clearly related to the misbehavior and are applied in a respecful manner. Consequences express a logical social order that de-emphasizes power and hierarchy. Consequences do […]