Heart Concious Girls

10/17/2023

04/04/2022

A Mighty Girl Pick of the Day: "Fourteen Talks By Age Fourteen: The Essential Conversations You Need to Have with Your Kids Before They Start High School" by Michelle Icard. Parents sometimes feel like talking to middle schoolers is an exercise in frustration (for both parties!) but there's no better time to have important yet sometimes difficult conversations about topics like changing friendships, independence, self-care, technology, impulsivity, money, and more -- and lay the groundwork for a healthy adolescence. This invaluable new parenting book lays out the BRIEF Model – Begin peacefully, Relate to your child, Interview to collect information, Echo what you're hearing, and give Feedback – for having positive conversations with middle schoolers. In it, Icard provides a chapter-by-chapter breakdown of each of these 14 discussions, as well as advice on how to apply this approach to other talks you may want to have with your child. These essential conversations will also help you stay connected with your tween or young teen, making it easier for you to help guide them through this critical time in their growth and development.

"Fourteen Talks By Age Fourteen" is available at https://www.amightygirl.com/fourteen-talks-by-fourteen

Michelle Icard is also the author of "Middle School Makeover," a parenting book on improving the middle school experience at https://www.amightygirl.com/middle-school-makeover

For a great guide for girls themselves on navigating the challenges of the middle school years, we also recommend "A Smart Girl's Guide: Middle School" at https://www.amightygirl.com/middle-school

And for another excellent series of books on positive parent-child communication, check out "How to Talk So Kids Will Listen" (https://www.amightygirl.com/talk-so-kids-will-listen), "How to Talk When Kids Won't Listen" (https://amzn.to/3EPJSJI), "How to Talk So Little Kids Will Listen" (https://amzn.to/34BaHEf), and "How to Talk So Kids Can Learn" (https://amzn.to/3FaIikM)

01/24/2022

It’s National Compliment Day, so tag someone in the comments and give them a compliment. 🥰 I’d like to compliment _________. You are __________________.

I'd like to compliment ; you have been my motivation on the days that were beyond difficult and have shown me how great it can be to own your truth and rise to unexpected heights. Fearless !!

01/19/2022

Happy National Popcorn Day! How adventurous are you with your popcorn? Are you a classic salt and butter type of person or do you have fun with lots of different toppings? 🍿

01/18/2022

Love all of this... My word for the year is "Fearless" and this is everything that resonates about it for me.

01/18/2022

I'm glad Madonna is still kicking against the pricks. This is her magnificent speech while accepting Billboard Woman Of The Year. ..............
"I stand before you as a doormat. Oh, I mean, as a female entertainer," Madonna said. "Thank you for acknowledging my ability to continue my career for 34 years in the face of blatant sexism and misogyny and constant bullying and relentless abuse."

Recalling her life as a teenager when she first moved to New York:

"People were dying of AIDS everywhere. It wasn’t safe to be gay, it wasn’t cool to be associated with the gay community," Madonna recalled. "It was 1979 and New York was a very scary place. In the first year I was held at gunpoint, r***d on a rooftop with a knife digging into my throat and I had my apartment broken into and robbed so many times I stopped locking the door. In the years that followed, I lost almost every friend I had to AIDS or drugs or gunshots."

