Category: Blog Posts

Is your child highly tech-savvy and between the age of 8 – 18? According to a new article on CNN.com this makes him/her a member of “Generation M2”. A 2010 Neilsen survey estimates that the average teenager sends an astonishing 3,400 texts a month – or more than 100 a day!
  

Concerned parents want to know if all this time using technology, especially on social media, is healthy. The American Academy of Pediatrics’ has the same concerns. Their council on communications and media led a panel called “Social Media: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” at their last annual conference. Chairman-elect, Dr. David Hill, stated, “As pediatricians who are trying to help children behave in ways that keep them healthy and safe, we have to pay a lot of attention to what’s happening in social media.”
  

 There are two main concerns that parents need to monitor when it comes to their child’s behavior on social media.

  

The first concern is too much time being drained away from other activities. 

Statistics from the Kaiser Family Foundation show youth spending close to eight hours daily in front of various electronic screens. This can take time away from more important activities like sleeping, homework, exercise and family time. Parents need to set limits on the amount of time their kids spend online, on their phones and playing video games.

 

The second concern is inappropriate behavior such as bullying, sexting and revealing private information.  

The American Academy of Pediatrics encourages parents to monitor their children closely, especially during early adolescence. According to Dr. Hill, ”It’s fair to say at any given moment, ‘I can look at your computer; I can look at your phone’.”  Older adolescents need regular communication about what is acceptable and what isn’t. They also need to be made aware of the long-term negative consequences of posting something inappropriate online.

 

Parents, talk to your children about the positive and negative impact technology and social media can have on their lives. Explain to them the dangers that are involved. If your teen seems withdrawn or depressed, seek the assistance of a mental health care professional. Visit Am I a Good Parent for five key areas to master to be a good parent. These steps will help you deal with many challenges that may arise when you’re a parent.

Women in family businesses are often the backbone of the organization. Whether she’s the founder, a founding partner, a supportive spouse or daughter, or an employee of the family enterprise, a woman often is willing to do work that others feel is beneath them because she recognizes the greater good. Research has shown that when a man starts a business, he usually can count on his wife’s unpaid labor during those lean start-up years. Women entrepreneurs, on the other hand, realize that they must go it alone if their businesses are to succeed. They too use the services of family and friends in those early years, but often their husbands don’t offer unpaid help with such menial chores as housework, child care or envelope stuffing.
  

As a stakeholder or a stockholder, a family business woman should be accorded compensation, benefits and perks befitting her considerable contributions to the health of the family and the enterprise. There are two ways to accomplish this. First, the business owners should re-evaluate their standards and update stock, compensation and benefits plans for female employees. Second, they should implement programs to encourage the talent development of the girls in the family.
  

Here are some suggestions:

1. Develop flexible compensation plans that reward women for their hard work and talent even if they work part-time or take a leave of absence.
2. Institute stock purchase plans for part-timers.
3. Evaluate voting rights. Is it absolutely necessary to be a partner or a full-time worker to have a vote?
4. Don’t ever pay the women according to what they would earn at another company. Pay them for their value to your family business. Obviously, a wife or mother is worth much more as your advocate than she would be paid as a bookkeeper in a non-family company.
5. Pay for child care, and encourage the family business women and men to take advantage of the opportunity. Better yet, set up on-site child-care centers so that family business women will not conflicted about leaving their children to go to work.
6. Set up a system to mentor the girls in the family. Often young women don’t even consider joining the family business, because they see the handwriting on the wall (i.e., the guys have sewn up all the good jobs). Arrange apprenticeships for the girls so they can learn first-hand about opportunities at your family firm.
7. Offer scholarships to girls who are willing to study business in college or major in an area applicable to your family business.
8. Don’t restrict scholarships to college. Offer start-up capital to young women who want to set up their own businesses if they write a good business plan.

Many family business owners mean well but just haven’t taken the time to delve into this problem. But if compensation and other recognition aren’t handled fairly for family business women, the enterprise will suffer from relationship disharmony as well as a “brain drain.” For the health and future success of the family business, these problems need correcting immediately.
  

“The way we live our lives now is like running marathons. … In some ways, that’s great, but you can’t run marathons all the time.” – Dr. Leslie Sherlin, neuroscientist and chief science officer of Neurotopia.
  

I’m sure you would agree with the statement above. Life is increasingly stressful. That stress leads to a weakened immune system with an increased risk for serious health problems. How can this problem be combated? Brain retraining. To learn how this is being done, take note of athletes and soldiers. 
  

