Family life challenges aren’t always difficult or undesirable. They can also be opportunities of great fun! Last year while watching some program on television a blast from the past caught my attention during a commercial interruption…the Dean Martin Celebrity Roast. Remember those? Funny, funny, funny…my favorite comedian happens to be Jerry Lewis.

I can sit and watch the old Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis movies and be perfectly content! My all-time favorite movie is Hook, Line, and Sinker, and the humor of the Celebrity Roasts clips are really funny. While watching a commercial sales piece about the videos I got the idea to start my own Family Roast!

And, now for the second year my husband, kids and I gather to toast and roast each other…talk about a fun, fun, family time of wholesome teasing, belly-aching laughter, and all out praise and honoring of each family member. We tease each other about the behaviors and habits that we tolerate and endure from one another.

Like, for example, my daughter’s disorganized room, my husband’s quick cleanup of a meal, my son’s endless negotiations in an attempt to avoid chores, my nonstop talking when things aren’t done, and my baby girl’s dumping the clean laundry out throughout the house…and so many other habits intimately known to us…

Finally, someone is awarded the Celebrity Roast award of the year for some behavior we all consider most annoying and in need of change! Again, this is done in love, and the person roasted is in stitches as the family accurately describes the habits that truthfully characterize him or her.

We then toast one another sharing those traits, attitudes, and behaviors that we greatly appreciate which make our life as a family special, memorable, and enjoyable. Our Family Celebrity Roast has become a tradition and fun way of encouraging each other to work at being our best as persons in the coming New Year. In the end, this activity shows us just how well we are known and loved…warts and all!

Try starting your own Family Celebrity Roast as I did with my family or some other activity that creates wonderful, memory-making interaction that reminds everyone how special they are!

If you want to know more about how I put this together for my family let me know in your comment and I’ll send you some strategies for pulling it off. It can be done at any time of the year!

With the Christmas day just around the corner, I thought you might like to attend a very special interview I’m doing with Love-Based Parenting expert Heather Forbes. If you’re have two or more kids you already know that what you do and say to one child may not necessarily work with another child if at all.

Typical tools in any working mothers arsenal include a mix of traditional discipline approaches  such as logical or natural consequences, logic, and any variety of control tactics…

Well, as you know sometimes none of these are effective in engaging your child’s cooperation and compliance. My special guest Heather Forbes has a track record for empowering parents to successfully win the compliance and cooperation of their more “challenging” child.

If you looking for proven and fresh strategies to retool your parenting toolkit then I invite you to join me at this FREE strategic Teleseminar.

Register here for a copy of the MP3 in case you can’t attend!

And, have a truly memorable and joyfilled Christmas holiday. If you not one to celebrate Christmas, I wish you peace, and much joy with your family and friends!

As you’re planning your gift-giving this Christmas for your child particularly, remember the most important gift is you. As working moms giving ourselves to our family matters most, yet can be the toughest thing to do with all the competing demands for our time and attention.

Earlier today I caught part of a very practical interview with bonding expert Heather Forbes, author of Beyond Consequences, Logic, and Control, and co-founder of the Beyond Consequences Institute–and working mom has much to teach us about cultivating loving, healthy bonds with our kids–especially during those times when you want to give up and believe that no matter what you do you can’t get your child’s cooperation and respect.

If you’re there, then I have found a research-based solution for you in the Beyond Consequences Institute. I encourage you to visit Healther’s site and start with her beautiful testimonial which describes her journey into this work of helping parents struggling to bond and love children whose behavior is difficult and even severe because of a history of pain and brokenness.

Hearing Heather’s interview on Heart, Mind, and Strength radio show this morning made me rethink discipline–and how important my own behavior as a parent is as part of the process of disciplining and guiding my kids. I think you’ll agree once you read Heather’s story and learn of her work. If you know wonderful parents struggling with difficult behavior in their child consider making a Heather’s book a gift. You will have given them the power to restore and renew their bond with their child. What better gift is there in the eyes of a child?

I have asked Heather about the possibility of interviewing her. I don’t know what her availability is, but rest assured I’ll let you know.

Let’s not just give gifts–let’s be gifts this holiday year….

What are some ways you can make yourself a gift to members of your family? How can you be present with them?