Fatherhood

The Golden Rule I did not just grow up. I was taught ... ... to speak when I enter a room. ... to say please and thank you. ... to have respect for my elders, and to get up off my lazy butt and let the elder in the room have my chair. ... to say, "Yes, Sir," and "No, Sir." ... to lend  helping hand to those in need. ... to hold the door for the person behind me. ... to say "Excuse me," when it is needed. ... and to love people for who they are  and not for what I can get from them . I was also taught to treat people the way that I want to be treated.

My understanding of developing self-confidence and self-esteem is that indiscriminate praise with actually undermine a parents attempts at moving the child forward. Having said that, it is near impossible to not praise every activity when everything is new and challenging for a new child. Praise that allows a child to see that they are developing skills appropriately actively works at helping them develop a mindset where they are willing to take on more challenges. What I am hoping to develop in Patrick is a "growth mindset." Where I see a true challenge as a parent is developing "self-control." It is one of the most important skills I can teach my son, more so than intelligence, when it comes to achievement: academic or otherwise. I tend to avoid looking at what researchers are doing ... one points left, while the other points right. Thus, I find myself thinking about things like development of delayed gratification (I know, this is me talking ... I am the wo...

Jen called them "cancles;" Patrick had been eating massive quantities of food and had no ankles a few weeks back. This is when we noticed something in his growth pattern that is pretty cool. Patrick's growth cycles every few weeks/months ... eating heavy, then a growth spurt. What we had not noticed until recently is that he packs on the pounds in preparation for the growth. A few weeks after his eating dies off, his growth vertically dies down and the horizontal growth begins again.