Summer vacation can be great—no school, no homework and no real schedule.  But, sometimes all of those summer hours can be hard to fill, especially if you don’t want your kids glued to the TV or computer 24/7.  That’s where iMOM’s Operation Summer comes in.  It’s the ultimate summer plan for moms – and it’s free!  Every week iMOM will send you printables, activities and ideas to fill your summer with memories and...

Last Monday, I talked about the 1st lie that can hurt your child.  Today I’ll tackle the second.  We live in a world full of options.  What clothes to wear, what kind of cereal to eat, what to watch on TV?  Choices and more choices.  Our children grow up wrongly thinking their choices are infinite.  Unfortunately, too many parents reinforce this belief.  When a decision needs to be made, we tell our children,...

Think back to your school days.  Remember the child who was different?  Maybe he wore old clothes, had a disability or didn’t look like everyone else. Maybe he always got picked last for the team because he was uncoordinated or simply unpopular.  Well, these children are still around.  That’s why it’s important that we teach our children to be compassionate—to be kind to children who are different… instead of...

First, deal with those intense emotions by calmly removing your child from the situation and sending him to his room to think about it…the fewer words you use to do this, the better. Second, when you sense he is ready, ask your child to write down what he’s angry about and why he’s angry…writing it down works because it activates reflective thinking in a child.  After the note is written, discuss it with your...

Every Monday for the next 5 weeks, I’ll be talking about 5 lies that can hurt your child.  The first lie we tell our kids is, “You can be anything you want to be.”  But that’s just not true.  Now, in all fairness to us parents, our intention is not to lie…that word may be a bit too much.  We say it because we want to encourage and inspire them.  The problem is that saying, “You can be anything” is that we may be...

That’s a strange question, but one that every parent needs to be able to answer.  Sure, your kids know you love them, but they also want to know why you love them.  They need to know that you don’t love them because they get good grades, because they’re a star athlete, or because they’re super talented.  They need to know that you do love them for who they are…an incredible creation with infinite value, dignity...

Okay, imagine you’re at a basketball game. But in this arena, there are no rules and no boundaries. After the whistle blows, the players fight for the ball, fall to the floor and start wrestling. It’s pure chaos. I know that illustration is crazy, but it shows the importance of having rules and boundaries in the game and what happens when they’re not present. Just as the boundaries on the basketball court...