Category: News

  • Basic trust in parents is essential for healthy child development.

    Photo by Filios Sazeides
    This boy trusts his father completely.  Photo by Filios Sazeides, www.unsplash.com

    Basic trust that develops through interaction between parents and children is the foundation of a purposeful and content life.  Without trust life is not worth living.  When children are in a trusting environment they learn to relax, count on the people around them,  trust in themselves and trust in their ability to overcome obstacles.  For that reason it is important for kids to learn to trust in the people around them.  This is also the reason betrayal of basic trust, or interruption due to abandonment during early childhood while the essential first trust is build, is so very damaging to the psyche.

    Father-daughter duo Dave and Claire Crosby

    In our modern lives people are not  always available to children. There is  work, travel .  Experts know that being responsive to children’s needs is the Nr. 1 important thing that can done for them.  Their psychological make-up and their outlook during the rest of their lives depends on their ability to know that when they reach their most trusted adults and that they we will be there when needed.  Erik Erikson and Jean Piaget to of the most formidable child psychologists teach that trust in self cannot happen without this basic trust. When kids are able to trust that their parents will respond to their every need they develop this “basic trust” or ‘Urvertrauen” is formed. Without this basic trust a person will develop “basic mistrust.”

    The only way a parent can help a child find that basic positive outlook on life it to respond to their children  in  realtime.  Technology can have a positive or negative effect on our lives.  We can become distracted or we can use the technology the be there for our kids. The choice is ours.

    Smartwatches are a solution that will allow us to stay in touch with those who are most important to us.  We can created phone trees of trusted adults and create a digital circle of love with Family Assistant Apps and Vigilints Kids Smartwatches are a potential for parents to stay connected, regardless of how busy life gets.

  • Fact based Information is a thing of the past: Misinformation is protected by conservative Supreme Court

    Lines are 20 feel long for free food in San Francisco, May 2018
    Lines are 20 feel long for free food in San Francisco, May 2018

    Children who are pregnant because they were molested and raped; young teenage mothers who are not equipped to raise a child – since clearly they are too young to take responsibility for themselves; impoverished mothers who have a hard time raising the kids they already have; they all no longer have a right to fact-based information.

    The conservative leaning Supreme Court ruled that withholding information about options available to people who really may benefit from an array of information will now be misled, misinformed – legally.  There are a lot of women who are not equipped to be a parent they need options with help, not judgment and misinformation.   www.kidscount.org

    Brave New World: 2018 US Supreme Court decided it is okay to mislead pregnant girls and women base on "religious" grounds.
    Brave New World: 2018 US Supreme Court decided it is okay to mislead pregnant girls and women base on “religious” grounds.

    The youngest person on record giving birth after being raped was Linda Medina who gave birth at six years and five months. It is not unusual for 11 to 12 year old girls to ovulate.  If they are raped or their sexual explorations end up in pregnancy they are faced with a very challenging life.

    Now in 2018 the Supreme Court decided that religious extremists have the right to mislead and misinform and lie to women who really need information more than anyone else.  If they were informed they would not be in the plight they find themselves in.  They would not seek help from religious extremists who want to impose their apocalyptic views onto any miserable person that falls into their clutches.

    Already without this debacle 1 in 4 women will go on a welfare benefit program within 3 years of their child being born.  Who will care for unwanted children who are a result of misinformation?  It is clear the Supreme Court doesn’t care nor is that in their job description.  Religious extremists want to abolish insurance, privatize welfare and they want to  mislead people who are ill equipped to be parents to have children.  60% of unwed mothers live in poverty.

    14 Million children in the US go hungry every night.  There is no care for that clearly.  The religious extremists voted for a philandering president who had sex with porn stars.  Michael Cohen handled his behavioral issues of the president and  those of his  friends.   Mistresses were paid hush money and to have abortions.

    The religious extremists clearly don’t have any consistent value system.  They want to control and impose their will on the victims who need help more than anyone. No one is more vulnerable than a pregnant girl or women  recovering from rape or sexual molestation, or even just a mistake.

