Remembered I had a blog

I do remember now that I started this blog awhile back. I have a post coming tonight. Stay tuned if there is anyone out there still.

Shaken, Not Stirred

Before I became a dad, I thought to myself my main job as a father would not to make some stupid mistake that got my child hurt seriously or worse. I've therefore avoided the local custom of kids standing in open sunroofs while dad barrels down mountains. We do pile one or two children on the scooter with us from time to time, but that's just the way it has to be at times. Elliot has had two scares in the past month, though, that have reaffirmed my belief that parents should always err on the side of caution.

Tonight, as I was working (really) on the computer Amalia came over and gave me a grape. Grapes make me nervous because I read somewhere once they are easy to choke on. I took note and went back to my work. A few minutes later, I heard a grunting sound from the living room -- not too unusual for our house, but I remembered the grapes. Sure enough, Elliot is draped over the arm of the couch full on choking. I ran over and lifted him off the couch, and from behind put my hands together where you see people in movies when they perform the Heimlich maneuver. Michaela now aware something was going on hollered for me to hit his back as I did so. In a few seconds (seemed a hell of a lot longer), the grape came out, along with the contents of his stomach. For the second time in a month, Elliot was suddenly aware of something approaching a feeling of mortality. Isaac seems over-aware, while his brother has always assumed he's invincible. He cried in shock for a couple of minutes and then was fine.

In August, we were at a friend's child's birthday party. The kids played in the pool for a long time and a good time was had by all. Elliot and Isaac are both fairly strong swimmers so we keep an eye on them but do not stand right next to them. At one point, I heard a mother shouting Elliot's name and assumed he was wrestling with someone. As I looked over Elliot was completely submerged and struggling to get his head above water. The problem was the lady's son was on top of his head. He was not confident in the water and got some place he could not reach the bottom. in the poor boy's panic, he grabbed Elliot.

I swam over as fast as I could, but obstacles in the way delayed everyone trying to reach them. I finally pulled him up and sat him on the side of the pool.

"Are you OK? Elliot. Talk to me. Are you OK?" He looked fine, but I wanted to hear him say something to make sure.

"Elliot. Are you too scared to talk?" He shakes his head, but remains silent.

Finally, he says, "I couldn't breathe air."

He was dumbfounded. The kid who's been diving in the the pool since before he could swim, at last realized he was not a fish.

Being a parent is a never ending battle of nerves. I cannot believe we have three and some have even more. With every passing day, I realize what my mother and father went through and wish I had been more well behaved.

Actually, I take that back. I was a great kid. I wish my sister had been better behaved, though.

Family Culture

The elapsed time since my last post is so embarrassing I won't even mention it (too late). I am not sure if this counts as a blog anymore. Who knows, maybe this will be the beginning of more frequent updates. I have been burning the candle at how ever many ends it is theoretically possible for a candle to possess -- so that is my excuse. I have had some thoughts recently, though, that I would like to share.

FAMILY AS A HPO (High Performance Organization)
I would never suggest one run a family exactly like a company (especially when it comes to hiring and firing children!), but I have just spent the weekend on a leadership retreat which I think provides useful insights for those out there with young families like mine. The title of the course is Confucianism and Leadership and it is part of my MBA studies at NCCU here in Taipei. The professor is a very well-respected authority in the human resources field and is highly sought-after by companies to lead just the sort of retreat I had the privilege to attend this weekend. As I was driving home, I thought to myself, "it's a shame that I haven't seen a similar offering to parents." I know there are loads of great parenting books that deal with all kinds of important themes and lessons on raising children, but there are some good core practices that good corporations follow that, when combined with Confucian-style (or even religious) motivations can provide parents with a great framework for their conversation on how to raise their children.

