WHAT NEXT EPIDEMIC DOES OUR FAMILY FACE?

Now, the big one is H1N1 flu

• We can’t get all the information we need
• Can we trust the new injection?
• Why is it high risk for some and not for others?
• Is all this panic really necessary?

We have other bigger epidemics going on:

• Diabetes rates will double in the next 15 years
  (Columbia Medical School, Cleveland Clinic)
• Diabetic children will start dying before their parents
• Childhood asthma is big and growing
• Attention deficit affects large number of school children
• Anxiety drugs are in regular use by adults and children
  
  

What do all these epidemics have in common?

• As we all know, the one word answer is lifestyle
• Fast foods make fat that reduce fitness
• Rushed family life leave children short on hugs
• Family focus on debt takes attention away from wellness
  
  

We all know what we need to do

• Our family life is the only place we can change
• We can do fruit juice rather than sodas
• We can turn some couch time into fitness time
• We can lean up our daily menu
• We could take our foot off the pedal
  
  

The Big Fact: Our Lifestyle is Killing Us

Let's hear your thoughts on this latest FAMILY CHALLENGE.

THE PRICE OF OUR FAST LIVING

We are living a life of extremes:

• We drive over the speed limit
• We spend beyond our incomes
• Our TVs fill us with extremes
• We live in loud, surround sound
  

The price of our fast living is very high

• Stress is everywhere with everyone
• Our rushed kids have attention deficits
• The cars we drive kill and maim thousands
• We are in overdrive because we overspend
  

High pace kills; Moderation pays

• Fast pace leads to bad friends; slow pace leads to good ones
• High speed kills; low speed is much safer
• Our dress shows the real us: moderate or extreme
• Kindly words encourage: coarse words turn folks off
• Extremes are exhausting: moderation takes little effort
  

We know we are going too fast

• There is a new interest in meditation
• Walking trails are becoming popular
• We are dressing down
• Fitness is starting to replace anxiety pills
• We find some peace in our favorite pods
• Our spirituality is becoming important again
  

What we can do:

• We can slow ourselves down, if not our world
• We can slow our family down and take a breath
• We can even take time to smell the flowers
  

Can your family slow down and meet this FAMILY CHALLENGE?

THE FAMILY AND THE ORGANIZATION

Have we noticed that we now live a world of organization? Medicine, recreation, family help - all used to come from friends and neighbours. Now they come through organizations.

Our family members spend more time in organizations than at home. But home is our first line of security. How do we manage to do both?

Sounds like we need to help each other do good things at home so we know what to look for in all our organizations. The big thing here is that we have some control in our family and much less control in our various organizations.

The modern organization has a character of its own. It has a unique culture, policies, beliefs and ways of doing things. How do we fit our family culture, talents and beliefs with the organization?

Sounds like we need to know what to look for when we knock on the door of an organization. Here are some of the good things to check out:

• Number one always, is supervision: is it a boss or teamwork place?
• Next, are the people - friendly or not? The receptionist is a good sign.
• Next is motive - what’s their real mission? Greed or Service?
• And, is vision and teamwork the way they get things done?

The danger in organizations is getting trapped in the wrong place and not seeing a way out. We can check out ahead by asking friends, volunteering, getting a student job.

Probably the best approach to an organization is to have the key, direct questions ready to be asked up front. The good, strong organization will value our direct questions. The weak ones act insulted.

No matter how bad we want to get in, the wrong organization will just make life worse.

Our family is our first and best group experience. Our best preparation for life in the organization is our family well-being and togetherness.

Let’s hear your views on this latest FAMILY CHALLENGE.

SEX AND THE FAMILY

In all the sex excitement, we can easily get distracted from the main thing: the main purpose is to make kids. The other big deal is that good sex makes for family harmony in which children grow.

Unfortunately, most of the excitement involves various kinds of sex abuse. Toping that list are the advertisers who tarnish sex for purposes of attention and money. With them are the copywriters for the media, films and the arts. These folks turn to sex as they run out of solid content.

We all know the big sex facts: infidelity hurts everybody; teen pregnancy comes from teen sex; HIV comes from unwise sex.

Sex can be an appealing addiction giving rise to pornography and horrible crimes. Our justice systems are overtaxed trying to keep up with the growth. Behind them are the money merchants who profit from keeping all this human misery going.

Then there are the headline seeking academics and their frothing followers. They use the popular appeal of sex to advance their own status and careers. They cite studies that emphasize gender differences. They ignore the fundamentals of family solidarity. All this propaganda distorts family life and makes life tough for children.

There also, are the lawyers who are out to sanitize the family. They make laws against such vital things like hugs. In families, schools and other intimate relationships, hugs are indispensable to good child and family mental health. How do we go about taking these lawyers to court?

