I received a phone call from a concerned grandfather, parent and community leader recently. He said he and his wife have been volunteering at several elementary schools in the area, and there’s one glaring factor that school faculty are concerned about: Parents seem to be more concerned about whether or not their kids like them… The post Should Parents Care If Their Kids Like Them or Not? appeared first on First Things First.| First Things First
Sometimes my inner critic has a megaphone. Like when I’m late to first grade pickup or send an email with a typo. When does your inner critic show up? When you say the wrong thing in a meeting? At breakfast when you’ve burned the toast? Or maybe you’re in a season of high stress and your inner critic is consistently whispering… You could be doing more or better in life… You need to be more focused at work and at home… Why did you do that?| First Things First
Recent events (both near and far) have led me to question one small little word with a big bite: “hate.” My son’s school had to go into lockdown mode while we were having an outdoor celebration breakfast for his class. Nothing was going on at the school, but only a couple of blocks down the… The post How We Learn to Hate and How We Can Stop appeared first on First Things First.| First Things First
There’s a story I tell myself about my childhood. It goes something like this: I was a pretty easy kid. My parents loved each other. My siblings and I had some spats here and there, but nothing too out of the ordinary. We laughed a lot. There were Saturday morning cartoons, tons of playing together… The post Understanding the Stories We Tell Ourselves About Our Childhood appeared first on First Things First.| First Things First
According to a global team of researchers, people who meet their romantic partners online tend to be a little less satisfied in their relationships than people who meet the old-fashioned way, through friends, work, or a random meet-cute at the grocery store.| First Things First
My brother and I had a lengthy conversation this week about mental health. We both work in what I’ll call “high-impact” jobs, though they seem worlds apart. Some days, coping and processing the stress can feel like mental gymnastics, flipping and stretching the capacities of our mental health. According to a 2016 meta-analysis on mental… The post The Low Down on Mental Health, Stress and Family Genetics appeared first on First Things First.| First Things First
A few days ago, my six-year-old came home from a playdate with shoulders sagging and tears in his eyes. “Nobody wanted to play with me today,” he said. In that moment, I was catapulted back to my own grown-up version of the same sting, learning about a meeting I wasn’t invited to. Brains of every age… The post The Quiet Sting of Feeling Left Out (& How to Deal With It) appeared first on First Things First.| First Things First