VISION
Raising a family starts with your and your partner's vision for the family and the people in it. So often in relationships we get caught up in the here and now and never think about how things will be a year from now or two years from now or ten years from now. We let things happen and react to the situation as we each want to react and then attempt to find common ground. Most of the time, in a healthy relationship, this is fine. Your mutual understanding and respect for each other make it possible to find common ground. But now it is time to have children. This changes things. A complete stranger is about to be thrust into your house. Even strong, happy and decent couples can have wildly different expectations about how to raise kids. As soon as you learn you are going to have a child, you should sit down and discuss your vision for your family. If you already have children, it is not too late.

Now, by vision I don't mean "little Johnny is going to be a doctor and little Ashley is going to be an astronaut." Vision should be general enough as to not limit your possibilities, but clear enough to provide a guiding principle for your decisions down the road. I personally think the simpler and more absolute the vision, the easier it is provide a direction for the family. I personally choose one that goes beyond the fence around our yard (this is a metaphor as we have no fence, nor a yard. Our house is surrounded by jungle).

My vision, "The Brennands will bring good will and positive change to every family and organization with which they come into contact."
(Please note it you are one of those families or organizations, we haven't started yet. I still have to talk with the wife!)

The next step is to make this vision clear to every one in the family (in an age appropriate way) and reinforce it through our words and actions.

Obviously, we are not going to talk to our children like they are senior managers in a multi-national (thought that would be awesome: "Amalia, put down the finger paint, dad's secretary has paged you and canceled all your meetings for the rest of the day. To the board room, quick!"

The heavy lifting will be done by my wife and I and there are some great organizational tools we can use to lead our family and help each other discover what works (very little sometimes) and what doesn't (quite a lot it turns out).

These are a couple of useful tools I will try to incorporate into daily situations.

PDA (Purpose, Desired Outcome, Action and actual outcome)
How often do you go somewhere with your kids and assume they know how to act? If you take your kids to the store and they act like they do when they are playing with each other at home, it is a nightmare. You react far worse than you would if the environment were different and kids can get mixed signals as to what is expected of them.

Establishing good PDA is vital and doesn't have to take a lot of time with some practice. The next time you go to a friend's house or a public place prepare yourself and your children. Now I know we all do it (or at least think we do it), but I am going to take the idea of PDA and apply it in a more professional way. When dealing with employees, we assume they understand us or will act in a way we want, but how often do they do something that makes us shake our head and think, "how is it even possible for someone to have misunderstood me that much?" Now that is with adults (I assume you are not running a sneaker sweat-shop in SouthEast Asia) Imagine trying to establish PDA with a six, four and two year old. Pulling them aside for 60 seconds before you go into the supermarket and saying "indoor voices, don't run, no treats today, be nice to your sister, let's go" simply cannot be expected to work. And considering the disproportional reaction they are going to receive for misbehaving, we owe it to them to put as much energy into preparing them as we will most certainly put into to disciplining them.

Purpose: Tell them why you are going to the store. Make them a part of the task at hand. Give them a job to do and show them how they can help you accomplish what you need to do inside. Don't just tell them to stay close. I sometimes luck into this by letting them push the cart or by sending them off in search of different items (we don't really need to worry about kidnappings in our local Taipei supermarket. It may be different where you live) and it invariably leads to them being more well-mannered. Why don't I incorporate it into every trip?

Desired Outcome: Let them know not only what your purpose is, but also what a successful trip will look like. "What we want is to go in there, get these things and to do so with everyone in there wondering where I found such wonderfully-behaved children."

Action/actual outcome: Let them know the actions they can do specifically to achieve the desired outcome. Don't give them a long list of things they can't do. I wouldn't do that to employees. I would warn them about some trouble spots and a few things they should avoid (and solicit ideas from them as well) but I would mainly focus on what positive actions I want them to take AND how it will help us reach our desired outcome. When you're done and walking back to the car, go over what actually happened. Ask them if the desired outcome was achieved. Ask them how the outcome was different. Why? What could they do differently next time. The idea is not to get them to be angels. The idea is to give them a framework about how to approach a task and evaluate themselves in a non-threatening manner. It is to help them mark their own improvement.

