#FF Friday's Fabulous Finds: Gifts for Mothers & Their Children

Thought for the Day: Here are my Friday's Fabulous Finds for the week. In keeping with Mother's Day, I chose articles that I see as gifts to mothers everywhere. If you are new to my blog, you may want to take a look at the 5 part series I posted last year as well. (Part I: How the World Would Change If My Mother Ruled the World, Part II- Mother's Day Series: If My Grandmother Ruled the World, Part III- Mother's Day Series: If My Grandmother, Mother and I Ruled the World. Mother's Day Part IV: If My Step-Mother Ruled the World, & Mother's Day Part V: If My Daughters Ruled the World. If you are looking for videos to send to your mothers, there are several good ones included in the Mother's Day series from last year. I hope you will have a wonderful Mother's Day. Tomorrow's Songs for the Soul will bring a special story about a song that helped save one songwriter's life, so tune in.


Here are this week's Fabulous Finds:

1) Child Abuse Hotline Ad Uses Photographic Trick That Makes It Visible Only To Children by Betsy Isaacson   An innovative sign that can help stop child abuse by using modern technology. It's message with a phone number to call if a child is being abused is visible only to children. (Sorry for the strange formatting, but I can't seem to fix it!)

Tracey Stewart with her daughter

2) Stand Up for Girls Big and Small by Tracey Stewart  addresses how to combat a strange tendency among some women to be hypercritical of other women.

 

 

 

3) Keep Your Flowers on Mother's Day, I Want My Rights by Shannon Watts. I had the honor of meeting Shannon Watts when I went to Washington DC to advocate for sensible gun control laws. Shannon is the Founder, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, which has grown to 100,000 moms across the USA. In her article, this Mother's Day, Shannon suggests that we skip the flowers & fight for our rights to make the world safer for our children.

4) A Mother's Day Letter for a Special Needs Mom  by Suzanne Perryman Perryman is a blogger at SpecialNeedsMom.com. This letter is written to mothers who's children may not write them Mother's Day Cards or thank them for all that they do 24/7, 365 days a year.

Claire Bidwell Smith's Mother

5) On Being a Motherless Mother by Claire Bidwell Smith,  a Los Angeles-based grief therapist & author of the memoir 'The Rules of Inheritance,' writes about an experience with her impulsive mother & how she reconnects with her mother who passed away. For those of you whose mothers are no longer living, Mother's Day can be rough. This touching post may be helpful.

Throwback Tuesday: Sunday's Comic Strips: How Do Super Heroes Build Self Confidence?

 

Thought for the Day: The above comic strip was posted on 4/7/2013. In light of a connection I made to another psychologist, +Theresa Regan. I decided to share a guest post from Theresa. She is a Neuro-psychologist at the Illinois Neurological Institute, mother of a child on the autism spectrum &  the author Soul Cries for parents praying for struggling kids. You can view additional posts on her blog: soulcriesparent.blogspot.com. Dr. Regan holds a PhD in Neuropsychology & is a Certified Brain Injury Specialist & also does public speaking about brain function, autistic spectrum, Christian faith, sensory symptoms & executive function.

Here is what I wrote when the post first came out:

Thought for the Day: It's time for Sunday's Comic Strips & decided to stay on the topic of the week, self confidence, Hope you like the it. Join me next week when I will be posting about the Psychological importance of friendships.

This response from New Parenting Hangout on Jul 3, 2013 helped me connect with Theresa:

+Barbara Lavi We all have our own super powers. +Theresa Regan and her son have identified some super powers that help their communication

 

Here's a wonderful post about how Theresa turns her son's symptoms into a  super powers. It could be helpful for kids with ADD & other symptoms as well:

Does Your Child Have 'Super Powers?": Talking to your kids about their autistic spectrum symptoms

By Dr. Theresa Regan
 

                                               

My son is 7 years old and has a diagnosis in the autistic spectrum.  One of the features of the spectrum is that some children and adults can have many sensitivities that feel overwhelming at times.  My son has many sensory symptoms like this: the sun is too bright, crowded places are noisy and chaotic, being touched can feel overwhelming.  The strength of these symptoms seems to be variable through different ages and seasons of life for him.  When he is having a hard day, he has more symptoms.  I remember one season when he was 4 years old.  He was so sensitive at that time that it was hard to function.  He didn't want me to use any of our kitchen appliances because they were too noisy.  Even if he was in a different room with the door closed, he seemed bothered by the noises.  We even considered taking the appliances to the basement!

