Some days it really feels like the only way to keep sane and keep going is to shut the computer, throw your phone into the nearest body of water, and slap in some earplugs. The news is filled with despair and devastation. The response to hatred is often tempered with more hate. By the end of a day when that's all that's passed through the newsfeed, it's hard to muster up the wherewithal to effectively support our kids through their own fears. The sad truth is, despite our best efforts to shield them from all the scary things in the world- the big, bad, completely unexplainable things like terrorist attacks- it seeps in. They overhear the hushed conversations at school drop off or directly from classmates. News reports of suicide bombers swoop in faster than we can change the station. One tool we've used to help our kids feel safe, loved, secure and compassionate in frightening and uncertain times are these great podcasts from our friends at Sparkle Stories. Each written in the aftermath of difficult news stories, these three free stories are just a relevant today. Hug your kiddos. Just like always, but extra.
Work puts food on the table and travel is often inevitable, so, in that spirit, I give you some of the upsides, if, like me, you need a little help spinning it.
The cognitive burdens my husband had been shouldering had been largely invisible to me, and the same had been true for him. Here's how to make a change.
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