(Note: I am not crazy. I am not going to use the actual words, I will paraphrase it and put it into ideas six and four-year-olds can understand. Will I use it with my two year old? No. To be honest she doesn't need it.)

Another concept I will pay much closer attention to is UAC.
UAC (Understanding, Alignment, Commitment): This is critical. The reason this is so important is that we all go through this process already, the problem is we emphasize and spend too much time on the wrong phases.

Most people will spend less than 25% of their energy on establishing understanding. Why are we doing what we're doing. What is the purpose? Then maybe 5% on alignment. That is establishing that not only do they understand what our purpose is, but they are on board and their desired outcome is now aligned with ours. Finally most people spend 70-75% of their energy on eliciting commitment to pursue that goal. The problem is if there is not sufficient understanding and alignment, then the commitment is empty and you are more likely to have an undesired outcome.

"Say you'll be good inside. Tell me you are not going to run. Say the words. Say 'I won't run, Daddy.'" Uh, that isn't going to work. And then they run and you say, "You said you wouldn't run!"

Now I know, they will not be able to understand completely and will not be able to align themselves with your desired outcome all the time, but the other way doesn't work either. Remember, we are creating a framework. If you spend 50% of your time on understanding, 25% of your energy on alignment and then 25% of your time on commitment then the chances for success this one time are better. But, more importantly, you get into a good habit that a month down the road, a year down the road or ten years down the road yields much better results and contributes to better understanding and alignment between you and your children. How valuable is that? Will it work this one time? Probably not, but neither will the alternative.

FEEDBACK
One final thought and probably the most important thing I learned was the value of good feedback. This is more for the parents interactions with each other but is also invaluable for kids. The difference is children expect feedback from us, but what about our spouses?

The thing to remember about feedback is you cannot improve yourself without it.
Husbands and wives are the perfect people to give feedback to each other, but are probably the worst people at it. Number one you have to detach yourself emotionally and listen to the feedback without defending yourself. Whether you agree with it or not, it is valuable to know it. Also, you need to have a context within which to place it. I am thinking about a typical scene where the wife will walk in while I am at my wit's end and am yelling at one of the children [yes, I've tried to give it up (see earlier post) but haven't succeeded (yet)] and she tells me to either calm down or takes over. It happens the other way as well. This is a bad time for feedback. No saying, "hey you have to cool it around the kids or they are going to be monsters when they are older!" It is obviously better to have a system in place already where another parent automatically takes control when the other is about to lose it, but this is how it goes sometimes with husband and wife. All of our 'good feedback' comes in the heat of the moment. But if you both are clear on your family's vision, then feedback should be very positive. Some tips (from the class, not my own!).

Giving Feedback

• Set aside time when you are together to give feedback.
• Be positive, but don't shy away from negative feedback. This is why spouses should be the ones best equipped at feedback. (There should be no chance you are going to lose your job!)
• Be clear and specific. Deal with a narrow selection of issues at a time. No need to get into why she brought so many bloody dogs home when you first met.
• Calmly deal with excuses the person might make. Don't let them get away with them, but be nice. Simply point it out and let them know what you think.

Receiving Feedback

• Listen. Relax. Listen with an open mind and put your ego and pride aside a while.
  
• Be appreciative someone (especially your spouse) is willing to put themselves in the awkward position of giving honest feedback and know they are willing to do the same.
• Don't defend yourself. It is ultimately up to you what to do with the feedback, but don't argue with it. This is what your spouse sees. That is important whether you agree with it or not.
• Ask questions if you need to to understand. (Not sarcastic ones though)
• If it's true, own up to it and move on to what to do about it.

I apologize for the length and perhaps incoherence at times. I have thought at several times over the past few months about posting something and always put it off (until I have time to craft it) and then a few days pass and it never happens. I wanted to write something last night but was too tired. Tonight I have too much work to do, but I realized it was tonight or never. I doubt anyone will get to the bottom of the post to read this apology and so you are undeserving of the apology by definition. That is why it appears at the bottom and not the top!