One decision facing parents whose kids are struggling is how to discuss the struggles without making the child feel chastised or bad about themselves.  In this case, we started talking to him about his super powers!  He could really resonate with this concept.  We talked about how not everyone could see and hear what he could.  His super powers (hearing, vision, etc) could be really valuable and wonderful (e.g., he can pick out details in a picture that no one else sees).  We also talked about how his powers can make life hard or uncomfortable. 

One of our goals was to teach him how to monitor how his powers were doing that day.  We would say, "Are your super powers bothering you today?" or when he could see or hear something we couldn't, we might say "Ah!  Your super powers are turned on.  I didn't even notice that noise."  Then we would ask him to start monitoring his own powers and telling us what he needs that day.  We would say, "If your super powers are really strong today, what can we do to make it feel better."  We would start to teach him options for coping with really strong inputs.  For example, we might suggest sunglasses outside.  I would warn him before I turned on kitchen appliances so he could decide whether he wanted to put his hands on his ears, go upstairs to his room, etc. 

He really responded to the concept of super powers having good aspects as well as challenges.  And he also started monitoring how he was doing on a certain day, and letting us know (with prompts).  Pretty soon, he could start to choose from options about how to cope on that day.

What super powers do your kids have?  How do you talk to your kids about their strengths and challenges? 

I hope this post was helpful to you. You can build your own superpowers by reading my book, too. Stay tuned for our 1st free e-book promotion coming soon!

#FF Friday's Fabulous Finds: Special Needs Support Map, Organizing for Action, & Liability Insurance for Gun Owners

Thought for the Day: Here are my #FF Friday's Fabulous Finds. There is a story by

Lisa Belkin about how a mother of a special needs child made sense of her intricate tasks & the support network she had to understand & utilize. See how she used her discovery to help others. The second find is about a new creative program that the Obama administration is launching to keep people involved in being the change they wish to see in their communities. Finally, there is an article by Mark E, Ruquet proposing that gun owners be required to have liability insurance for every gun they own, just like car insurance. I'd love to hear your thoughts & hope you enjoy these finds! Have a great weekend!

1) This article includes an intricate multi-colored map of a special needs child’s support system. It demonstrates how difficult it is to raise one special needs child. It shows how one mother, Cristin Lind, “learned about herself. Seeing the 70 colored ovals, each representing an area of care she (the mother of a special needs child) was expected to understand and coordinate, helped her see her life with new clarity. “No wonder we had so many piles of unfolded laundry,” she jokes.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/18/gabes-care-map-special-needs-children-caregivers_n_2469564.html?utm_hp_ref=parents&ir=Parents

2) I was pleased to see the new initiative, Organizing for Action,  as a way to keep the momentum of the Obama campaign working to develop local groups working for change across the United States. Take a look at the video by Jon Carson which explains how this new initiative will work.

http://www.barackobama.com/news/entry/welcome-to-organizing-for-action

3) Here’s a great idea from By Mark E. Ruquet, PropertyCasualty360.com: liability insurance for gun owners. Just as drivers need to have insurance to drive a car, gun owners would be mandated to have liability insurance for every weapon that they purchase.

http://www.propertycasualty360.com/2013/01/21/mass-bill-seeks-liability-insurance-for-gun-owners?t=es-specialty&utm_source=PC360DailyeNews&utm_medium=eNL&utm_campaign=PC360_eNLs