This year I dedicated a category in my goals to learning. I want to find new sources of information to grow my knowledge.
It is often very easy to seek out the same sources of information and stick with what you know. So instead of just sharing some links to read this year, I am going to share not only some great articles I have been reading, but also podcasts I have been listening to and videos I have been watching.
You can read past editions here.
***********
Reading
Can Children Learn to Negotiate? is written by Ann Densmore, Ed.D., CCC SLP/A who is a certified speech and language pathologist and audiologist with a doctorate in education from Clark University and a master’s degree in human development and psychology from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education.
It is quite a long article, but towards the end Densmore outlines 6 keys to negotiation with kids. These provide a fantastic way to come to a resolution with your kids without a fight. You can read the full article here.
Watching
Generation Like is a Frontline Production (American current affairs) and while it is a long watch at 53 minutes, if you have children on facebook I highly recommend watching it.
It is a little eerie how brands are using facebook and other social media platforms to get kids to do their marketing for them. They like to pretend it happens organically, but the creation of social media buzz around products, movies etc are pretty much all very well orchestrated.
From personal experience I can see it action when my 15 year old is already watching his news feed for any info on next Batman movie. (Most recently telling me how it is now due out in 2016!)
Brands are very much seeing the consumer as the marketer. They are focusing their marketing strategies online at teenagers to develop brand loyalty.
It explores whether kids can win if they don’t make the rules. And while it maybe to early to say if they are winning, there are now kids who are taking the same marketing techniques being used on them and using them on their own audience (social media networks), building themselves platforms and monetising them.
You can watch the video here (I had to sign up to their newsletter to watch it, but I thought it was worth it.)
Listening
The Broad Experience: Home As Career-Killer was a thought provoking listen. It interviews author and blogger Liz O’Donnell who sees the impact of domestic duties having a detrimental impact on women’s careers:
“As women we get so much career advice about what to do in the office, but one of our biggest career obstacles happens at home, before we even walk out the door in the morning.”
O’Donnell cites invisible tasks by women as being a key impactor. It is women she says that do all the thinking and planning about home on top of work, which takes up enormous amount of head space even if workload at home is split evenly. It is women who are organising all the moving parts and keep it together.
But she also poses the question, how much of this is coming from us and how much from men? O’Donnell says she sees may women who hold on to an image of a perfect mum (social media exacerbates this). O’Donnell encourages women to “put down the mop” for a week. The mop doesn’t just literally mean the mop, but whatever the mop represents for you, eg perfectly made beds, perfect clothes on the kids. She says let go of it, put it down for one week, no one will get hurt and it will free up your time.
They also interview a European male journalist for his opinion, who quite rightly points out that these issues don’t necessarily pertain just to women.
The Broad Experience is a well put together podcast you can listen to here or you can read the transcript on The Broad Experience website.
If you have been inspired by something you have read, listened to or watched, please feel free to leave a link in the comments below.