Kids and Swearing: How to get the little ones to stop talking sh*#

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Ahh the power of words: to inspire, teach, and offend. It’s funny how rude some words still are to me, even after half a century of hearing and using them. I do swear, and perhaps more frequently than I should, but nothing beats the relief of a good expletive or the emphasis of a well-placed [...]

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Self-Control In Communication

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Self control is one the greatest gifts parents can teach their kids. It’s one of the most important skills throughout life, especially in communication. When speaking, self-control means asking yourself these questions: What cause, relationship or purpose does my communication support? Is this important—worth someone’s life moments? Am I treating my audience with respect, and [...]

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Polarised is Dysfunctional: why it’s time to move beyond polarities in social discourse

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Polarized debate has become the norm. I don’t think it’s getting us anywhere except to farther and farther opposing ends of the scale. There will never be enough anger and argument to cause world peace, so let’s find a new way—an emotionally mature, respectful, productive discourse to help us avoid destroying ourselves and the planet. [...]

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Redundancy Repetition and Reiterations in Communication

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In communication, the general rule is that redundancy is bad. The word itself has a negative connotation, related to uselessness, verbosity and excess. But well-implemented repetition can be quite useful, especially in teaching. Our brains are busy when we’re trying to learn—it’s easy to miss something even if you are paying full attention; something we [...]

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Interrupting Cows and the Gift of Listening

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“Knock, knock.” “Who’s there?” “Interrupting Cow.” “Interrupting Cow wh—” “Moo!” Are You an Interrupting Cow? How often do you allow a pause after someone’s finished speaking? (How often do you allow them to finish speaking?) Interrupting is such a deeply ingrained habit for some of us that we don’t even notice when we do it. [...]

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