Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be. Abraham Lincoln

Please watch this week’s video on Happiness. I encourage you to ask your children what makes them happy and post their video in response.

Happiness is such a basic and important quality; but how do we get there?  Our children are always watching the behavior we model and do what we do.  But in the case of happiness, look to your children to teach you about happiness.

Children are naturally:

• Fearless
• Carefree
• Find joy and ease in expressing themselves
• Love unconditionally
• Give with an open heart
• Forgive easily
• Tell the truth
• Dream Big
• See everyone as special, and treasure the differences in people
• They don’t worry, they are just happy…

What could we possibly teach them about happiness? All this week on Parental Wisdom’s Facebook page, and Twitter Feed, enjoy!

• Sunday, July 19^th – Ice Cream makes everyone happy! Today is National Ice Cream Day.
• Monday, July 20^th – Monday and each day this week, look for songs that make you happy. Dance with your kids.
• Tuesday, July 21^st – 18things kids can teach us about happiness
• Wednesday, July 22^nd – A very happy baby sees her parents for the first time
• Thursday, July 23^rd – How to be happier at work (then you come home happier!)
• Friday, July 24^th – Scientifically proven ways to be happy (they really work!)

As always, we can learn from each other.  Please respond to the video and share your great ideas to encourage happiness.

Smile and have a great week!

Tina Nocera, Founder

Parental Wisdom®

#valueoftheweek #happiness #parentalwisdom #kids

As simple and fleeting as it was, for that moment his little girl saw him as a hero, and he was smart enough to recognize and relish it. How many of these moments happen in a given day that we may not stop to enjoy?

It is best said by this exerpt from the essay Knowing What’s Nice by Kurt Vonnegut.

And now I want to tell you about my late Uncle Alex…His principal complaint about other human beings was that they so seldom noticed it when they were happy.  So when we were drinking lemonade under an apple tree in the summer, and talked lazily about this and that, almost buzzing like honeybees, Uncle Alex would suddenly interrupt the agreeable blather to exclaim, “If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.”

Enjoy the next to last weekend of summer, a glass of lemonade, and your special moments!

Tina Nocera, Founder

Parental Wisdom® 

The fireworks lit up the sky and the blue moon cast a beautiful ribbon of light across the water, but both paled in comparison to the delight on the faces of everyone watching.

Our joy in life always comes from the little things and wisdom in recognizing what those things are. After all, to see ‘free’ fireworks or a blue moon, all you really have to do is look up.

Hoping your holiday weekend gives the opportunity to slow down and enjoy the beautiful world and people around you.

Tina Nocera, Founder
Parental Wisdom

The best vitamin to be a happy person is B1.

~Author Unknown

In an earlier post entitled “So How Am I Doing?” I mentioned Parental Wisdom® advisors are working together to write a book on raising children that we would love to meet someday.

Your feedback helped craft the list we are diligently working on.  One important quality identified in raising a person that you would love to meet is for that person to be happy.  Though we can reference many ideas, we can also use your help in defining what makes a person happy.   If you would like to contribute a comment that we could publish, please leave a comment here.

If it is something we use for the book, we will respond and get your permission which means you may (finally) be published!  And we might throw in a cool t-shirt too.

Can’t wait to hear what you have to say on this topic!  Again, here is the question: what makes you happy?

Tina Nocera, Founder

Parental Wisdom®