不患人之不已知，患不知人也。 (Confucius, Analects 1.16)
"Be more concerned that you do not understand others, instead of too preoccupied that others do not understand you."

Three months

and counting. Cannot believe I have left it this long. Granted I have been slightly busy, but that is no excuse. I will update this space with an entry about our middle child as soon as I do some "research" on middle children to figure out exactly what is happening with him. There is something to be said for having an even number of children. (But don't get any ideas Michaela.)

New post coming soon.

I Will Never Yell at My Kids Again*

I have vowed on more than one occasion to not yell at my children. It usually follows some outburst that was instigated by my children's annoying habit of doing the opposite of what I think they should be doing at different times during the day. Then dad feels bad and says he shouldn't have done it and in all seriousness makes the vow again.

And, of course, the children then sense the weakness and immediately chime in with something like, "Yeah dad, you shouldn't yell at us. It is scary."

"Now wait a minute, the REASON I was YELLING in the first place...." and then I remember the minute-old promise.

Michaela and I decided from the start we would not spank and so neither of us hit the kids. (We may each have one mulligan.) That leaves using our organizational skills to plan out an orderly schedule in which everything has its place and time and the kids are clear about all the rules and are encouraged to follow them by a complex program of positive reinforcement.

HA!

We are getting there and I think we will ultimately get there, but in the meantime can I shout at them? I mean, it feels soooo good sometimes -- especially when I shout something so logical and obvious I think I may have finally had a breakthrough with one of them. But I know it is wrong. I don't know why, but every fiber of my body says I shouldn't shout at my children.

So I looked it up and found two pretty good articles. The first is from The Guardian and is titled Loud but not proud. It basically says that researchers at Harvard Medical School found that shouting at kids DAMAGES THEIR BRAINS! WTF? I can handle a little emotional trauma that sneaks out when they see their shrink during their mid-life crisis, but brain damage? That's not fair. My favorite quote from the article:

There's an American saying that shouting at your children to obey is like using the horn to steer your car - and it produces the same results.

Of course since it is an article written about parenting it is written for mothers and goes on to talk about maternal isolation or something, but that's a whole nother post.

I found another article that gives concrete steps to avoid shouting at your kids at Wedding Magazine (really?).

I was encouraged by one of the last headings, "But sometimes shouting can be good for them!" until the last sentence.

Shouting also helps children to express their feelings instead of bottling them up. But never shout at young children.

How old is young? One I hope because I don't yell at Amalia.

Anyway, here is to not yelling at our kids anymore. Please, comment and let me know your yelling stories and if you have managed to get by with minimal yelling please tell me how. If you have a lot to say on the subject you can make a post on my blog. I just have to figure out how to do it.

*I mean it this time!

Single Parenthood Part II

Well, it is getting harder. Working full time and taking care of the kids and dealing with all the other dramas daily life brings is starting to take its toll. I can definitely do it, but I find myself staring off in to space a bit more often. I need to get a better routine down for the kids. I hope to hell they eat fruit at the babysitters because I am having a hard time on that front.

TRYING TO BREAK ME DOWN

This morning was a particular downer. The kids were in a fine mood, though Amalia has become a tad more whiny than she was the first week (she is sick so I will let it slide). In fact, all three kids were on medicine last week. Anyway, this morning I was dreading all the things I had to try and do today while getting the kids fed and dressed. Elliot threw a tantrum over something or other, his brother didn't help things and Amalia was being one and throwing her food everywhere. But it was in the car where Isaac, age 5, took psychological warfare to the next level on his dad. He must have sensed blood.

Out of nowhere he says:

"Dad, how old was your daddy when he died?"

"Sixty-two."

"Why didn't he live to be 100? (I somehow let slip that most people live to 100 to stop Isaac from worrying about dying. What do you tell a five-year-old about dying? That wasn't in the manual. Not one of my finer parenting moves.)

"He got sick, sweetie."

"Did you cry when your daddy died?" (You little, bugger. Why are you doing this?)

"Yes, I cried when my daddy died." (Now avoiding eye contact by looking out my window.)

