Intro |
Your Infant |
Your Toddler |
Your Gradeschooler |
Your Teen |
Your Physical Health |
Your Mental Health |
Your Marriage |
Your Family Life |
Avoiding Affluenza |
No Regrets
Intro
Why Would Anyone Want to Stay Home?
The intent of this section of Finding Your Way Home is
to provide compelling and justifiable reasons to quit a career
in order to lead an at-home life. Changing an ingrained
family lifestyle is such a dramatic undertaking that the person
instigating the change needs to have "ammunition" -
strong convictions and knowledge that what he or she intends
to do is the right choice and will provide tremendous benefits
to the entire family.
The first four compelling reasons for scaling back will demonstrate
the positive effects a lifestyle change will have on children. Each
section will explore the benefits of an at-home parent
to children of various ages: infant through teen. No matter
what age children are, they benefit tremendously from the daily
presence and involvement of an at-home parent (supported
by recent research). The next four compelling reasons explore
the mental, physical, marital and family benefits of scaling
back a stressful lifestyle. The ninth compelling reason offers
motivation for stemming the tide of "affluenza,” the
sickness of too much material consumption. The final compelling
reason is a plea to have "no regrets" later in life
by examining the current situation and knowing that making a
change will be the right decision.
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Compelling Reason Number 1: Your Infant
Your Baby Needs You! Very young children benefit tremendously
from consistent, predictable and nurturing care. The importance
of attachment and bonding in the cognitive and behavioral development
of the child is explored. Also discussed is the effect
of the early environment on the baby’s brain development.
The problem of “Caregiver roulette” is explained
and how it adversely affects the child. Grief experienced by
parents giving up young children to alternative care is discussed.
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Compelling Reason Number 2: Your Toddler
Your Toddler Needs You! Young children's healthy intellectual
and emotional development is dependent upon the consistent and
constant love and care of an adult on a daily basis. Overcrowded
day care and overworked care givers can not provide the necessary
one-on-one verbal reinforcement and intellectual stimulation
required for optimal child development. This section also
explores "school readiness" issues. The importance
of providing a "calm oasis" in an increasingly chaotic
world is discussed.
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Compelling Reason Number 3: Your Gradeschooler
Your grade schooler needs you! Be there to help
your maturing child cope with often overwhelming new challenges
to growing up. More pressure and more homework, at an earlier
age, requires solid help and commitment from loving parents. The
importance of parental involvement at school is explored and
presented as a means to much greater understanding of your child’s
world.
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Compelling Reason Number 4: Your Teen
Your teen needs you - now, more than ever. Counterbalance
today's pervasive and threatening negative influences - drugs,
alcohol, sex, gangs and violence - on your child by being
available after school and providing calm, loving and dependable
support. Your involvement in your child's life is the
most important protective measure to combat these threats. This
section presents a harrowing look at the life of a modern teen,
left on his own amid teen “tribes” for much of the
day. An exploration of what teens really want and long
for – more parental involvement, not less, is presented.
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Compelling Reason Number 5: Your Physical Health
It is a well-known fact that stress creates health hazards
in the body. In this section, you will see how everything from
the common cold to cancer can be attributed to the affects that
stress has on the human body. The disastrous effects of repressed
anger, fear and depression also are discussed. Changing a too-stressful
life can lead to tremendous health benefits, fewer doctor visits
and less spending on medicine. This section examines these important
issues.
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Compelling Reason Number 6: Your Mental Health
Discussed in this section is how to free yourself from the
working grind in order to clear out “mental clutter.” Without
the mind-numbing amount of work-related details filling your
brain, you will be free to choose what information to allow
in. You will discover how to create your “right life.” Contrary
to popular belief, being at home and allowing yourself more
time to reflect can greatly enhance your mental abilities.
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Compelling Reason Number 7: Your Marriage
Spousal relationships are often the first to suffer the effects
of stress in the dual-working lifestyle. Experts agree that
keeping love and romance alive in a marriage takes work. It
is easy to forget about tending to your relationship when you
barely have time to take a breath in a hectic work-filled day. Finding
your way home and transitioning to a less stressful life will
help rekindle those feelings of lost love. This section will
explain how a home-based life will benefit your marriage. Keeping
a marriage happy is a requirement and a foundation for a healthy
family life.
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Compelling Reason Number 8: Your Family Life
What family life? This question is often asked when both
parents work. Families today are in trouble. Read the
headlines of any newspaper: latch key kids, higher divorce
rates, teen “packs” on their own each afternoon,
kids with guns, the list goes on. Children need a calm and secure
home life and a strong happy family to counterbalance the negative
effects faced each day away from home. Learn how very important
is the seemingly simple ritual of the family dinner hour and
how it helps to reconnect and protect children. Family time
and cohesiveness should not be a luxury in today's world; in
fact, it is a necessity. Learn what the “palm tree effect” is
and how it can strengthen and support your family.
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Compelling Reason Number 9: Avoiding “Affluenza”
Stemming the tide of consumerism and materialism is an important
step on the road home. Consumerism becomes an endless
treadmill of work and spend. It leads to a rushed, stressed
lifestyle that is very hard on the family, both mentally and
physically. The pressure on the family to be constantly on the
go just to keep their heads above water can break apart families
and lead to divorce. Learn more about the phenomenon of “Affluenza,” a
modern day sickness that will slowly, but surely poison all
who become afflicted with it. You can't buy your way into the "good
life.” In this section you will learn how to control spending
and live more simply. Learn to prioritize your time in order
to fit in the most meaningful things in life.
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Compelling Reason Number 10: No Regrets
This section will help you examine what is not working currently
in your life and help you begin to make changes toward a more
positive lifestyle. It is important to have no regrets
later in life about the choices made. Knowing that there
is no substitute for a strong parental influence and love in
the life of a child will help you begin to plan your own way
home. Later in life, as you examine the choices made over
the course of your own life, the goal is to look back not with
regrets, but with a smile.
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