Camp Arowhon
Parenting
Anxiety, the new epidemic
My camp team has been going to the biggest camp directors conference in the world, the American Camp Association Tri-State Conference, for years. 4000 camp directors, four days, about 20 workshops on offer in every time slot, all day every day. Many learning options for us. But not as many these days. Why? Because they’re […]
ContinueWords of advice for March break
I have a terrible memory of March break the year my daughter was 15. We – our family of four – are out for dinner in Spanish Town, Virgin Gorda, in the British Virgin Islands. Sounds like a hamburger in paradise, right? Just to set the scene, we’ve chartered a live-aboard sailboat for March break. […]
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Getting Through to Tough Boys
An excerpt from Arowhon Head Counsellor Jonny Reed’s recent article on #Metoo and teenage boy culture. This perfectly reflects Jonny’s (and Arowhon’s) approach to mentoring young men. Worth a read for everyone with a boy in their life. “In the three months since the rise of #MeToo, I’ve seen an upswing in the conversation about […]
ContinueCan we protect our kids from sexual assault?
I am a woman, a mother of a daughter, and a leader of young women in my role as a camp director. It is both my job and my passion to think about how to keep young women safe. Judging by the firestorm of women coming forward to name (literally) bad actors sexually speaking, the […]
ContinueParenting Anxious Children
I am forever harping on the virtues of communication, the necessity of teaching your kids to talk out their problems rather than act them out. But there’s one kind of child that just plain doesn’t work with: The anxious child struggles is often silent. The anxious child is the most confusing child to parent because […]
ContinueParenting When We’re Angry
The guy didn’t know I was listening. Or maybe he just didn’t care. It was a glorious skiing day, bright sun, almost shirtsleeves weather. But he wasn’t having any fun. His child, a boy maybe of seven or eight, was sitting down on the hill. The dad said: “Stand up.” the kid didn’t move. So […]
ContinueThe Struggle with Boundaries… a never-ending story
When we think of saying no to kids, our minds most often turn to the terrible two’s and how we, as parents, struggled to navigate those rock-strewn waters. I remember my then two-year-old, 29 years ago, ignoring me when I said it was time to leave the toy-strewn waiting room at our GP’s office. These […]
ContinueIs Smartphone use harming kids’ mental health?
An incisive article in The Atlantic makes a strong argument that their excessive use of screens is leading to increased depression and anxiety in children. Read the article at https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/has-the-smartphone-destroyed-a-generation/534198/
ContinueSchool rules: The good, the bad and the ugly
Of all the parenting mistakes I made – and there are many – one in particular stands out as an example of indulging myself, trying to look cool to one of my (then) adolescent kids, and acting against my fundamental parenting goals. It had to do with school rules. Dumb and dumber. Me. The thing […]
ContinueGrowing Emotional Intelligence
Maybe even more important than history and geography. That they can Google 24/7. But you can’t Google emotional intelligence, sometimes dubbed EQ. You can’t fake it, you can’t cram for it, and it’s pretty hard to learn once you’re grow up. All of which make the stakes pretty high on raising a child with EQ. […]
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