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What Parents Need Most: Optimism!
Optimism is the prime directive of parenting. The late Gilda Radner said it better: “Motherhood is still the biggest gamble in the world. It is the glorious life force. It’s huge and scary – it’s an act of infinite optimism.” It’s kind of like being Torontonian in March. We know the crocuses will bloom. We […]
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Girl Power Grows at Camp
Girls and Leadership, an interview with Rachel Simmons Simmons is author of The Curse of the Good Girl and co-founder of Girls Leadership Institute, recently wrote an opinion piece for CNN.com about the reluctance many girls feel toward leadership roles. She argues that in order to take advantage of the access they now have to […]
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Why tell camp the hard stuff about your child?
As a mother, I always shrunk from telling people what’s challenging or difficult about my children. Even now that they’re young adults, I desperately want everyone to see them as positively as I do. That’s normal for parents. Which can make filling out the camp forms tough. Do you REALLY have to tell camp about […]
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The magic of listening
I had a meeting with this kid the other day. I say kid because he’s 17 and he goes to high school. But out of this kid’s mouth came wisdom that I wish to hear from grownups. We were meeting because I interview all our returning staff every winter, to celebrate their successes and agree […]
ContinueNote from a former Arowhon staff
Hey Jo, I am currently at a training conference for new managers at KPMG and just wanted to share a few things with you. I am sure that Pre camp and the training you do has evolved since I left, but I am just blown away by how well prepared I am for the sessions […]
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Keeping teens safe on-line
There’s a lot of talk about how vulnerable teens are on-line, and as parents we tend to respond to our worries about that as per usual, with a lecture about the perils of the internet. But, also as per usual, the lectures are pretty much guaranteed to be ineffectual. This is for two reasons: One, […]
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Really interesting piece on the effects of “cotton-wooling” (i.e. over-protecting) children: School Ditches Rules and Loses Bullies
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My Thoughts on Crop Tops
It’s not often that I disagree so vehemently with a protégé of Gloria Steinem. The author of this article published in Ms. Magazine criticizes institutions for banning girls from wearing skimpy clothing because she says it contributes to the sexualization of young women and perpetuates the victim-blaming mentality by making it girls’ responsibility to cover up […]
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How can parents grow resourceful children? The role of failure is….
Sometimes kids allow their fear of failure to prevent them from taking on challenges… Some wise words on helping kids get through/past their fear of failure are here
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Milk, Cookies, and The Beauty Myth
Don’t just blame the media for the objectification of young girls. Some great advice from a mom on how each and every one of us can make a difference: Dear Santa…
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