Movie Review: Son of Lassie

This past New Year's Eve, my family and I sat down for our traditional movie marathon.

One of the movies in the line up was chosen by my dog-loving-daughter (the one who has over a hundred and eighty bucks saved up for her very own pooch).

Because we watched Lassie (the remake-1994) in the summer, and loved it, she thought it would be a great idea to follow it up, by watching the Son of Lassie.

As I sat back and began to watch it, a black and white classic-turned-color-I think, it had a few very outdated moments in verse, movie sets, etc.... I started to feel that this would be a very uninteresting, or even corny, movie. but the more we watched, what got me was that, although the beginning had a few things that seemed odd and maybe to some families a bit inappropriate, my daughter (and I am sure the rest of my family) got the message that was being sent.

A man and his dog have a bond which could never be explained. It's strong, it's real and it's amazing, and it made us cry.

At ten, my dog-loving-darling did not know what was happening to her...she smiled through her tears and told me that she 'was so happy, but couldn't understand why she was crying....'

I knew why.

If you happen to be:

A dog lover
A pet lover
A sucker for sentimental movies
A sucker for movies that make you cry

My Family Recommends:
Marley and Me
Hachi
Lassie
Son of Lassie
and though I have not yet seen it myself, my husband recommends Old Yellar, for the same reasons I mentioned these other movies.

If movies aren't your cup of tea try reading Where the Red Fern Grows. I couldn't read the ending without choking up... (You may want to adlib twice when they use the word 'bitch' (for female dog) and I think there's a few other words that could be left out, but otherwise 'a very touching story'- per the dog-loving-daughter.)

While many of us would prefer not to hear sad stories, these are so real, and create opportunities for conversation about a pet's death or death in general. It surely reveals moments which can help children grow and families bond.

Back to School Anxiety: Bullying

Download “School Boy Being Stressed” by David Castillo Dominici via freedigitalphotos.net I recently wrote about how to help your child if they’re struggling with going back to school because they were bullied. My biggest most important tip was to listen, because I honestly could not write a ‘How-to-make-them-not-afraid’ column. Frankly I thought that was absurd. Fear is sometimes real. Anxiety is sometimes truly there, and for a good reason. Our job as parents isn’t to try to make it go away, it’s to try to find out the true source of those worrisome feelings. If you’d like to read more, click here. And if you’re child is struggling to find excitement about the new school year, don’t deny it, just accept it and move forward gently. Here’s some more on bullying: Family Matters Links: A Touching Story/Song Bullying: A thing of the past A Peace Poem By My Teenage Daughter A Deeper Insight into My Thoughts on People Who Bring Harm to Others Other Links: Stop Bul

Green Punch Buggy....!!!!

Green Punch Buggy...No Punch Back! As I was writing this blog post, my son came to me showing off his Lego creation. And don't you know I got hit at least five times since on my computer screen was displaying at least five different punch buggies, of five different colors thanks to Google Images. (Bad timing I'm thinking...) How can we possibly have world peace with these silly cars in the world!? ;) Don't the owners of these cute-but-obnoxious-cars understand that driving these things around town promotes violence!? ;) Anyhow.... The original purpose of this blog was to ask parents everywhere this question: Do you find yourself saying 'PUNCH BUGGY *BLANK-COLOR*! ' to yourself, even when the kids are not in the car??? I do! Isn't it funny how those games we used to play as a child are still around? I bet our parents say the same thing.... HAPPY FRIIIIIIDAAAAYYYY! P.S. I got hit at least ten more times, since as my son stood beside

Good Customer Service At Home

Over the years, my careers have mainly been customer service based. I started in a family business and then moved on up through the rungs from waitress, to hostess, to sales associate, manager and eventually the GM of a hotel. In all my years, my training taught me that you should always do your best to take your customer all the way to what they need, make them happy, and never leave them until they are done with you. I pride myself on my customer service abilities. Though the other day, I think I failed at customer service in my own home! I was getting ready to cut my daughter's hair and because of how long it had gotten (she's been growing it out for a year!) I felt this time it would be best if instead of me spritzing it with water, she could wash and condition it real quick. She was fully clothed so I just suggested she run into the bathroom and wash her hair in the tub. She’s fourteen. I suppose I just assumed that she knew how to kneel over the tub and do it.

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