    The president is  friends, with Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted child molester who was convicted for soliciting underage girls for prostitution. Religious extremists voted in a friend of a convicted child molester and human trafficker.  They  mislead people just as their chosen leader enjoys to do. Important information about options are withheld.  The centers lie to and mislead victims.  It’s official:

    The use of the freedom of speech laws is now used to protect liars. This is yet another low for the US.  This is a country of laws, and now:

    Misinformation is now officially legal in the US. 

    National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra, No. 16-1140 has been decided. The conservative Supreme Court voted for misinformation and is against California’s State Rights to handle their own affairs.

     

  • Made in Germany – will it stay a strong brand without the US partnership?

    https://bmw-grouparchiv.de/
    BMW HISTORY

    Europeans are starting to accept that they will have to go it alone and figure out how to deal with their own issues – now that the “Partners in Leadership” pact that lead the world is dead and gone.   Since the end of World War II – Germany gladly tamed its own internal monsters by relying on this partnership with the US.  Germany has followed the US, partnered with the US, implemented US strategies, fully trusting that the promises Reagan, W.H.Bush, Bill Clinton, W. Bush, and Obama made to the Germany and by extension to the EU. Now the world has to come to grips with the current change of direction that sometimes feels like a betrayal by the US. As Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff explained to Juurd Eijsvoogel, in the NRC News.

    “Now Germany is faced with the horrible truths as Germany has no nuclear weapons. The country is completely dependent on the American security umbrella. That awareness was of course there earlier, but only in abstract. Trump’s harsh attitude here has caused an acute sense of complete powerlessness in Berlin. The world is no longer about Europe. The problem why America engages here dates back more than seventy years ago. In itself it is understandable that America wants to shift its attention to other parts of the world. We could have seen that coming. You also saw it with previous presidents.”

     

    Trump’s wishes to focus the US inward.  He wants to cut the country off from the world and seems merely eager to please Putin, Kim Jong-Un, Xi JinPing, and the Saudis.  He welcomed Duterte and Erdogan, and the right-wing leader of Poland and Hungary.  He disregards all the leaders of democratic nations and voices his dislike of most European, NAFTA leaders and Australians.

    The West is floundering.  Blaming immigrants, closing borders will not be the most constructive way to run a country or economic region.  It doesn’t matter whether we are talking about the US or Europe.  The US wants to close its borders to immigration instead of strengthening the middle class. This policy will not succeed regardless of whether the US succeeds in offending the rest of the world and shutting itself into its tiny fortress.  Without a growing population and without international trade every country will move backwards.  The policy of breaking promises and committing inhumane and egregious acts will backfire for many years to come regardless of whether it is carried out in the US or in Europe. All we have to do is watch the Middle East and Africa to see that conflict doesn’t pay many dividends, except to weapons’ dealers, mining operators and eventually construction companies.

    Similarly in the EU, the ill-fated Dublin-Agreement burdens Greece and Italy as the point of entry states with all the problems of integrating immigrants.  Naturally this doesn’t work, it could never have worked.  Without a healthy immigration policy the EU will suffer terrible economic consequences.  It is already a tiny region when compared to China, India, Latin America and North America. Without immigration, the population and therefore the economy  will shrink, burdening the ever fewer young with the cost of caring for an expanding older population.

    Ronald Barazon states in his article in the DWN: ” With a realistic attitude that emphasizes the need for immigration, meets foreigners positively, but does not close their eyes to problems and needs, a constructive policy should be possible.

    The US and Europe are partly responsible for the prevailing chaos. The interventions of recent years – from Afghanistan to Iraq to Libya – have been driven by a very positive effort to eliminate brutal dictators in these countries. However, not a flourishing democracy followed, but the abolished rulers were replaced by numerous other brutal actors who are now triggering the waves of refugees. Currently, too many politicians are misusing immigration as a means of concealing their many failures in other areas. “

    Strengthening the middle class works wonders for stability.  That role falls on investors and business leaders. Politicians are too dependent on donors and simply carry forth policies that are in the best interest of a few wealthy donors. Only when global business leaders realize that an eroding middle class erodes ROI, will the world move in a better direction.  Perhaps things have to get quite terrible in terms of ROI before business leaders and politicians get personally affected enough to choose change. In Europe that time is now.

