Step 4: Lead & Follow

Recently Tal, one of my tango instructors reminded me that I had come to tango for answers and that not surprisingly, answers were willingly supplied. Funny. I’m not even sure what my questions were.

In Eat Pray Love, Elizabeth Gilbert was also looking for BALANCE. She picked her post-divorce destinations on her quest to find the balance between physical experiences (Italy) and spiritual experiences (India). Early in the book, she asks a Balinese medicine man the question of how this balance can be achieved. He answers by way of a picture: a man with his head in his heart, and two feet planted on the ground.

What does this have to do with tango? If you’re a tango dancer, you can wipe the grin off your face now.

In that very first class, this is what I learned: the leader leads with energy from his chest. As the follower, I focus all my attention there. This is where all the information and energy is transmitted from lead to follow. Quite literally, I put my head in his heart.

Related Articles
Step 3: Just Step
Step 2: But Why Tango?
Step 1: The Dance
Practical Mommy’s Impractical Art Project: Intro
Heidi Howes: Lead with Your Heart

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Practical Mommy is Ria Sharon, co-creator of the Yogi Parenting course. If you are ready for parenting to be easier, more fun and less stressful, sign up for a free Yogi Parenting lesson.

Our Yogi Parenting audio tips are presented every Friday by Michaela Turner, BS Ed, CYKT, YKT, Co-creator of the Yogi Parenting course.

Listen to this :15 AUDIO TIP:

If you are ready for parenting to be easier, more fun and less stressful, sign up for a free Yogi Parenting lesson.

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Michaela is a 30-year veteran educator and a Certified YogaKids® Teacher and Trainer. In addition to Yogi Parenting, she teaches yoga baby and yoga kids classes for children throughout St. Louis, Missouri.

When I was ten years old, the Wild West could be found in our living room.  Actually, you could find it in practically anyone’s living room given that there were more than 100 TV Westerns made between 1954 and 1969.  In each one it was pretty easy to tell the good guys from the bad.  So, I was not at all afraid when one day I went to the local police station with my dad to pick up his paycheck.  I not only knew what a bad guy looked like but I had “the law” with me. I was safe.

While my dad went to get his check, I waited on the bench opposite the desk sergeant and, through a door left ajar, I had a kids-eye-view of the hold-over cell.  One guy looked like my math teacher.  Another looked like the guy at the corner confectionery.  One looked like my grandpa! No one wore a black hat or a scraggly beard or a fierce scowl.  One of them smiled at me.  And, I smiled back.

Granted, I never knew what they were accused of let alone if they were guilty of anything.  Still, many years later from the vantage point of being an adult, that memory gave me the creeps.  Now, from the vantage point of being a parent, that memory makes me acutely aware of my naïveté at that age.  So, when I heard about Project Safe Place, I was eager to learn about how they made it easier for a kid to find a “good guy” when he or she needs one.

Project Safe Place is a “safety net” of locations that can give immediate help to a child in crisis and connect them to supportive resources.  A Safe Place sign means that staff members are trained to take an active, cooperative role to help youth ages 10 to 18 who are in need of safety.

Places likely to participate include the obvious: schools, fire stations, libraries, and YMCAs.  Local child-friendly restaurants and QuickTrip stores are also a part of the nationwide network that extends the reach of shelters and other crisis intervention organizations within their communities.

Karen Sieve is manager for the Project Safe Place locations throughout St. Louis City and St. Louis and St. Charles counties in Missouri.  Karen told me, “Everyone – no matter your age – needs a personal safety plan.  When a child has that ‘uh-oh’ feeling or if they find themselves in a situation where they ‘want out’ a Project Safe Place sign will let them know that this is a place where they can find an adult who is committed to giving them safe, supportive assistance.”

Marti Cortez, Senior Vice President of the Saint Louis Science Center says they chose to participate, “Because the Science Center is family-friendly, centrally-located, and open seven days a week, it makes sense for us to offer assistance to children and teens in need. We recognize that many young people who visit us may feel more comfortable coming to our facility for help in crisis situations than other places. The sad reality is that there are many kids who are homeless, experiencing abuse, neglect, fear for their safety, or have serious family problems. If they come to us and ask our staff members for help, we’ll start the process to find them a ‘Safe Place.’ ’If we are the link in the system that helps at least one child, it will be worth our effort.”

A very cool development is the National Safe Place TXT 4 Help project. A youth can text the word SAFE along with their location to the number 69866. In reply they will receive an address of the nearest Project Safe Place site and contact number for the local youth shelter (or a national hotline number if there is no nearby shelter).

Children and teens can only take advantage of Project Safe Place if they recognize the sign and know what it means.  Tell your kids about what you’ve read here.  And, the organization educates thousands of kids about the dangers of running away or trying to handle difficult, threatening or harmful situations alone.  If you’re a scout or other youth group leader or a PTO planner, consider scheduling a Project Safe Place presentation in the near future.

If you’ve got a youth-friendly business or organization, consider becoming a Project Safe Place site for your community.  In St. Louis or St. Charles County, contact Karen Sieve, Project Safe Place Manager at Youth In Need : ksieve@Youthinneed.org.  To find a Safe Place manager in another location click here.

Our local skateboard park is a designated site. While on vacation my kids pointed out more Project Safe Place signs. My kids are preteen and teen: old enough to be more independent but not old enough to fend for themselves in any situation.  Project Safe Place is there to help them recognize a “good guy” if and when they need one.

