Santa Claus rides is a sleigh and brings a sackful of home made toys for children. He doesn’t bring Tiffany diamonds, SUVs, or 30 toys per child. Here is an article the Salem News wrote about my view about how we would benefit from understanding that Santa can’t bring lots of expensive things to kids. He always brought just a few small things that would fit in stockings. Adults, not Santa, is the focus of too-much gifting. Take a look at this article:
Our horses are part of our family, and we learn so much from them each day. Here is my short essay about how I wish people were more like horses.
Child protective service workers are sent out into the community to determine when child abuse has occurred. Usually they make the right decisions, but sometimes they don’t. When they don’t, the public rages. “Off with their heads!” they imply as they chastise the workers either for not acting diligently enough on behalf of children OR for overstepping the bounds. The pdf that I’ve written for you looks at the issues that child abuse protection workers face from a statistical point of view. Perhaps after you read it, it may change your mind about the nature of their work, and the difficulties they face when trying to determine if a child is being abused or not.
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Students arrive at college in process of “becoming”. Colleges and universities are well advised to establish mindfulness programs to assist their growth and development.
Here is an article we wrote for ideas that organizations and higher education could implement. We are on page 9.
I love kids. I loved having them, nurturing them, raising them, and watching them grow into their magnificence that continues to change and grow. I’ve got a present for you – my book on Mindful Childbearing. At the bottom of this blog, I’ll give you the PDF of it. 
You can download it (right click) and share it with others. I want you to read it and share it with others so we have a better chance of raising healthy children and strong families from the very beginning. Love is something great to give away for free. I integrate three major themes that make my book different and timely.
One, it looks at pregnancy as the sexist thing a woman can do, and contextualizes labor and delivery as a way for women to have orgasmic deliveries. I knew nothing about this possibility until I had them! It was then that I started investigating the literature and conducted interviews with other women and found they too had this experience. My book talks about them. Here are two links about orgasmic deliveries: Here’s an ABC news article:
A Vanderbilt University nurse speaks on the topic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DofHiXZqVNo
Two, I think that fathers are often put in disengaged positions relative to their own pregnancies. Having men more involved will help secure and support the relationship they have with their partners and their children. As a former National Institute of Mental Health Post-doctoral Research Fellow in the area of child abuse, I know the early experiences parents have with children can influence their long-term feelings about the child. Father involvement during their pregnancies is a potential way to increase more stable families, reduce child abuse, and discourage domestic violence. 
Three, a positive pregnancy and childbirth experience can be more likely to occur when using a mindfulness technique. Having a baby is a spiritual, magical, awe and wonder filled experience. Going there, instead of just seeing it as a biological process, will make it a more meaningful experience for everyone involved.
In sum, there are positive outcomes to my approach. It’s back-to-our-roots unconventional. It’s cool. It’s trendy. It’s empowering. It’s healthy. I hope you like my book. But always do what your doctor says – my approach may not work for everyone. The ultimate goal is to have a healthy baby!
Here’s the download link for Mindful Childbearing!
Most families struggle with “stuff” – depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, behavior issues, or suicidal thoughts, to name but a few. When should families worry? What are the best strategies for helping? Because these questions face most people, the National Alliance for Mental Illness, or NAMI, has created 12 week education courses that are absolutely free. The Family to Family classes run all around the country so there’s bound to be one near you. Participants must agree to coming for the entire course, and when they do they receive a huge binder full of material, community resources, support from leaders and folks going through similar problems, along with an entire range of materials and events that will help them to better care for those they love.
Check out NAMI at http://www.nami.org/Find-Support/NAMI-Programs/NAMI-Family-to-Family
Recently the Chronicle of Higher Education asked me to write an article on how Penn State University failed to create the safeguards necessary to protect kids and colleges. Here is the link for the article: http://chronicle.com/article/Protecting-Children-Also/135526/
When a parent allows an organization of any sort to interact with their child, they are assuming that the organization and its employees will adhere to professional conduct and implement all policies and behaviors necessary to keep their children safe. There is an implicit trust placed upon organizations to protect children and youth. When they fail to do so, the partnership is shattered. This is undoubtedly why the Boy Scouts, the Catholic Church, and Penn State tried to hush their employees’ problematic and abusive behaviors. The public now is skeptical of any and every organization and business with whom their children interact. Things that perhaps a business could get away with in the past are more likely to be targets of concern. False accusations could be made when a business isn’t transparent about their practices. A wise self-preservation strategy for organizations is simply “to do the right things” to protect kids. In doing this, they protect their workers and themselves. The bottom line is that organizations have a wonderful opportunity to be a major force for social change when they add a child abuse prevention training protocol to their operations.
We can help you to help yourself. Contact CAPTA4.Org and explore the many ways how at capta4.org@gmail.com
http://www.capta4.org/protecting-kids-protects-organizations/
http://chronicle.com/article/Protecting-Children-Also/135526/
My students designed a Facebook page on Respecting Children’s Rights. Very cool – Check it out and Like Us!
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Respecting-Childrens-Rights/340319752843576