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Anti-Greed Resolutions
December 30, 2008 12:00 PM Filed in: All Levels
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Dear Dr. Fournier: What can I do with my children while they are out of school for the holidays? I want to keep them in the mood to learn so it’s not a Battle Royale when school resumes in January, that is, if we still have school and a country come January. |
The Assessment: Your comment, “If we still have school and a country come January” leads me to believe you are concerned about not only your future but your children’s as well. Many of us are concerned about the future of this country. While it is appalling that our voices seem to be falling on the deaf ears of our elected “leaders (?),” it is equally appalling that our country’s business and industry “titans” cannot manage their companies properly in good times so they will not have to run to the American taxpayer for money undo their personal greed and atrocious mis-management in bad times. With Financial Institutions wanting bailouts and the American Automakers now standing with their hands out while their personal pockets are full of corporate bonus dollars for being failures at their jobs, one can see clearly the horrors of greed. Sadly, it is you and I, the “little” people who suffer from this greed the most. There are lessons to be learned here but I fear the ones who need to learn these lessons possess too much hubris.
First, we must keep things in perspective. Concern is one thing; worry only makes things worse. If we stop for a moment and think about things clearly, we’ll see that our problems are not insurmountable. When you have angst over things you cannot control, your children pick up on it and in turn, they will begin to share your anxiety. It may sound cliché, but if you look around you, you’ll see people right here in this country who are in much worse shape than you or I.
And, you are right that it can be a battle to get children refocused on school and back on a schedule in January after parents have allowed them for two (in some cases three) weeks to do totally mindless activities during the holiday break.
What To Do: Use the holiday break constructively and put my Better Solution for a New Year’s Resolution™ strategy in place with your children as well as yourself.
New Year’s Resolutions are usually selfish or at least about some type of self-improvement. While self-improvement is good, now is the time to teach your children that it’s not all about them. I can’t think of a better moment in history to teach them that they can make a difference in the world through caring for others. Your children are in the generation that will be accountable and responsible for changing the culture of greed in this country to a culture of cooperation and caring. If we do not teach our children to do this, we deserve the demise that will follow.
Start the holiday with a periodic family “soup” night as the only meal of the day and sit in an unheated car for an hour with just your coats as you write your New Year’s Resolutions. Start with what you can give away to someone less fortunate than you. On New Year’s Day post all their solutions for giving on the dining room wall. Discuss the ones that can be accomplished immediately and those that the family commits to be done throughout the coming year.
Add to the list commitments to care for each other such as helping clean up the kitchen after meals, raking leaves, mowing the lawn, and calling sick family and friends to offer “hope you feel better” wishes.
Above all, care for others, keep up hope and your children will see that caring is the road to a happiness that will thrive within them.
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