"In life there is no real safety except for self-belief."
"I was of course inspired by Debbie Harry and Chrissie Hynde and Aretha Franklin, but my real muse was David Bowie. He embodied male and female spirit and that suited me just fine. He made me think there were no rules. But I was wrong. There are no rules -- if you're a boy. There are rules if you're a girl,"
"If you're a girl, you have to play the game. You're allowed to be pretty and cute and sexy. But don’t act too smart. Don’t have an opinion that's out of line with the status quo. You are allowed to be objectified by men and dress like a slut, but don’t own your sluttiness. And do not, I repeat do not, share your own sexual fantasies with the world. Be what men want you to be, but more importantly, be what women feel comfortable with you being around other men. And finally, do not age. Because to age is a sin. You will be criticized and vilified and definitely not played on the radio."
Madonna also opened up about the time in her life when she felt "like the most hated person on the planet," she said, as she became emotional..
"Eventually I was left alone because I married Sean Penn, and not only would he would bust a cap in your ass, but I was off the market. For a while I was not considered a threat. Years later, divorced and single -- sorry Sean -- I made my Erotica album and my S*x book was released. I remember being the headline of every newspaper and magazine. Everything I read about myself was damning. I was called a w***e and a witch. One headline compared me to Satan. I said, 'Wait a minute, isn't Prince running around with fishnets and high heels and lipstick with his butt hanging out?' Yes, he was. But he was a man.
"This was the first time I truly understood women do not have the same freedom as men,"
"I remember wishing I had a female peer I could look to for support. Camille Paglia, the famous feminist writer, said I set women back by objectifying myself sexually. So I thought, 'oh, if you're a feminist, you don't have sexuality, you deny it.' So I said 'f**k it. I'm a different kind of feminist. I'm a bad feminist.'"
"I think the most controversial thing I have ever done is to stick around. Michael is gone. Tupac is gone. Prince is gone. Whitney is gone. Amy Winehouse is gone. David Bowie is gone. But I'm still standing. I'm one of the lucky ones and every day I count my blessings."
"What I would like to say to all women here today is this: Women have been so oppressed for so long they believe what men have to say about them. They believe they have to back a man to get the job done. And there are some very good men worth backing, but not because they're men -- because they're worthy. As women, we have to start appreciating our own worth and each other's worth. Seek out strong women to befriend, to align yourself with, to learn from, to collaborate with, to be inspired by, to support, and enlightened by," she urged.
"It's not so much about receiving this award as it is having this opportunity to stand before you and say thank you,"
"Not only to the people who have loved and supported me along the way, you have no idea...you have no idea how much your support means," she said, tearing up for the second time. "But to the doubters and naysayers and everyone who gave me hell and said I could not, that I would not or I must not -- your resistance made me stronger, made me push harder, made me the fighter that I am today. It made me the woman that I am today. So thank you."

01/17/2022

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a day that reminds us to keep civil rights and the lives of those less fortunate than ourselves at the forefront of our minds. Here’s a link to one of my favorite charities, please consider donating: ________________________.

Please join us in our Mission to Save Lives through Breast Cancer Research. Breast cancer is among the most common cancer for Canadian women. This year 26,300 women will be diagnosed!* BCSC receives no government funding, all of our research is funded through the generosity of our donors. Donate tod...

01/11/2022

Alright, friends. The last year was chaotic, and I’m sure nothing in your life reflects that more than your desk! 😅 So take some time today to do a reset, it’s National Clean Off Your Desk Day after all! 😉

01/09/2022

I had the opportunity to safely and naturally grow a body durable enough to compete not only in college, but also beyond.

01/08/2022

It’s National Bubble Bath Day and I’m sure, after the holidays, we could all use it! Are you more of a bath salts or bath bomb type of person? 🛀

01/06/2022

I’ve got big, big plans for this new year, including (but not limited to 😉):
⭐__________________
⭐__________________
⭐__________________

Like and share below what you have planned for this year.

12/12/2021

The best way to teach children empathy and mending relationships is to model it ourselves. As parents we are definitely going to make mistakes, that is guaranteed. Trying to mend our relationship with our child when we make mistakes is actually the best way that we can teach our children how to do this for themselves. It can be hard as parents to own up to our mistakes without sharing the blame. It can be very tempting to say "I'm sorry but you shouldn't....." If we model taking ownership of our behaviour our kids will see how it is done and what it is like to forgive.

If we get caught up in the controversy about saying the words "I'm sorry" we miss the point. What we really want is for our children to become empathetic and understand that when we hurt others we need to mend the relationship. This is a far more important lesson than mindlessly saying "I'm sorry".

More information on my blog:

https://www.thetherapistparent.com/post/should-we-force-children-to-apologise

Link in bio

12/12/2021

When kids are little, they are overwhelmed with this emotion that crashes over them like a wave. They have no control over it and they don't really understand what it is. It is our job to label the emotion for them. Just like learning to speak, children need to learn the language of emotions. They need to connect the feeling of Anger with their heart racing, getting hot, wanting to yell and kick. When we can name a feeling it becomes less scary, it becomes normal, something that we all experience.

More information on my blog:

https://www.thetherapistparent.com/post/feelings-feelings-and-more-feelings

Link in bio

05/18/2021

How do you respond in this moment?

05/17/2021

How to help your child deal with name calling.

04/27/2021

Positive reinforcement

04/27/2021

Brave girl, celebrate who you are.

04/25/2021

You were determine to rise! 🙂