Swing Low, Swing High: Parents Moving into Emotional Scaling for their Daughter
Stacy screamed at the top of her lungs. I sprang into high alert mode and took a step back. She threw herself on the tiled kitchen floor and started rolling around, flailing her arms and kicking her legs. Her foot struck the kitchen chair, causing it to crash to the floor next to her. Startled, she took a gulp of air and screamed louder.
“Stacy, you’re starting to get very, very angry right now,” I said, stating the obvious emotion for her at the advice of our psychotherapist. “I can tell you’re not happy, but I don’t want you to hurt yourself.”
“Where’s Daddy?” Stacy yelled. “Where’s Daddy??”
“He’s stuck in traffic, sweetie, and will be home any minute,” I explained, silently hoping that was the truth.
Stacy let out another ear-splitting scream and began to kick the fallen chair next to her.
Through His Eyes: Natural and Logical Consequences at Home
“Hey there Tommy boy, how are you?” I grinned at him from across the living room. He glanced back at me for a moment, barely taking his eyes off the TV.
“Hi Dad. I’m good,” said Tommy.
“Did you finish your homework?” I asked him.
“Yeah,” Tommy said, as he remained glued to the TV screen.
I felt a twitch in the back of my head after hearing the irritation in Tommy’s tone. I knew I would have to go over Tommy’s homework before bed and before I could start on my own work. At the last parent-teacher conference, Tommy’s teacher emphasized that my son often seemed distracted and was having difficulty completing assignments thoroughly in school. The statement seemed like an exaggeration at the time, so I started checking Tommy’s work each night.
Sure enough, each time Tommy said he finished his homework, I would always find something missing—a handful of math problems that weren’t finished, or answers on his English writing assignments that were too short and done in messy handwriting. His teacher also told us that his reading comprehension was a bit below grade level. My wife and I tried to get him to read at home more often, but he rarely showed interest no matter what we tried. Every time I asked him why he didn’t finish his homework, or if he’d read his book, he would get testy and argue with me.
Operation Love: A Business That Provides Places for People to Flourish
Co-authored with Corey Blake
Rather than identifying itself with the success of the companies under its arms, Decurion focuses on the personal success and growth of each member alongside the monetary value the companies create. The question of why the corporation exists is more important than the businesses they partake in, and the companies they own and manage are “expressions of the purpose of the company.”
“If somebody asks what Decurion does and I answer only that we are in the movie theatre, real estate or senior living business first, then I have missed an opportunity because that is not the primary thing that Decurion is about,” Bryan said. “What we really do is provide places for people to flourish.”
City Council Annexes Pepper Ave./I-10 Interchange
The Colton City Council unanimously approved annexing a portion of San Bernardino County at their Aug. 18 meeting in order to have control over the maintenance and beautification of a new bridge at Pepper Ave. and the I-10 freeway.
The I-10/Pepper Ave. interchange project includes the construction of a bridge with the city logo on both sides of the bridge and the city name below the logo. However, since the interchange is located within the County of San Bernardino, Colton would be unable to include their city logo and name on the bridge or have control over the beautification and landscaping of the area. By approving the annexation and maintenance agreement, the City of Colton will not be restricted in the aesthetics of the area and would be able to add the logo and city name to the bridge. [Photo via]