Sports psychologists are using brain mapping and neurofeedback when working with athletes to help train for peak athletic performance. Once they find out an athlete’s optimal brain wave pattern, they then teach them to techniques to control their thinking especially when under stress or as recovery. 

Virtual reality is being used to help soldiers prepare for the stress for combat. Some of these therapies are done before the fact, but others focus on after, taking the soldier back to the scenario, helping them to deal with what happened. (Read CNN.com Training the Brain to Stress Less)
  

These stress “tools” are not available for the public, but hopefully will be in the future. Even though they are not now, the core principles are there. Work now to train your brain to deal with stress. There are many methods that are being used with the help of a trained mental health care professional. Seek out their assistance today to learn how to cope with stress! 
 

Visit Managing Stress for more information. 

A growing phenomenon are husbands and wives joining forces in an entrepreneurial venture to make their dreams come true. For years I’ve been coaching and writing about these “entrepreneurial couples.” And what I’ve observed, and my research supports, is that becoming an entrepreneurial couple is risky both professionally and personally. There are many challenges that come with this lifestyle. It’s not an easy road, but the payoff can be great. 

 

My book, Entrepreneurial Couples – Making it Work at Work and at Home – was written to address what it really is like to be an entrepreneurial couple. This book uses real-life examples to identify the challenges of this entrepreneurial lifestyle, as well as offer specific advice to help couples find the right balance at home and at work. It includes interactive questionnaires that help assess strengths and weaknesses in each area of the entrepreneurial lifestyle. If you’re a busy couple, this book is just what you need to help you design a more balanced, integrated, and meaningful entrepreneurial life.

 

Entrepreneurial Couples – Making it Work at Work and at Home – has just been made available on my website as an e-Book. Download this PDF and share a copy with your spouse for easy and convenient access via laptop or tablet. Take it with you on your next vacation or business trip! Click here to download your own copy for only $9.95. 

Great news! My new book, Out of Mind – Out of Sight: Parenting with a Partner with Asperger Syndrome, is finished. I wrote this book to specifically address the unique issues that come up when you’re co-parenting with an Asperger Syndrome partner.

In this book, there are extremes on both ends such as poignant stories with deep despair along with progressive thrills of discovery. I focus on the harsh realities that NTs (Neuro-Typicals or without Asperger’s) face when co-parenting with an Aspie. I discuss the NTs’ fears and anguish and losses. I also give you hope and ideas on how to co-parent more successfully. But it is important to recognize that if we don’t reveal the dark side of these relationships, we can’t search for solutions to the all too real problems of the AS/NT family. The last thing I want to do is leave NT parents with the feeling that they are alone. Erasing that aloneness is the first step toward parenting successfully with an Aspie co-parent.

If you’re parenting with an AS partner, I believe you should learn all you can about Asperger Syndrome because information clears up the mystery of the Aspie behavior. This will help you detach from the emotional distress of reacting to those not-so-ordinary moments.

Out of Mind – Out of Sight: Parenting with a Partner with Asperger Syndrome will be available very soon. I am eagerly anticipating its release and will keep you updated through my blog and the Enriching Your Life Newsletter.

Until then, please download a free sample chapter! If you live in the Portland, Oregon/Vancouver, Washington area, please join me for the Asperger Syndrome: Partners & Family of Adults with ASD Support Group on November 17, 2012. The topic for discussion is “How to Find and Work with a Decent Psychotherapist.” Hope to see you there.

Do you or someone you know have Asperger Syndrome? Are they looking for a job? Since Asperger Syndrome impairs nonverbal social interaction, landing and keeping a job can be intimidating. Would like to know how to effectively navigate through this situation?

The book, The Hidden Curriculum of Getting and Keeping a Job: Navigating the Social Landscape of Employment A Guide for Individuals with Autism Spectrum and Other Social-Cognitive Challenges, is a practical guide for teaching the “unwritten rules.” These “unwritten rules” are not so obvious for someone on the spectrum. For instance, how to talk to your supervisor, networking, or dealing with frustration.

Two of the three authors are on the spectrum and can speak from experience. I recommend it for anyone on the spectrum, young or old, who is looking for work or looking to improve their social skills in the workplace.

AAPC is the publisher of The Hidden Curriculum. Click here if you are interested in purchasing your own copy.