http://www.lionswhiskers.com/2011/04/deeper-into-enchanted-woods-we-go.html A parenting coach and a children's book author discuss raising their kids to have courage for the challenges on the path ahead Tue, 02 Jun 2015 06:55:00 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.8 http://www.lionswhiskers.com/2011/04/deeper-into-enchanted-woods-we-go.html#comment-124 Fri, 29 Apr 2011 10:17:00 +0000 http://www.lionswhiskers.com/?p=110#comment-124 That's exactly it! I guess you could say you created a family folklore, with Julia and Mary as the "Jack" sort of character, right?Clever Jack, Foolish Jack, Brave Jack – we've met him in countless stories, with whatever attribute fits the bill. How cool that you did it instinctively!

]]> http://www.lionswhiskers.com/2011/04/deeper-into-enchanted-woods-we-go.html#comment-123 Thu, 28 Apr 2011 09:49:00 +0000 http://www.lionswhiskers.com/?p=110#comment-123 Yes, Yes, Yes!!I agree with you.As a matter of fact, here is a bit I used whenever I needed to get a message across to my girls when they were little.I had two maiden aunts, Julia and Mary, who died long before my girls were born.They lived in an apartment in Yonkers and neither ever married.They were legends in our family for being a little ahead of their time.Whenever an issue would crop up in school or at home, I would use the half hour drive to school to tell a "Julia and Mary Story."I would of course make these stories up to suit the situation at hand.As you said, it was important not to give Julia or Mary too many attributes, other than Julia was the stronger of the two, but Mary was surprising resilient and could hold her own when the situation called for it. (Which it often did.) Julia and Mary battled sickness in the family, bullying at school, friends that let them down, losing treasured objects, death, you name it.I found that since one of my girls really couldn't handle heart to heart talks about anything, simply telling a Julia and Mary story about what the girls did in a similar situation was more readily accepted.Why is that?I have no idea.I just know it worked like a charm.They LOVED to hear the stories. Julia and Mary never let them down for pure excitement and independence, and they were actual people in our family, people whose blood my children had running through their veins.They really identified with Julia and Mary.Of course I think they were on to me that I seemed to know an awful lot of stories about Julia and Mary, but they didn't seem to care.It was too exciting to really matter, and of course all my sisters would vouch for the absolute authenticity of anything I said Julia and Mary did.Sometimes when you want to teach your kids something, you can't.They won't hear it.But a good fairy tale, told without opinion, may accomplish the same thing. Right?

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