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parenting Tips for Kids

Honesty – Be honest with yourself and others

Honest Abe knew that being honest gave him power and strength of character
Honest Abe knew that being honest gave him power and strength of character
Every act of honesty will give you strength. It takes discipline and character to be honest but the rewards are great.

Sometimes we see people get away with cheating, lying to their parents, or stealing. But these acts wear on a person’s soul and they are ultimately caught and exposed. Honesty is always the best thing to be.

Here are some words that are similar to honest: Upstanding, incorruptible, moral, principled, truth-loving, steadfast, true, real, right, good, straight-shooting, genuine. Who wouldn’t want to be like that? Although it’s not always easy, try to be honest every day.

Two tasks for you to practice being honest today:

* The next time a parent or teacher asks you what you’re doing, please tell the whole story and don’t leave out information that is meant to mislead or deceive.

* Do not exaggerate or embellish today.

Thanks.

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Jack Wolfram Jonathan Wolfram parenting

Jack & His Soccer

In this video, Jack scores three goals in one game against a presumably good team. Jack loves his soccer and he’s pretty good at it because he practices all the time.

He loves it so much that he wears soccer jerseys everywhere. He even wants to wear the entire kit to school, socks, shorts jersey. He wears them every day. We wonder if it’s bad for him, his entire identity tied up in soccer. He says stuff like “when I’m a famous soccer player I’ll have three houses.”

We want him to do well in school…I know it’s only a remote possibility that he doesn’t end up on FC Barcelona or FC Bayern…if that occurs, then we want him to have something to fall back on. On the one hand, my brother says “let him self actualize” and buy him all the cleats he wants, even if he has four pairs already that he’ll out grow in two months.

My colleague Ross suggests that I implement the “normal shirt for one day” rule, where we enforce the rule that he wears a normal shirt for just one day a week. Is that too much to ask? Can Jack self-actualize and still wear a normal shirt for one day? I think so.

In any case, I’m way too involved and shouldn’t care as much as I do. I can’t drink coffee before his match and it effects me when they lose or if he doesn’t play well. It depresses me. Deep inside I know that the most important thing is that he have fun. Nothing else matters.