Dent Perspectives Consulting Inc

03/09/2025

This drop in group begins Thursday March 20th- details below. Please help us get the word out ❤️

02/05/2025

A campfire I will be…❤️❤️

07/15/2022

Are you an Easy-To-Be-Around-Adult???? Check out this list…our kids need more ETBAAs!!!!! ❤️💕

Using feedback I received from middle schoolers while conducting a simple yet powerful exercise described in my latest book, , I’ve discovered a short list of behaviors adults can avoid to increase their chances of being invited into the sacred spaces of kids’ lives.

EASY-TO-BE-AROUND ADULTS…

• Don’t always expect conversation. They accept that quiet is needed – and even welcome or create periods of connective silence with the kids they love.

• Don’t take bad attitudes and grumpy dispositions personally. Easy-To-Be-Around Adults know fear and anxiety often present themselves as defensiveness, sarcasm, and control. When these characteristics are present, it is not a call to lash back, ignore, or lecture, but rather a call to be calm, compassionate, and curious.

• Don’t interrogate. Instead of peppering kids with questions, Easy-To-Be-Around Adults make themselves available and approachable. When the young people DO talk, the adult sets aside what they are doing to express genuine interest.

• Don’t judge decisions. Maybe it’s not the choice the adult would have made, but that does not mean it’s wrong or won’t result in a learning experience. Easy-To-Be-Around Adults express curiosity instead of judgment by saying something like: “I’d like to hear more about why you took that route.”

• Don’t have all the answers. It’s hard to be around someone who knows it all, especially when it comes to one’s own personal life. Throughout a teen’s path to independence, Easy-To-Be-Around-Adults serve as a trustworthy sounding board.

• Don’t expect perfection. Easy-To-Be-Around Adults communicate that mistakes are part of life. Not only do they commend kids for owning their mistakes, but they also share their own, becoming a safe person to turn to when things go wrong.

• Don’t comment on appearance. Easy-To-Be-Around Adults trust that their kids are showing up in whatever way they feel most comfortable. They accept young people “as is,” knowing that even the most well-intentioned “suggestions” regarding appearance feel like rejections of who they are.

By Rachel Macy Stafford, from the book

*Feel free to add what you find makes an Easy-To-Be-Around-Adult in the comments. I believe these characteristics are welcomed by people of all ages, not just kids and teens.

*If you would like information on ways you can offer guidance to kids & teens that honor their self-expression and bolster their self-esteem & independence, please refer to my book. It is all there.

Image description: On a white slide in a scrap of notebook paper with a peach colored paper clip. In red text, is the very last characteristic of an Easy-to-be-Around Adult listed in the caption above.

02/27/2022

Learning to carry grief because it never goes away.
❤️🦋❤️😇❤️🦅

My Mom is a survivor,
Or so I've heard it said.
But I can hear her crying at night
When all others are in bed.
I watch her lay awake at night
and go to hold her hand.
She doesn't know I'm with her
to help her understand.
But like the sands on the beach
That never washes away...
I watch over my surviving mom,
Who thinks of me each day.
She wears a smile for others...
A smile of disguise!
But through Heaven's door I see
Tears flowing from her eyes.
My mom tries to cope with death
To keep my memory alive.
But anyone who knows her knows
It is her way to survive.
As I watch over my surviving mom
Through Heaven's open door...
I try to tell her those angels
Protect me forever more.
I know that doesn't help her...
Or ease the burden she bears.
So if you get a chance, go visit her...
And show her that you care.
For no matter what she says...
No matter what she feels.
My surviving mom has a broken heart
That time won't ever heal.

Wonderfully written by Kaye Des'Ormeaux, October 15, 1998 and dedicated to all the moms who have lost a precious child and somehow managed to survive ❤️

02/24/2022

It never goes away. It can’t be fixed. It is carried everywhere, everyday. Not as a burden, but as precious cargo.❤️❤️❤️

I lost my child today.
People came to weep and cry, as I just sat and stared, dry eyed. They struggled to find words to say, to try and make the pain go away, I walked the floor in disbelief, I lost my child today.

I lost my child last month.
Most of the people went away, some still call and some still stay. I wait to wake up from this dream. This can't be real. I want to scream. Yet everything is locked inside, God, help me, I want to die. I lost my child last month.

I lost my child last year.
Now people who had come, have gone. I sit and struggle all day long. To bear the pain so deep inside. And now my friends just question, Why? Why does this mother not move on? Just sits and sings the same old song. Good heavens, it has been so long. I lost my child last year.

Time has not moved on for me.
The numbness it has disappeared.
My eyes have now cried many tears.

I see the look upon your face,
"She must move on and leave this place."

Yet I am trapped right here in time.
The song’s the same, as is the rhyme.
I lost my child... Today.

Words © Netta Wilson

. It’s the best gift you can give a grieving heart. 💕
—
It takes a village. Join ours. ABedForMyHeart.com

Now on Amazon! tinyurl.com/5daureve

Get the #1 best-selling book, “You Are the of All .” A gorgeous for . Give the gift of . ABedForMyHeart.com/shop/

02/11/2022

Does this ring true for you?

Another perspective 🖤

12/31/2021

Every moment, day, year…

Happy New Year!❤️

On the stroke of midnight tonight, you can resolve to be better, if you like…
to be fitter,
to be healthier,
to work harder.

On the stroke of midnight tonight,
you can resolve to become a whole new you,
if you so choose.

Or, you can take a moment to acknowledge what you already are.
All that you already are.
Because it’s a lot.
You’re a lot.

And you deserve to be seen.

On the stroke of midnight tonight perhaps you could congratulate yourself, for coping.
For breaking, again,
and for rebuilding, again.

For catching the stones life has thrown at you,
and for using them to build your castle that little bit higher.

You have endured my friend.

And I don’t see the need to resolve to become a whole new you,
when you are already so very much indeed.

Happy new year.

You made it.

Donna Ashworth

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08LRGWY74/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_QXYBP1XQNKBHB07D6QHC
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B095MZ3XFP/ref=cm_sw_r_awdo_navT_a_YC9Z4N4ETMVN7D76PDCC

#2022

ART by Sherine Tolba

11/24/2021

The forest, next to an ocean, is my very favorite place to be. I can hear my heartbeat and my soul relaxes. I exist differently in these spaces and I love how it feels.

I’d love to know….where is your soul spot and why?? ❤️💕

11/17/2021

A change in perspective may be helpful in building understanding!

Series 1: Some Children - educational graphics.
*Disclaimer: I am not a professional or expert, I am interpreting behaviour based on my own lived experience and thus it won't be correct for all.