Family: 5 Ways to Beat the Comparison Trap

5 Ways to Beat the Comparison Trap

Written by Norma Schmidt, Coach, LLC

Picture this scene: You re-arrange your work schedule to attend a party in your child's classroom. You happily hug your child hello as you arrive. Then you notice a table laden with adorable ceramic dalmations, hand-painted, personalized and beribboned for each child in repparttar

class by one child's stay-at-home mother.

Now try another: Your alumni magazine features repparttar 110888 stunning accomplishments of one of your former classmates. Unlike you, she has not let motherhood slow her professional advancement one bit. Her children, smiling beside her in repparttar 110889 magazine photo, seem to be turning out fine.

If you're not prepared, either scene could drag you into "the comparison trap."

Maybe you've been there -- times when you compared yourself with someone else and experienced unpleasant results.

IT'S A NO-WIN.

Comparisons just don't work. For one thing, they're a greased slope into a pit of envy, resentment or guilt. More fundamentally, comparisons fail to honor each individual's unique path in life.

FORTUNATELY, YOU DON'T HAVE TO FALL IN!

Here are five ways to beat repparttar 110890 comparison trap.

TIP 1: GIVE YOURSELF MORE CREDIT.

Your thoughtful, loving choices to create repparttar 110891 right balance for your family is a splendid achievement. It takes heart, intelligence, imagination, resourcefulness and strength.

So, try this tip for building immunity to comparisons: Look inside, and give yourself credit for repparttar 110892 fine personal qualities you bring to living life your way. You might even mark times on your calendar to pause regularly and give yourself credit for all you are.

TIP 2: COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS.

Here's another comparison immunity-builder: Direct your attention to all that is happening in your life that you would like to keep happening. Make a list, including repparttar 110893 benefits of doing paid work and raising a family at repparttar 110894 same time. You might enjoy having your family help make your list longer.

The Best Way to Protect Your Children in the Car

Written by Susan Dunn, MA, Emotional Intelligence Coach

Car seats may be required but there’s one other thing you should be doing to protect your children in repparttar

car, because repparttar 110887

best-constructed car seat in repparttar 110888

world doesn’t insure they’ll live through an accident.

Prevention is repparttar 110889 best cure, and driver error has been documented to contribute to over 90% of collisions.

Your distractibility is crucial, and once again one of our best technological advances has proven to be a very mixed blessing. You might even say a very mixed curse.

And what is that?

It’s repparttar 110890 conversation you’re having with your sister about repparttar 110891 party next week. Or repparttar 110892 quick call to verify directions or to say you’re running late. Or worst of all, an intense or complex relationship issue you’re discussing with your spouse. ON THE CELL PHONE WHILE DRIVING.

It doesn’t matter whether it’s hand-held or mounted, and it doesn’t matter whether you’re dialing, chatting, intensely relating, or hanging up. It’s dangerous.

According to repparttar 110893 Fatal Analysis Reporting System, in one analysis of fatal accidents involving cell phone use, repparttar 110894 cell phone-using drivers were all in what’s called “the striking vehicle.” This means they either hit a stationary object, or left their lane of traffic and struck a vehicle or obstacle. In these crashes, 75% of repparttar 110895 drivers were engaged in conversation, 13% were dialing, and 13% were hanging up.

And worse yet – of those engaged in conversation, 1/3 were using mounted phones in repparttar 110896 hands-free mode.

Risk of collision when using a cell is 4 times higher regardless of your age, driving experience, of experience with a cell phone, and – get this: repparttar 110897 hands-free units offer no safety advantage.

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