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CREATE AN ‘UNWIND HOUR’ It may seem like there’s never enough time, which is why you have to make it. For some families, the hour after school is the best time to engage with each other. For others, bedtime might be a good chance to talk and catch up. Either way, make that time every day. Mediator and co-parenting expert Polly Tatum recommends setting aside time after school to connect with your kids. “When kids come home, put all electronic devices away for an hour and communicate with your children,” Tatum says. “Ask them what the best part of their day was and what they learned. Try to ask probing questions, and if one topic doesn’t pique their interest, move on. Really try to engage for the next hour.” ENCOURAGE QUESTIONS “Why is the sky blue?”“How are mountains made?”“Why do giraffes have long necks?” You might not always know the answer, but as your child experiences the world, they’re
themselves. It’s valuable time for them, and you can grow closer by engaging in it. When was the last time your kids begged you to be a princess at their tea party? It might feel silly, but tapping in to that imaginative side will benefit both of you. Dr. Kate Eshleman suggests letting your child take the lead. “It’s important to remember to let your child guide the activity,” she says. “Adults rule so much of children’s lives. So let them take the lead on decisions during play.” Children develop habits and learn from you, and one of the most important ways they do that is by interacting with you. Make time for it. You might think you have a lifetime to spend with your children, since they’re little, and day-to-day needs can take precedence over relationship-building. Don’t let that happen. Start growing and nurturing those precious relationships today.
going to ask you questions. Encourage those questions, and know you don’t always have to have the answer. Promote your child’s development and problem- solving skills by letting them explore those questions and guide them to — instead of giving them — the answers. EMBRACE EMOTIONS We sometimes need time to process our emotions, and kids have to learn how to do that, too. Let your kids know it’s okay by helping them through their emotional outbursts. It might be best to have these conversations after an outburst rather than during it. Talking to them about how they’re feeling and why they behaved the way they did will help them let go of any negative emotions they’re hanging on to and learn how they can react differently in the future. HAVE A TEA PARTY Playtime is one of the ways young children develop relationships. Through play, they learn to communicate and express
Moms make the world go round. After running the gauntlet of childbirth, they raise and guide us throughout our lives, shouldering the tremendous burden and responsibility of motherhood. Mothers are in turn formidable, kind, powerful, gentle, wise, fierce, patient, supportive, empathetic, driven, and full of love. In honor of Mother’s Day, here are three historic moms who never stopped fighting for what they believed in. SOJOURNER TRUTH (1797–1883) Before she escaped from New York slaveholder John Dumont, Sojourner Truth had at least three of her children sold away from her. When Dumont went back on his promise to emancipate Truth and her infant daughter in 1826, she took the girl and fled to an abolitionist Quaker family, but she was forced to leave her other daughter and her 5-year-old son, Peter, behind. Soon after, she learned that Peter had been illegally sold by Dumont to a slaveholder in Alabama, so she went to court and secured his safe return. It was the first successful case brought by a black woman against a white man in American history. Truth went on to become a prominent abolitionist and a speaker for women’s rights, delivering her famous impromptu speech, “Ain’t I a Woman?” in May of 1851. Mothers Shape theWorld 3 of History’s Bravest Moms
IRENA SENDLER (1910–2008) When the Nazis invaded Warsaw in September of 1939, Irena Sendler, a 29-year-old social worker and mother of two, hatched a scheme to rescue Jewish children from the brutal ghettos. Along with many friends and colleagues, she smuggled out nearly 2,500 Jewish orphans, hiding infants on trams and garbage wagons and guiding kids through a labyrinth of secret passageways beneath the city. EMMELINE PANKHURST (1858–1928) Despite being a wife and the mother of five children — two of whom died tragically young — Emmeline Pankhurst became one of the fiercest advocates for women’s suffrage in the late 19th century. After founding the Women’s Social and Political Union in 1903, she and her cohorts adopted an aggressive strategy to raise awareness for the issue; they began by buttonholing politicians and staging rallies, then progressed to vandalism, window smashing, and arson. She was instrumental in the movement. Pankhurst lived to see women gain the right to vote in 1928.
2 • www.ThomasPhysicalTherapy.com
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