Steady Mom

Why I Hope All My Children Have Strong Wills

Photo by Michael Johnson

This short post originally published on February 22, 2010 and generated one of the highest number of comments of any post I'd written at that time. I've been surrounded by strong wills here lately, so this seems a fitting repost.

A few months ago I was talking to a friend about a situation with one of my children.

"Sounds like he's got a strong will," she said. Her tone led me to believe this was definitely not a positive characteristic.

Strong-willed children get a bad wrap these days. 

Many books and seminars have been written about how to "handle" them, and they all seem to have the same conclusion: Show this child who is boss and transform their will into a more obedient one.

But if you don't want your child to have a strong will, what do you want? A weak one?

5 Unexpected Gifts Found in Failure

Photo by Joey

Today I'm happy to be sharing a post over at Success Your Way.

Want to hear about some of the ways I've failed and lessons learned?

From my post:

"When I attended college, my goal was to graduate summa cum laude, with a GPA of over 3.9. I worked toward this all four years of university, especially stepping up my game during my final year.

I studied diligently, never making below a B in any course. My final two semesters I received all A’s.

I walked down the aisle on graduation day--with a GPA of 3.89."

Head here to read the rest.

Automating Motherhood

Photo by Lara604

Written by Steady Mom contributor Kat of Inspired to Action

There are a few aspects of motherhood that I do not enjoy. One of those is the amount of reminding we need to do. It can so easily become nagging.

And nagging is annoying. It's annoying for me. It's annoying for my kids.

So I've decided to automate that part of motherhood.

Now you might be thinking, "Wow! Kat! That's like the holy grail of parenting."

To which I reply,"Why...yes, yes it is."

But, really, it's nothing new. Just new to me and hopefully helpful to you.

Here's how I've done it.

The secret to happiness is an uncluttered desk.

For over a year now I've struggled with one obvious, always in-my-face disorganized spot. I've tried different solutions, but no matter what I implemented, nothing ever worked.

In one corner of our dining room we have two tables I refer to as my "desk." On one side I keep the heart and soul of my home's organization, my Steady Home Planner. On the other side, well, let's just say I kept everything else.

Mounds of kids' artwork, the unopened mail, bags from shopping, to-do lists, and pretty much everything else that didn't have a permanent home ended up there.

I tried to be all zen about it, but you want to know the truth?

It. drove. me. crazy.