Tag Archives: nurture

Nurture, Yes, but Three No Nos for Marriage

After a brief sojourn onto other topics I’m back with the alphabetical marriage blogs. This time is Ns turn – 1 great one on the positive side and 3 you definitely don’t want in your marriage. Nurturing Each person in a marriage needs to be nurturing and supportive of their spouse. To nurture means the care of promoting the development of another person. Nurturing means nourishing, feeding or supporting. This means more than just meeting their physical need with food but nurturing them by encouraging and helping, praising and building them up. It is supporting them in whatever they undertake. … Continue reading →

Young Mothers: Take Care of Yourself

In continuing with the young mother series based on Elder Ballard’s third point to mothers in “Daughters of God” is to take time for yourself. Elder Ballard points out that if you do not take time to replenish yourself then you are in danger or running dry and being unable to provide love and care for your family at all. He also warns against “time-wasting, numb-minding things like television soap operas or surfing the Internet.” He counsels us to turn to the Lord to find healthy ways to do this. My grandmother gave me similar advice when I got married, … Continue reading →

Helping Those Who Don’t Want Help

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It can be so difficult when we try to help someone who doesn’t seem to want real help. So many people want support with the here-and-now but have a hard time focusing on the long term. In situations where people don’t seem to want real assistance, it can be difficult to stay motivated in helping out. For instance, suppose you have a family that is struggling to make ends meet. A single mom, perhaps, working minimum wage. Her primary concern is getting her children fed on a daily basis. In such a state, she has difficulty realizing that it would … Continue reading →

Nurture vs. Nature Debate

The age old debate of nurture vs. nature was about to play an important part in my life. In fact, it became such a big part of defining who I was, that I spent countless hours researching it. Really, I didn’t have to research far. I was living it. I was the product of both a nurturing mother, and a mother by nature. So which one is the scientific way? I really believe it depends on the person, but for me – it was most definitely nature. Without going into great detail, it might be harder for me to convey … Continue reading →

Building Relationships that Bond

Last week I started taking a weekly parenting course titled “Effective Parenting in a Defective World.” A large group of us met together to watch a video that is about 20-30 minutes long and then broke out into smaller groups to discuss how the main points apply to our individual lives. I love this format because it uses media from a nationally known teacher who is also a parent of grown children so he has lots of hands on experience, and then we get to talk with others about our own personal experiences. Over the next several weeks, I will … Continue reading →

The Independent Baby

Have you met this baby? She’s smart, she’s sassy and she doesn’t want your help. Oh, she wasn’t born independent – though she started exhibiting signs pretty soon. She didn’t want a pacifier; in fact she was probably pretty insulted when she figured out that it was empty and a really poor substitute for the real thing. As time went on, she began to exhibit other symptoms of her independent nature. She refused food after she discovered a new flavor. She didn’t want to sleep in her bed, even after she learned how. She preferred to sleep in your bed … Continue reading →

The Nurture Theory

The debate about what determines a child’s personality has been waging for years. Supporters of the nature theory believe that genetics determine personality. While supporters of the nurture theory do believe that physical traits are inherited they believe that is where the genetic influence ends. The Nurture Theory: Environment Those that support nurture feel that children are like a clean slate and the experiences they have in life and people who influence them determine what is written upon the slate. Genetics may play a role in deciding personality traits, but ultimately environmental factors determine who we become. The list below … Continue reading →

Nurturing Your Child’s Temperament

In a study, beginning in the late 1950’s, conducted by Doctors Thomas and Chess they found that “children show distinct individuality in temperament in the first weeks of life, independently of their parents’ handling or personality style.” Today child psychologist Jerome Kagan finds that “the child’s own temperamental predispositions are the major determining factors in the kind of person he becomes later in life. Whether children are independent or timid, sociable or shy, easygoing or easily depressed, he says, depends primarily on their inborn traits.” Knowing your child’s temperament traits can help you as a parent understand how your child … Continue reading →