Parenting on Purpose

It's not often that the Father of the Bride gets to speak at a wedding. Oftentimes, the only words are in response to the question, "Who presents this woman to be married to this man?" In that instance, it is normally a mild-mannered man, one who shuns the attention of the moment, who barely manages to whisper out the refrain, "I do."  A precious photo of a very special couple.  This was completely not what happened at a wedding I was at almost three weeks ago. In response to that question, the Father of the Bride seemed to have an entire speech prepared for the Groom, "I present to you the key to my daughter's heart, " he declared. "I have protected her heart all her life until this point, and now I am handing over this responsibility to you." And with a firm voice, he presented this solemn reminder: "Remember that you will not be able to do this on your own, but only with God's help, and by spending time with Him daily....

There was once a Boy. And he had one job - to tend to the sheep owned by a cluster of five villages. There was, however, one problem. The Boy was prone to falling asleep - especially when counting the sheep. So, it was time to make things more exciting. And what could be more exciting than pretending that there was a Wolf around! That very idea would send all the villagers into a frenzy and bring life to the entire place. And it would be terribly fun for a bored little Boy. But what if the Boy chose to cry "Wolf!" on more than one occasion? Would the villagers still believe him? What if there really was a wolf? Meet the cast. Boy and his Wooly Friends. Our little one was overwhelmed by the huge attention he was getting from the Sheep. Baa! I Theatre's interpretation of the popular Aesop Fable "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" brings to life a world where life is simple; where the grass is green, the skies blue, and the mountains a sight to behold. The musical b...

As parents, we sometimes wish that things at home would change in a therapeutic twinkling of an eye. That the spirited tantrums in our toddlers would somehow mellow, and what seems like perpetual shyness in our school-aged children would be overcome by a sudden burst of enthusiastic bravado. Unfortunately, that rarely ever happens. The intentions and interventions we try to put into play in our parenting often result in small, barely discernible steps in their intended direction.  However, sometimes we come across glimmers of hope, and help from the most unexpected places.  A serendipitous link-up with one of our favourite mummy-author friends Melanie Lee (watch this space for our upcoming review of her latest  Squirky  books!) allowed us the chance to meet up with the lovely Leila Boukarim, a down-to-earth and unassuming mother of two boys.  As she shared with us the story of how her first title All Too Much for Oliver came into publication ...