Choosing work you love is not just for your own fulfillment. There are four reasons a job you love helps your family:

1. You are better prepared to spend quality time with your family.

When you have a job you love, you’re less likely to seek unhealthy escape when you come home from work. Unfortunately, many people who hate their jobs spend money and time trying to escape the stress of their jobs by drinking or seeking escapist entertainment, which sometimes takes them away from their families physically, emotionally or mentally—even during their time off.

2. You are more likely to have the energy and disposition to be a fair and loving parent.

Working on a job you hate saps your energy and probably gives you feelings of failure and powerlessness. When you arrive home, it’s all too easy to try to exert the little authority you do have in an unfair way with your children and spouse.

The stress you experience on a job you don’t like will affect your emotional and physical health. A parent or spouse who has diminished health is not emotionally available. A parent who is unhappy at work is more likely to be irritable, argumentative and sometimes even violent at home.

3. Your children learn how to handle stress and life from you.

Children are keen observers. They can tell your mood from your facial expression when you arrive home or pick them up from school. Even if you help them with their homework or serve dinner, they sense when you’re miserable, and see that you’re tolerating a situation you hate. Your way of handling your life (and theirs) becomes their first glimpse of how to live life.

If you are a ticking time bomb, then your children may grow up without the ability to feel safe and trust other people. If you are so wound up from spending your days settling for a job that pays your bill, but steals your joy, then even the time with your children will be diminished. They may grow up with feelings of rejection and abandonment or believing that your sadness is somehow their fault.

4. Your children learn the connection between work, harmony and prosperity from you.

If you don’t enjoy your job, then your children may grow up thinking that work is something they shouldn’t even expect to enjoy. They may grow up believing they’re going to have to choose between doing what they love and making a living. That would be a shame, wouldn’t it?

When you have a job, career or business you love, your children can be involved and learn from your experiences.
When we had a family business, my children helped with mailings, managing the office, running the copier, answering the telephone and maintaining the building. My son still jokes about his stamp-licking days.
We are promised by many self-help books and speakers that if we choose work we love, the money will follow. This is a worthy outcome, but choosing work we love is more important for the family harmony that results.

Flora M. Brown, Ph.D., author of Color Your Life Happy: Create the Success, Abundance and Inner Joy You Deserve is the mother of four and grandma of three. She is Professor Emeritus at Fullerton College, speaker, coach, and radio host. She offers a free weekly newsletter on www.coloryourlifehappy.com

While browsing around one of the many boardwalk shops I saw a novelty item that really caught my eye and made me think a little. (enough to write this article). It was one of those little display pieces that you hang on the wall with a cute saying on it. The saying that caught my eye and made me think was…

“I hope my ship comes in before the dock rots.”

How many people do you know are waiting for their ship to come in? More importantly, what ships are you waiting for?

To some extent we are all “waiting” for the right time to do something. I don't care how “successful” you may be. I just think that people who get more accomplished in their lives are simply waiting for less ships, therefor the math works in the favor.  They've just figured out that if they wait too long the dock will rot because the truth is… No ship is coming!

I am not sure what the analogy should be… Do we spot our ship and then jump in the water and swim to it? Do we charter our own? Pick the one that fits you best. Either way the lesson is…

Go make something happen! Move toward your dreams and goals.

As a still relatively new parent I often catch myself dangerously saying to myself, “When the kids get older I will….” Of course there's some practicality to that thinking. Jamie and I can't just head off to the Bahamas by ourselves without first carefully considering who'd be in charge while we were gone. But when the girls are older, why not??

The danger for us parents is when we wait too long to pursue certain goals. What I have found is that when I go forward  and work on or do something that I thought would not be possible 'now' because of the girls is that things do work out and everyone benefits.

Yes, you are correct! Parents do have to wait a little for certain things. But when it comes to your dreams, your goals or anything  else just begin to move forward a little a time. It can be the most simple of things… Maybe you'd like to do martial arts or play a sport that you haven't played since you were a kid. Maybe you'd like to write that book that's inside of you. Make time for it and start a little a time. Other wise -  your dock just may rot!

Mike Dolpies (AKA- Mike D.) is the author of the forthcoming book Motion Before Motivation, The Success Secret That Never Fails. He spent 10 years as the owner and operator of a professional martial arts school. He now helps martial arts business owners achieve their own dreams and goals through his coaching. He has interacted with 1000’s of kids and parents over the years. He has helped his clients and their children achieve greater amounts of self-confidence, self-esteem, fitness and self-discipline. He is the publisher of “Raising Real Winners, The Audio Magazine of Successful Parenting.”  www.raisingrealwinners.com/nh You can learn more at www.askmiked.com

It’s been a fun twelve days with the girls though. Of course they go to preschool while I work from home running my business so things were pretty normal for them. I had some prior evening commitments so I am grateful to our friends, Katrina and Vern, for helping out and treating Julia and Marissa like their own kids.

