Ready to Learn Mom

The “word passion” conjures up all sorts of images and feelings.

If we determine what we are truly passionate about then life would be very simple, because it’s the passion that drives us.

It is passion that leads us to our being able to fulfill our goals.  Passion drives us to do what we love, to love what we do – and to love.

But how do we find this elusive passion that sets us into action?

Somewhere inside us we all have something that we really want to do in life; something that will drive us to the fulfillment and satisfaction that makes us fill the hours with enjoyment and energy.

What stops us from finding this driver? Sometimes it’s our lack of self confidence – the voice that asks; Do you really think YOU could achieve that?”

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“Don’t talk back to me!” Thus scolded in irate and ignorant mother to her young son. The boy was attemping to make her understand his view of the matter. Her words to the boy simply said to him: “I don’t want to hear your side.” Many parents tyrannize over their children in this manner. The superior strength or official authority of the older person is used to shut off, in advance, all argument from the child. He is forced to accept in silence what he conceives to be a false statement of a case.

The child feels that he is being unjustly treated. He feels that he is entitled to a hearing. When he does not receive this, a spirit of resentment and rebellion is kindled in his mind. His whole disposition and temper is affected by it. To demand a mechanical and unreasoned obedience from a child, where a reason can be given, is little short of a crime against the child. Those who hold that children should not be reasoned with, but should be made to obey orders without question or hesitation would make good slave drivers but poor parents and educators.

This section is from the “The Hygienic Care of Children” book, by Herbert M. Shelton. Also available from Amazon: Hygienic Care of Children

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A child who has a strong relationship with Mom during preschool years tends to form closer friendships in grade school, finds a new study that also indicates why.

“In a secure, emotionally open mother-child relationship, children develop a more positive, less biased understanding of others, which then promotes more positive friendships during the early school years,” said researcher Nancy McElwain of the University of Illinois.

Scientists have known about the link between attachment with the mother and a child’s resulting friendship quality, but they haven’t fully understood why.

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Ever since OPEC vexed Jimmy Carter into wearing a cardigan, telecommuting has been touted as a fix for what ails the US office worker — the agony and expense of commuting, the drudgery of cubicles, the shortage of family time. Long before the advent of the Web, evangelists were confident that cordless phones and faxes had already made the office a relic. “Working from home holds the promise of a new American dream,” Paul and Sarah Edwards gushed in their 1985 manifesto, Working From Home, in which they extolled the virtues of commuting from breakfast nook to den.

Two decades later, however, most workers still trudge to the office. Though a third of the more than 150 million working Americans telecommute at least occasionally, most do so just a few days each month. Only 40 percent of companies permit any sort of work-at-home arrangement, which means most insist on full-time attendance. According to a 2006 survey by the Telework Exchange, the top fear among resisters is that they’ll lose control of their employees, whom they doubtlessly envision frittering away the hours between 9 and 5 playing Minesweeper and munching Cheetos.

Many work-life coaches glibly assert that administrative professionals must be responsible for achieving their own balance in the face of ever-increasing demands — from 9 to 5 and beyond. But given their spot in the org chart, admins often feel compelled to sacrifice too much for their jobs.

“It’s a partnership, but management has the bigger responsibility for admins’ work-life balance, because how work is structured affects the ability of admins to have balance,” says Ellen Kossek, a coauthor of CEO of Me: Creating a Life that Works in the Flexible Job Age and a professor of human resource management and organizational behavior at Michigan State University. Backup arrangements and rules about work schedules are examples of management and HR policies that can constrain an admin’s ability to maintain balance.

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Remember Marsha Sinetar’s landmark book, Do What You Love, The Money Will Follow, in 1989? It still holds true. Most of us know a businesswoman who got started because she loved doing or making something so much that others wanted to be part of her passion. How delightful to know that Sinetar’s words are still true, and that those who’ve lived that concept have become savvy businesswomen.

In 1989, Sat Kartar Khalsa was already on the umpteenth version of her vision, with more changes to come. As a teenager in the 1960s she taught herself to play the guitar, hoping to  become a singer/songwriter and the next Joni Mitchell. But then one night she attended a yoga class at a college friend’s urging, and her life goals changed. The class was in Kundalini yoga, which incorporates chanting as part of its practice. Here Khalsa found the perfect combination of spirituality and music.

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The first contact with your child’s teacher, in many ways, is the most important, This is the time you are building rapport and developing a relationship of trust. Therefore, an appropriate time and setting is important for the first brief encounter. A phone call, a note, or, best of all, an initial face-to-face meeting is best. A good time to contact your child’s teacher is during the first week of school. This gives you an opportunity to meet one another when neither has any complaints. Otherwise, the first teacher contact can be unpleasant. The teacher is usually calling to describe some unacceptable behavior or report a child’s tack of progress and her concern that a learning problem may exist. This kind of contact usually puts a parent on the defensive, and communication can be hampered. Neither party wins, and the biggest loser is your child.

However, during the first week of school, the teacher probably knows very little about your child. Thus, you are in a position to provide some helpful information. This is the time to mention then identify these. And, last but not least, assure the teacher that she has your full support and cooperation. Provide the teacher with your phone number and tell her to feel free to call when help is needed from home. Let the teacher know from the start that you want to work with her, not against her, so your child will learn. Do not feel you are intruding or asking for special treatment. You are simply indicating that you are truly concerned that your child receives a good education.

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Working from home is now viewed by a growing number of people as their ticket to realizing their full potentials. For parents of growing children, a home-based business is a chance to create a better balance between family and career. For others, it also means freedom from the daily commute to work, or the traffic.

For a lot of people, however, the financial benefits of working at home are very attractive. The amount of money that you could earn is now directly proportional to your own performance, without waiting for a boss to give you a raise or promotion. Whether your business provides your sole means of support or a secondary income, its earning potential now depends on your ingenuity, determination, and willingness to work at it.

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The oft-used term “work/life balance” can mean different things to different people — and different things to the same person at various points in her career, according to a panel of Wall Street executives at the recent Wharton Women in Business Conference.

The five women on the panel — which was titled, “For the Long Haul: Wall Street Women on Balancing Life and Work after VP” — all acknowledged that striking a perfect balance between work and personal life is rarely possible for a first-year associate on Wall Street, but they also agreed that balance is possible with time.

“It’s very hard coming right out of business school to achieve work/life balance,” said Carol A. Schafer, a managing director in Wachovia Securities’ Equity Capital Markets group who also spent 17 years at JP Morgan. “You want to be able to work for an organization that sets you up for work/life balance in the future, one that respects personal life, personal time, has a good mentoring organization — a good women’s organization.” A first-year associate can’t tell an employer, “Here I am. I’m great. I’m smart, and I demand work/life balance,” Schafer noted, but “it’s pretty achievable over time.”

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