  • How to teach your child the confidence of a peak performer.

    We all want the best for our kids Photo Credit: Creative Commons
    We all want the best for our kids.   Photo Credit:  Creative Commons

    Our job as parents is to prep our kids to live happy and successful lives.  We want them to succeed to allow them to enjoy a life without financial stress. We want them to find love to allow them to have healthy and fulfilling  relationships.  We want them to feel confident and able to achieve their very own dreams.   So how can we protect the kids, while prepping them to become peak performers?

    Step 1 –  Build up their confidence.

    One way to build confidence in our children. When children feel loved, heard, and held in esteem they feel confident that they matter.  The  child eventually knows that she is important to us. This also means parents have to avoid any prolonged absences.  Small children don’t understand why the parents are not there, even if it feels unavoidable to the parent.  The child needs to know that it can reach us and count on us to be there for them.   We want the children to know they are important to us. We also teach the child that we are in charge of our own life. We have the freedom to set priorities.  We choose to be there for the child.  The child learns by observing.  If we are there for them, they will  feel that it is natural to care for themselves and to care about themselves.  They learn to trust not only the parents but also themselves.

    Photo by Caleb Mullin via Unsplash.
    Photo by Caleb Mullin via Unsplash.
    Step 2 – Honesty is important for realistic self assessment and leads to follow through.

    Life has challenges and it has ups and downs.  When we are honest with our children they don’t always like it.  Yet, this is how they  learn that sometimes the truth is difficult.  They also learn to trust us, when we give them genuine compliments. Genuine compliments are worth so much more than indiscriminate praise.  The child learns that honesty is ok.  If we tell them they didn’t seem to have given their personal best, they learn they could try harder and get better.  Then when they do well after they really practiced and succeeded, the praise feels wonderful.  Additionally, if they try something that isn’t realistic, you can plan with them what they may wish to  do instead, or what they may have to do to carry out the desired task. They learn to research, analyze and make plans. The also learn that plans without action will not yield results.  Honest with children leads to self honesty by children, which helps them to keep a clear mind rooted in reality.

    Step 3 – Responsibility helps us feel in charge of our own destiny

    When we take responsibility for our own actions we model behavior to our children. The sooner we teach kids that they are responsible for their own actions and words, the sooner they will feel in charge of their own life.  They learn while they cannot influence everything that happens around them, they are in charge of how they react to the circumstances.  They are in charge of how they act, speak, follow through, commit themselves and equally important take care of their health, both mentally and physically. By taking responsibility they will learn fast that they have choices in life.  They are free to choose how they want to live their life.  Do they want to study and get good grades, do they diligently practice their work outs.  Naturally as they responsibly work on improving themselves they perform better and better. The children feel in charge because they learned they are responsible for their own actions and words.

    Peak Performance is a result of hard work, a good attitude, and the willingness to do what it takes.  We can start our support for children by providing them with the basis of success. We let them know they are important, valued and adored by us.  We are available when they need us.

    www.vigilints.com - smartwatches for kids
    www.vigilints.com – Hawkeye Smartwatches for kids

    In the digital age, this means we are there to guide and coach them.   One valuable tool is a Hawkeye Smartwatch which is designed for 3 to 7-year-old kids.  The Vigilint Parental Assistant app provides the function to check their child’s friends. Parents can talk or text (emojis) allowing to share in their life. The app has a listening function and an SOS button.  This allows parents to coach the children and advise them when the child needs help dealing with other kids. A parent can share responsibility with three other trusted adults and link up to 8 people into a phone tree of trusted care takers.  Additionally the child can have up to 20 friends in their phone.  The Hawkeye Smartwatch has a roll over function which can be set to call the father if the mother is not available. It  rolls over to the babysitter, aunt or the child’s friends parent.    Being there for our kids matters and it is the foundation to a successful life.