Let me tell you – I have a ton of respect for single parents! Even with the help of pre-school and friends you can count on – it’s not easy to be a single parent! (Even for just 12 days!)

The girls and I had a ton of fun… We went on a few magic carpet rides. I took them out to eat a few times. Earlier this week I blew the bouncy house for them when the weather was nice. We played “Wizard of Oz.” I really think we all made the best of it. Of course Jamie missed them so much! It was cool because we did a skype video call just about everyday.

Now onto the lesson…

I’m gonna do a new time-management course for people who don’t have kids. Heck this may very well be a great training tool to make those entry level folks more efficient. Here’s what I’m gonna do. Each student of my course (remember they are not parents) will be assigned a couple of kids for the week.

Then- they’ll only have so much time to take care of their  work and their own needs because they’ll be solely responsible for making sure the kids eat, learn, have fun, get loved and everything else. This exercise will force them to get more done and be more productive during work hours!

I am really appreciative of the fact that I had a really busy twelve days both personally and professionally. I had to be doubly sure that I made every moment away from the girls count!
No- I am not going to the time-management seminar – that was a joke! But seriously… If you want to be more efficient make every moment count. Make it count at the office and be sure to make it count with the family!

Feel free to visit me at www.askmiked.com

Why Does Charlie Seymour Jr support ParentalWisdom.com?

Seeing me in the roster of Advisors to ParentalWisdom.com, people have written to ask me why I support this group and what can it do for them?

Ahhhh, the old, famous WIIFM – What's In It For Me.

Read what's below and I think you will INSTANTLY see what's in it for YOU.

And what's in it for ME? I enjoy working with good people like Tina Nocera, helping the most helpless among us like children, and seeing great results as life skills are learned. THAT'S why I support ParentalWisdom.com and hope you will too!

Best,

Charlie Seymour Jr
A Work At Home Dad, succeeding in this economy
Follow Charlie Seymour Jr On Twitter!

Please be sure to leave a comment. Thanks!Ultimate Work At Home Dads – Click Here When You Finish Reading This Post, Thanks!

When the family is in order, all the social relationships of mankind shall be in order.
– I Ching

I've watched shows like Dr. Phil where a seven-year-old is hitting and cursing at his parents and find myself wondering…how did it get that bad? It couldn't have started out that way? Do we hope for parenting advice that at best is based on flimsy research?

Like a pull in a scarf, any problem left unresolved can unravel. As parents we face little problems on a daily basis. We have to pay attention and resolve the little problems before they get worse and overwhelm us.

That is where Parental Wisdom® comes in. In the past, parents lived in a sort of village, seeking advice from family and friends. Today's families live further apart and deal with more complex societal issues. Parents turn to experts, but the idea of a one-size-fit all solution to parenting problems just doesn't work if we really believe we are unique.

The traditional method of turning to family and friend for parenting advice presents a different set of problems:
Has that person had experience with that particular situation? After all, our moms didn't raise us in the same media and marketing intense world.

If someone offers you advice and you don't agree, now what?

Do you have to 'report' back to them?

And most importantly, as your child's advocate, what if your child does something you simply don't want to share? Then where do you turn?

To understand Parental Wisdom imagine a place where you could ask all your parenting questions, and where you, the real expert in knowing your child best, are given multiple opinions from trusted, credible sources so you can choose which advice works best for your unique child and situation.

Imagine that you can be anonymous and this unique service is free.

You have a good imagination.

Parental Wisdom is so unique, it's patented.

Once a parent, always a parent.

Questions start before the first baby arrives and continue well past grandchildren.

Here is an idea of some of the questions our nearly 100 expert advisors respond to:

• My 18- year old son who is a high school graduate shows no responsibility….
• I know baby's cry a lot, but our newborn (6 day old) baby has cried through the night and all morning…
• I have two boys that share a bedroom, closet, bunk beds, and toys. They are ages 7 and 8. When its time to clean their room, they begin arguing that they've cleaned up their mess but the rest is their brother's mess…
• My nine-year-old is having problems with our next door neighbor's daughter. There is a lot of nasty name calling and sometimes it gets physical…
• I have been divorced for almost 2 years and have joint/legal custody of my 4 ½ year-old daughter, while I am the primary parent of residence, our divorce decree states that we are to make medical, religion and school decisions together, however…
• My 13- year old daughter has a boyfriend that I don't like. I want to forbid her to see him but I'm afraid she will date him at school behind my back….
• My 15-yr old daughter was caught cheating with her cell phone on a physics test…
• At what age would you allow a child to have a Facebook?
• I have an 8 yr. old son who was badly bullied in kindergarten and till this day, he still feels uncomfortable in school even though it is a different and much better school…

Where do you turn to find answers?

Here is a short video on Parental Wisdom – Click Here To Watch and then forward to your friends.

Follow ParentalWisdom.com on Twitter!

If you would like to comment on this, Visit The ParentalWisdom.com blog

Parental Wisdom Inc., 600 Parsippany Road, Suite 202 Parsippany, NJ 07054 USA