Those of us who are not on any sex abuse registry can feel smug ignoring what all these rascals are doing to the precious nature of the marital relationship and the family home. There is already too many out marching for things less important. Maybe some renowned writer should write a solid best-seller on “Sex and the Family”.

For more on family wellness please see: www.familycybermall.org.

What’s your view on this latest FAMILY CHALLENGE?

WE NEED FAMILY WELLNESS - FOR OUR KIDS SAKE


Is there anything more important than the nurturing of our children?
Then is there anything more important than family wellness?

Most of us agree that wellness is vital. Few of us agree what it is. Some say fitness; others say education; others say faith. Who is right? Are we all right? Are we all wrong?

Or, maybe wellness doesn’t come from one thing. Maybe wellness is a number of things including fitness education and faith – blended together.

If that is so, then each family needs to decide its own wellness mix. The trick for each family is to find a good balance and not miss anything essential.

Our Western way of life discourages holistic wellness. There are too many folks with their single brand of wellness from which they make their livelihood. Companies sell their brand of health food. Schools promote their own views of learning. Clergy sell their own type of faith.

So, our families face a barrage of different wellness brands, they are left to decide themselves. Families need a new wellness vision: Our job is to make sure our families have well-rounded wellness.

All this makes the family vision of wellness priority number ONE. Health care, education, religion now are part of something much bigger. Health, education and religion are not ends in themselves but vital dimensions in the new family wellness vision.

Until families get a new wellness vision, they will continue to be victims of all the forces selling their own selfish, brands of “wellness”.

How's your family's wellness vision?

OUR MONEY MADNESS PANDEMIC II: THE SOLUTION

For the safekeeping of our money, why would we turn money over to those who keep half for themselves?

This is what the big banks, governments and businesses do. They call it by the seductive name “Credit”. These big boys keep track of their own welfare by a game called the “stock market” - which has little to do with the welfare of us ordinary folks.

Our answer to our money madness is savings - the opposite of credit. Credit makes us slaves to big system pressures, dragging down our family wellness. Saving puts our families in the driver’s seat, giving us control and well-being.

It is going to take guts for families to shake credit and do savings. We have all dug ourselves into big holes. The big guys want us there and will give us no help out.

Here is a sensible, though tough, prescription and revamp for family financial well-being: (from www.familycybermall.org):

• Separate fixed from optional costs
  
• Make savings a fixed cost
  
• To do this be prepared to redo house and car debt
  
• A saving rate of 25% provides for education, retirement and insurance
  
• Get rid of online banking, debit cards and unused credit cards
  
• Limit internet purposes to solid sources only
  
• Pay down monthly credit card balances
  
• Invest only in sure fire, well known plans
  

A Family Balance Sheet that Balances Leads to Balanced Wellness

OUR MONEY MADNESS PANDEMIC I


The inventor of the dollar had a great idea. I can exchange the value of my labour for goods. This was good because I worked, earned a dollar, and then saved it so I could buy the goods.

Over the past decades we have tried an easier way. When I want goods I use credit to get those goods and end up with debt. We have worked that game to the point where I can now owe more than I own. My debt is over 100%, which we will likely pass on to our children.

How did we get there? The insurance companies learned that when they get people paying they can keep as much as they dish out. Then, the furniture and car companies learned that with credit they can make more money on money than on goods. In the process, we end up paying double for all that we buy. That is why credit is dumb. That is why savings is smart.

There are things worse than having no money. When we chase it full bore we lose sight of why we are doing it - our values and behaviour get messed up. Family life is more hectic and frustrating than an airport. We have lost sight of what’s important in our lives. We are raising our kids in some money fantasy world.

Our money-driven fantasy world is weird. When we can’t stand the pressures we do drugs, alcohol and all the other diversions. To get money we gamble and lose the money we didn’t have anyway. We can destroy our way of life.

Nations have the same problem. The big money managers have the credit virus big time. On the brink of disaster they convince our governments to lend them our money to bail them out so they can turn around and lend us our money at high interest rates. All these big guys think they can solve the credit crunch by borrowing more money than we knew existed, if it does.

In the meantime, families have a pile of credit card, car loan and mortgage debt deeper than we know how to shed. The big guys get rid of debt by cancelling their obligations - leaving savers who loaned, empty handed.
We can only do this with personal bankruptcy which takes us into a new lean world. We need a better family money solution than those coming from the big guys. That solution is not asking the big guys for even more of our money from the government so that we can supposedly borrow our way out of our debt.

Let’s hear from you on this latest FAMILY CHALLENGE.