The Kids Speak Out

Kids Listening to Adults

My business partner is my 9 year old grandson, Justin.  I was updating him on my learning curves on squeeze pages, affiliates, joint ventures, e-books and promotion.  He listened very attentive to me during my long explanation on each topic.  I'm trying to teach him how to work with other people; how to run a business; how to develop dreams for the future, etc.

I was really impressed how he was listening and just knew he was comprehending it all.  In his great wisdom, he looked at me and said "  I don't know what you are talking about, but keep on learning about it". 

How cool is that?  I knew I had a great partner that I could trust.

11 Warnings to Kids

Either you love Bill Gates, Microsoft, or you don't.  He gave a speech at a high school about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school.

                                                                Enjoy!

Rule 1:  Life is not fair - get used to it!

Rule 2:  The world won't care about your self-esteem.  The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3:  You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4:  If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5:  Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity.  Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping:  they called it opportunity.

Rule 6:  If you mess up, it's not your parent's fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7:  Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now.  They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were.  So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8:  Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer.  This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9:  Life is not divided into semesters.  You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF.  Do that on your own time.

Rule 10:  Television is NOT real life.  In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11:  Be nice to nerds.  Chances are you'll end up working for one.

Let Kids Have Fun

I printed an file article from www.News-leader.com last July 2006 on "Let Kids Have Fun".  In support of Sarah King's article on "The Kids speak Out" blog on February 27, 2007 on "Don't Be Careful" I am going to summarize the contents in the article.

Life gets extremely boring for kids if a little danger is not in it

Young boys, particuarly, crave danger.  Sometimes they get hurt and then they get better

Bumps, brusies and brokens are seen as a rite of passge for kids

Kids and adults need to learn how to respect and handle danger

Some school districts in the states of Kanasa, Wyoming, South Carolina are banning games from recess; such as touch football, soccer, tag and dodgeball.  The reasoning states....kids may get bruises, twist an ankle or even break a leg or an arm.  But guess what else?  They might just have a little fun.

News-Leader says 'The next step could be enacting rules to ensure no child ever gets winded.  Perhaps recess will be replaced completely with free time at the computer, instead of running around and playing games, kids could sit around play with their Gameboys.'

Parents worry about their kids getting hurt.  Teacher and school officials worry about kids geting hurt.

But, yeh, don't worry so much that you prevent the kids from having fun!

Don't Be Careful!

I invited Sarah King from New Zealand, a working mom, if she would like to contribute an article to The Kids Speak Out blog.  I believe she has a point - I counted the number of times I say to my friends and family "Be careful" and the count was huge.  Read what Sarah has to say about all of this as it relates to raising kids....

"From the smallest crawling baby to the largest teenager you'll hear a worried parent saying "be careful" to their child.

Well, we should stop that, right now!  Children are amazingly good at assessing risks and getting out of harms way - if we let them.

I determined with my daugher, now 8, that I wouldn't say "be careful" and there were times when I could feel the fear in my stomach, clutching all the way down to my pelvic floor, as I watched her negotiate some obstacle.  She crawled at 6 months and it was hard watching this tiny wee person attempting to crawl down a step or around a room.  I created mental boundaries appropriate for each age and activity based on a simple question.

What are the possible outcomes?    Read on.......