You know how when something is awesome, it's not usually free (well, except for love and all that good stuff), and when something is free, it's usually not that awesome- or worse, there's a catch: it's free because someone is trying to sell you something?
Well, when I heard about this free online Mom Conference I was a little bit hesitant because come on- isn't there always some sort of catch? But it seemed like fun, and it was put on by Power of Moms, which is an organization that I greatly respect, so I decided to give it a go.
Oh. my. goodness. Am I ever glad that I did!
They had these speakers who were not just nice smart people they've come across, they are New York Times bestselling authors, multimillionaire business moguls, and experts in their fields. And no, they didn't spend every interview just throwing out a bunch of teasers to make you go buy their books or do their programs, they gave real, tangible, specific things you can do in your life right now to make it better. I was inspired, I was uplifted, and I still cannot believe the quality of information I got for FREE.
Here are just a few of my notes:
Overall impression from many speakers- Parenting is so much more than just teaching our children concepts; it's providing children with opportunities that allow them to put those concepts to the test.
One of my favorite examples from this was from Richard Eyre, who had shared that as part of their values-based parenting they had children memorize quotations. One day he had taken his children to a pro basketball game. His older boys were participating in a special dunking contest being held for the children, but his youngest, who was somewhat reserved, hung back, too nervous to try. He didn't think much of it until his youngest son suddenly stood up and started toward the court. He paused and looked back at his father and said, "Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt." He then went onto the court and proceeded to win the dunking contest.
WOW!
Eyre and his wife had actively been teaching their children about having courage, and when the time came to put that lesson to the test, their son passed with flying colors, thanks to a quotation from Shakespeare and the effort his parents had put in to teach it to him.
Rich Christiansen was another wonderful example of this- he was interviewed alongside his teenage son, Timmy, who told the story of how his dad taught him perseverance through mountain climbing, one step at a time. Now Timmy has co-written a book with his father and is on his way to great success in the world at a very young age. Rich also talked about the important of family doctrine, symbols, and rituals as part of creating a strong family culture (LOVED that). This interview also inspired me to create a personal mission statement.
Dr. Laura Markham was a big favorite of mine. She taught about teaching children to manage their emotions and how to problem solve. She gave specific examples of sibling rivalry and how to approach it in a calm, productive way, and how we as parents can learn to manage our own emotions in order to provide a more stable example for our kids to follow- and why it is SO important to do that.
Amy McCready was another favorite- she gave the 5 R's to consider when creating consequences for our kids' misbehavior (wonderful) and about how we can support our kids while really teaching them to take responsibility for their own behavior. She also gave some great advice about helping our kids manage technology usage which will be great for me in the future.
John C. Maxwell was a really cool, fun guy who talked about living intentionally, and he talked about how his parents paid him to read books- but not just any books. They had him read nonfiction books about having a positive attitude and leading people and developing good habits. At one point in his career he came across a list of books that every successful person should read, and he realized he had read all of them before he had even graduated from high school (except for 4 that hadn't been written yet). I loved this idea! (Honestly though, my favorite part of this interview was when the interviewer said she'd love a copy of his book for her birthday, and he said, "I have the CEO of one of my companies here and he's writing that down for me so I don't forget. I'm in Helsinki right now, but I'll be sure to get on that when I get back!" Helsinki. Finland. ONE of his companies. Yeah. I think his parents were on to something with those books...)
Jonathan Bailor, author of The Calorie Myth, gave some health advice that made more sense to me than anything else I've ever heard, and was more doable than anything else I've ever heard, and his interview has launched my husband and I in a new direction health-wise, and I am so excited to see where it takes us.
So, anyway, if you're completely jealous that I got to do this conference and you didn't, I have very, very good news for you- there is going to be an encore presentation of the conference with just a few of the select speakers from last week and it's happening TOMORROW- available for just 24 hours online, and you can sign up here. You give them your e-mail address and they send you the link to watch, no strings attached. So exciting! I hope you all take a few moments and watch/listen- I promise you that you'll be glad you did.
Thank you!!!
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