Familius

Your Inner Child Through Children's Books

If you haven't taken time in a while to sit and read with a child, to look at a picture book together and explore new ideas, new worlds, to laugh or discuss, to be surprised or to learn something new, then you are missing out on one of the great joys of life. 

Wealth and Privilege

“The love of family and the admiration of friends is much more important than wealth and privilege.”

—Charles Kuralt

Our Better Half

Sometimes we refer to our spouse as our better half. What’s interesting is that what is implied is that marriage creates a singular out of a plural.  The singular is a purpose or an objective to be more together than you can be alone.

When you consider your better half, consider whether your long-term objectives are the same and what you are doing to add value to the relationship and fuel to your journey. 

“A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person.” —Mignon McLaughlin

Happy Mother's Day

Look Through the Disguise

I had lunch with a gentleman this week who told the story of two hippies coming into his ad agency many years ago wearing dirty t-shirts, jeans, and sandals. He was a suit kind of guy and was put off by their attire. 

How to Move On With Five Words

As a student of the scriptures I was impressed recently while reading about the woman taken in adultery. Jesus’ response to her was “Go and sin no more.” Five words. He was done with it and counseled her to do the same.

So often in family life we can hold on to each other’s wrongs in a way that is not fair to the person or to ourselves. When a wrong is done, after we work to make it right, let’s move on. Don’t bring it up again. Reboot. Start again. Forgive each other and yourself.

Remember those five words and consider them a good example of how to help family members know that we love them and that we’re ready to help.

For more information on how to forgive and move on consider Family Ever After by Michelle H. Packard.

Lessons From My Parents

If you haven’t heard already the Lessons From My Parents book is launched. Inspiring essays from people around the world were reviewed, accepted, and then published in book and digital book format. The response has been more than moving.

We encourage you to read it. We encourage you to review it online at your favorite online store. If you are a contributor, we encourage you to organize an event that celebrates parenthood at your local bookstore. We encourage you to share the book through social media.

The purpose of this book is to promote and celebrate the diverse experiences we have all had with our parents.

Thank you for your stories. 

Parenting and Movie Ratings

One day my wife and I rented a film that we remembered from our teenage years. We remembered it as funny and charming. We told our kids about it and got them excited to see it.

After the first few minutes we were shocked. Vulgar language, sexual innuendos, sexual content, disrespect for parents . . . Our older children laughed and said, "Great film, Dad." It was a PG rated film. The joke was on us.

If you've ever experienced the confusion of wondering how to make better entertainment decisions for your family, we've just released Has Hollywood Lost Its Mind: A Parents Guide to Movie Ratings by 30-year movie critic Chris Hicks.

Providing some critical advice to navigate the ratings quagmire, this book helps us understand the whys to film ratings and how to make better entertainment decisions for our families.

We hope that you'll enjoy it and share it. 

And we'd like your opinion on how the current MPAA ratings help you make good entertainment decisions for your family.

Becoming Our Parents

Oscar Wilde said that a woman's curse is that she will grow to become like her mother. He also said that a man's curse is that he won't.

This suggests that we should pick the best qualities to emulate as we grow older and discard those that we find unhealthy.

Obvious.

But how much are we becoming what we didn't like?

Good Fences Make Good Neighbors

Robert Frost wrote that good fences make good neighbors. As is common with Frost, his poem has two meanings. First that the rock fences Frost spoke of would break down during the winter with frost heave. In the spring, the land owners would come together on opposite sides of the fence and repair it together.

The fence connected them and renewed their friendship and bond. Simultaneously the fence also separated them, one on one side and the other on the other side. The fence provided a barrier so that neither could enter the other's land or metaphorical life without permission.

Fences do make good neighbors. Consider the fences in your family's life, those barriers that connect you and also provide some protection. It might sound odd, but take time to rebuild your fences.