Two values I would like to pass on to my children are hospitality and generosity. Unfortunately, I am not very good at either. Years ago I went to an Emily Barnes seminar at her home in Riverside. She gave a piece of advice about hospitality that I have not forgotten. People are more concern about […]
Soccer, basketball, scouting, karate, piano lessons, art lessons – we give our children many opportunities to grow. Have we also considered the character traits that we want our children to develop? It can be all too easy to let the prevailing culture’s values carry us along while we are too busy with the daily living. […]
(This post was posted last week, then accidentally deleted. So happy I recovered it!) In my Sunday School class, a 9-year-old boy saw my iPhone and excitedly told me that he was going to get one next week. *Jaw drops* A 9-year-old gets an expensive iPhone? “I got $200 from my grandma,” he said. I […]
Giving does not come naturally to me. My husband is much more generous. Maybe it’s because I have the motherly nesting instinct that goes along with the tendency to hoard. On the other hand, being a mother is the biggest factor that has taught me to be more generous. I knew that if I want […]
Did you sign up for “Give a Day, Get a Disney Day”? I have to admit, when my daughter and I signed up to volunteer, we were not motivated by altruism, but by the free ticket to Disneyland! According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 63.4 million people, or 26.8% of the population, […]
Everyone is talking about Haiti. Is it enough to just talk about Haiti? My son reminded me yesterday that it’s possible to feel strong emotions about a devastating situation and that in itself somehow gives us the impression that we’ve done our part. Our mere sympathy for Haiti shows that we are compassionate people, and […]
My 20-year-old daughter earned a little money working as an intern for an engineering firm this summer. As she had to decide where to spend her hard-earned money, it was an exercise in clarifying her values while learning more about herself. She had no qualms about spending a sizable amount of money taking her little […]
Imagine a child living in the toughest neighborhoods of New York City. How can he have a chance to experience the beauty of nature, to go hiking, to get some Fresh Air? Now he can, with THE FRESH AIR FUND! The Fresh Air fund, an independent, not-for-profit agency, has provided free summer vacations to more […]
A year ago I wrote a post on 3 ways we can set an example to our children to make the world a better place. Now more than ever, in our current state of the economy where people are distressed about one thing or another, it is important for everyone of us to do our […]
How do you help your children budget for Christmas gifts for their friends? What do you do when your children want to buy an expensive gift for a friend they don’t know that well? Is it ok to say, “You can’t spend that much on someone you don’t know that well.”? Does it sound like […]