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by Expert Mommy, Diane Asyre

There is not better cake in the universe to me than pound cake.  It has always been my favorite cake and I love it so much that our wedding cake was pound cake. Pound cake is an annual family tradition as a dessert in our family. We serve it with Peppermint Stick Ice cream and I have to say it is the highlight of the holiday season! If you have never tried the combination you MUST. It can also be served with fresh fruit and whipped cream. I prefer homemade whipped cream.  Of course I don’t advise you to eat too much of this rich dessert.  I have always been told that pound cake got the name from the list of original ingredients…a pound of butter is used in this recipe so it should be eaten in moderation.

I want to share with you this easy two-step pound cake recipe.

Two Step Pound Cake

4 cups all purpose flour
3 cups sugar
1 pound butter (real butter)
6 eggs
3/4 cups milk
2 tsp. vanilla

Add into a bowl in this order.  A helpful tip: Place a kitchen towel around your mixer to prevent any spattering for the first few seconds, start on low until mixed.  Beat with electric mixer for 5 minutes. Pour into a greased and floured bundt pan. Bake at 325 for 1 hour 30 minutes. Cool 15 minutes. Invert on cake plate and cool.

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by Expert Mommy, Melissa Jennings

Like it or not, your kids are getting online. And they are likely to be more versed on making “friends” than we are. At some point, they’ll get a weird message or get unfriended. *gasp* So how are we going to guide them in the world of Club Penguin and Pixie Hollow?

Youthologist, Vanessa Van Petten shares her thoughts. What are yours?

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Practical Mommy is Ria Sharon, co-creator of the Yogi Parenting course. If you are ready for parenting to be easier, more fun and less stressful, sign up for a free Yogi Parenting lesson.

No, I do not have a twin. I just wanted to show you one of my favorite pieces of art which we happen to have hung by a rather large mirror. What I wanted to show you is how this piece of art reminds me of my “boundaries”.

Boundaries (in art and in life) are a beautiful thing. They give structure and form when they are present and can be sorely missed when they are not. Listen to this short video for more on the topic of parenting and boundaries.

What are some of your biggest challenges in the area of boundaries and parenting? Mine is not to “rescue” my children when I think they “need” me. Today when I noticed my oldest daughter had left her lunch at home, I reminded myself of my goal to be the “guide by the side… not the “sage on the stage”… and instead of driving it up to her school, I put it in the frig for tomorrow. Have you thought much in terms of boundaries and parenting? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

This Zen Mommy Minute is published in partnership with Due Maternity, a great place for maternity clothes.   xoxo

Suzanne Tucker, aka Zen Mommy

In addition to mommying to two magical girls born in 2000 and 2003 and expecting twins in Jan of 2010, Suzanne co-owns a holistic health center with her husband Shawn in St. Louis, Missouri where she practices as a physical therapist, Certified Educator of  Infant Massage and health education teacher. Certified in a number of healing and life education approaches, Suzanne offers ongoing tips on parenting and is the co-creator of the Yogi Parenting approach to positive parenting.

Expert Mommy and Play Therapist, Pam Dyson shares some constructive tips on how to respond to our kids (or our own) anger! The next time our kids “lose it,” remember that they learn a lot from modeling. *wink* What do you think?

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Practical Mommy is Ria Sharon, co-creator of the Yogi Parenting course. If you are ready for parenting to be easier, more fun and less stressful, sign up for a free Yogi Parenting lesson.

Fans of the the book, Blessings of a Skinned Knee will like this segment with licensed Parent Coach, Mary Jo Corcoran. She points out that our “job” as parents is to establish a pattern of allowing our kids to be responsible. And this means, allowing them to fail! Mary Jo gives us some pointers on how to guide them in the tween years.

Mary Jo is the Director of Parent Education with the Ladue School District in St. Louis, Missouri and organizer of Parent University, a day-long event that brought together parenting experts specializing in parenting from preschool to high school.

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Practical Mommy is Ria Sharon, co-creator of the Yogi Parenting course. If you are ready for parenting to be easier, more fun and less stressful, sign up for a free Yogi Parenting lesson.

Step 3: Just Step

Back in the 90s, when I would visit my family in Manila, we would all go out to dance clubs. For those of you who’ve been there, you’ll know that ballroom dancing was all the rage at one point. Maybe it still is.  You would go with a bunch of friends, hire a few D.I.’s (dance instructors) for the evening, and have them twirl you around the dance floor.

So when people asked me, “But why did you pick tango?” I would say, “Tango is the easiest one.” WTF? Yuh huh… that’s what anyone in the St. Louis tango community said to me, at least with their eyes.

Don’t you love not knowing what you don’t know?!

To be fair, until 2009 my limited exposure to tango had been with D.I.s who instructed me in broken English to, “Just step!” Perfect. I know how to step. I don’t have to learn any fancy change-ball-change crap.

Yup. Tango. No fancy steps here.

Related Articles
Step 2: But Why Tango?
Step 1: The Dance
Practical Mommy’s Impractical Art Project: Intro

—

Practical Mommy is Ria Sharon, co-creator of the Yogi Parenting course. If you are ready for parenting to be easier, more fun and less stressful, sign up for a free Yogi Parenting lesson.

Our Yogi Parenting audio tips are presented every Friday by Michaela Turner, BS Ed, CYKT, YKT, Co-creator of the Yogi Parenting course.

Listen to this :15 AUDIO TIP:

If you are ready for parenting to be easier, more fun and less stressful, sign up for a free Yogi Parenting lesson.

—

Michaela is a 30-year veteran educator and a Certified YogaKids® Teacher and Trainer. In addition to Yogi Parenting, she teaches yoga baby and yoga kids classes for children throughout St. Louis, Missouri.