"How old were you when your daddy died?"

"Thirty-one."

"How about me?"

"You weren't born, yet, sweetie." (In fact, Michaela was about six months pregnant with Isaac (our first) when my dad passed away.)

Short pause, and then Isaac goes in for the kill.

"It's sad your dad didn't get to see me." (Easily the absolute biggest disappointment of my life thus far -- granted, I've had it pretty good.)

"Yeah, he would have liked you guys a lot."

"Maybe when I am older I can be a daddy."

"You would be an excellent daddy." (And I hope your kids do to you exactly what you do to me -- good and bad)

Single Parenthood

No Michaela hasn't left me, yet. She has gone to London for 10 weeks to study as part of a new business venture and I will be taking care of the three kids. I will post some of the experiences the kids and I share, and maybe someone can benefit from the mistakes of a sometimes-ignorant-but-hopefully-not-dangerously-so father.

Disclaimer: Two days before Michaela was set to leave, a friend from high school posted to facebook that her husband was about to deploy for another six months (presumably to Iraq or Afghanistan). If I sound like I feel sorry for myself in any of my posts, it is not my intent and I really don't. I am fully cognizant of the fact that a 10-week-tour to London in no way compares.

First off, the kids are Isaac 5, Elliot 3 and Amalia 14 months. Isaac can read some, swim, dress himself and as he proved to me this morning, get everyone's breakfast ready. This is in addition to his previously mentioned technical prowess with regards to DVD players and PSPs.

Elliot can read his name, dress himself (a little better than Isaac at times) and thinks he knows how to swim. In fact, he can swim, but only as far as he can get on one breath. He hasn't figured out how to get his head above the water to breathe. This is a huge problem at the pool because he will just jump in with no fear and I need to jump in to save him. Annoying.

Amalia can walk and climb and loves to jump in the swimming pool as well. She can say some words and can be pretty clear through grunting and pointing about what she wants. She also takes no crap from her brothers.

The Departure

We decided to drop Michaela off at the domestic airport and she would take the bus to the international airport -- the idea being that would give her some time to calm down before boarding the airplane. Fat chance.

The goodbye got off to an awkward start as I had parked in the bus lane and when the driver pulled in, he interrupted our emotional farewell by laying on his horn. Anyway, once back in the car, boys were crying and I had a headache -- a nightmare for me since I get about three headaches a year. We decided to head to the club for an ice cream. The ice cream turned into the boys playing Lego Star Wars on the club Wii and our first day was nearly in the books.

The First Night

I decided to let the boys sleep in my bed. Amalia had fallen asleep in the car (which started a nice run of kids falling asleep in the car at night) and I made the transfer to cot very professionally. It is not as easy at it sounds at our house. When I pull in to the driveway, I need to immediately start trying to mitigate the sound of our eight dogs barking and yelping like there is no tomorrow. Amalia missed out on the gene that lets the two older children sleep through the barking. A mixture of Tom Petty on the stereo and a quick exit from the vehicle and "shushing" of the dogs did the trick.

After I got the boys in bed (after brushing their teeth -- they had to remind me), I was feeling quite proud of myself. Then I looked into the bedroom and Isaac was crying but not making any sound. He had found a little baby toy that played "You are my Sunshine," and said the part -- "you'll never know dear, how much I love you" reminded him of his mommy. Of course, Michaela read my facebook post about this in the airport in Kuala Lumpur during her changeover just as she was calming down. Oh well.

Moving Forward

Amalia has been great so far. She literally does not cry unless she needs something or is pointing out something I have forgotten. The way I plan on managing the three of them moving on is to go slow and give us plenty of time to get places and do things. When we rush I tend to lose my patience as a father. Another thing I am going to try not to do is tell them they have to be better for me because Michaela is not here. I am well versed in the way of the guilt trip and am trying hard not to become a practitioner.

There will be posts coming more often. We had a cracking time at the zoo on Saturday where the kids got to play with a police officer's handgun. Great fun.