28 April 2011

Royal Wedding and Betting

I was amazed to hear that there is betting occurring on certain aspects of the upcoming royal wedding.  The betting is ranging from the colour of the dress, to the colour of the Queen's hat, to the rings being forgotten.

This was being discussed on a local radio station, HOT 103, on their morning show.  They were disagreeing over whether or not rings actually do get forgotten at weddings.  They bribed listeners with prizes to see if anyone had actually forgotten the rings.

I tried calling in because I had forgotten the rings to my wedding.  It appears though, that I was not the only one, because the lines were busy!!! Made me feel good that I was not alone in my moment of stupidity.  However, I wish I could have told my story!

Not that my story is long.  Simply put, when it came for the moment to exchange the rings during the wedding ceremony. I reached for my pockets and was instantly embarrassed. I had forgotten the rings in the car. Both of them.  Fortunately my wife has been able to laugh at and with me in my mistakes since day one.  We were able to improvise and later exchanged rings at a restaurant with friends.

John Gottman says one of the best predictors of a successful marriage is how well the bride views her wedding day.  I am grateful that my wife, even five years later, can look back at that moment and chuckle. So I guess all is well. And maybe this helps explain why my wife says I have very little Casanova skills.

Not that I am a betting man, but I would bet that the rings may get forgotten, but thanks to the millions of people tuning in, they will be remembered by someone else.

25 April 2011

Learn to Give not Take in your Marriage

I recently attended a wedding.  It was a beautiful ceremony, filled with loving family and friends.  I usually just enjoy going to weddings, but this time I analyzed the words during the ceremony.  I couldn’t help but wonder why this phrase was used “do you take so-and-so to be your wife/husband?”  Take? What does it mean to take? Why the word ‘take’? Why not another word besides take? However, such a word as take fits well with the 21st century thinking of marriage.

22 April 2011

Autism and the Family



April is Autism Awareness month. April 2 was World Autism Awareness day.  I was not made aware of this until a friend of mine wrote about autism and her family on her blog.  One thing she was grateful for was that it was one of her youngest children who had autism, since there were more societal supports, than had it been one of her oldest children.

There was a study done in 2006, about marriages and autism.  It is estimated that the divorce rate is 80 per cent among couples with autistic children.  The main stressor being that the couple does not reach out for support.

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Read the rest at Notes on Parenting.

21 April 2011

Protecting Your Marriage While On Facebook

American lawyers have found that Facebook has been related to 20 percent of divorces. That’s one in five.  Now, I don’t want to add to the hype conclusion that Facebook is evil and is the cause of the divorce; Facebook is more of a medium that connected two vulnerable people.

The classic scenario for these divorces is as follows.  Man is currently married. Connects with several high school friends on Facebook, including past girlfriends.  Is disgruntled one day due to stress, and expresses his feelings to a past fling via Facebook.  He feels her nonjudgmental and gentle reaction to his current stress.  Than this leads him to emotionally invest in his Facebook fling instead of his wife.  This leads to a removal of him from connecting to his wife emotionally, mentally, physically and spiritually. The rest, as it is said, is history.

16 April 2011

UManitoba Prof Wins Humanitarian Award

Joan Durrant, PhD, one of my profs at University has received an award from the Manitoba Chapter of Canadian Red Cross.  They awarded her the Humanitarian of the Year award for her efforts to promote positive, nonviolent, parenting, and for protecting children.

I have covered Durrants material on Notes on Parenting, and provided readers with a link where you can get her positive parenting book..... for FREE. It has always been free and will always be free. That's one of the amazing things about her and her work.

If I may share some anecdotes from my experience having Durrant as a Professor.

15 April 2011

Professional Home Economists on TV: Margaret's Table

As I have had the opportunity to post the recorded vidoes of PHEc's appearing on CityTV on MAHE TV.  I wondered if any other PHEc out there was on TV.  Lo and behold, I found Margaret's Table.

Check the TV series out here Margaret's Table or on demand at Rogers.

14 April 2011

Grocery Shopping & Food Preparation

Basic skills for living is something that all of us need.  I have a friend and colleague, Carly Ducheminsky, who recently became a part of a organization that helps provide online resources for basic skills to live, particularly in healthy food choices and financial management.  Such skills influence our abilities to provide to our children and to ourselves.

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Read the rest at Notes on Parenting.

11 April 2011

Difference Between Social Work & Family Social Sciences

This past week I volunteered at the Rotary Career Fair in Winnipeg.  I have been there for the past three years and absolutely love it.  I especially enjoy the Wednesday night shift, this is where people who are considering career changes come.  It's not the freebie frenzy that it is during the day shifts.

The number one question I get it is: What is Human Ecology? (Which I wont address today) However the second most asked question is: What is the difference between Family Social Sciences and Social Work?  I want to address this question here because I am a graduate from the Family Social Sciences program.

09 April 2011

Research Idea: Love Language and Attachment Style

Is there a correlation between the attachment style we develop as infants and toddlers, and the love language we express as adults?

I think that there just might be one.

The attachment styles are:
  • Secure
  • Avoidant
  • Ambivalent
  • Disorganized
The love languages are:
  • Words of affirmation
  • Acts of service
  • Quality time
  • Receiving gifts
  • Physical touch
Of course, it is important to understand that attachment styles, and love languages, do shift over time.  But are the shifts correlated to a matching love language.  I don't think each attachment style will have purely one particular love language, but there may be a dominant one or ones.

I believe that the implications of the findings in this research idea, is how parents play a role.  Parents may be, in a sense, creating their child's future love language.

02 April 2011

Explanations for alcohol and drug Experimentation

Why do you think teenagers start doing drugs? Or drinking? Or other self-harming behaviors? I agree (with you), some do engage in it just for experimentation, or for thrill seeking. However, there are those who do it to ease troubles, numb pains, and to cover up struggles.

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Read the rest at the News Optimist.