Articles filed under Potts, Ken

• Stepmothers deserve a day, tooMay 14, 2012 12:00 AM
  Our Ken Potts has spent a good deal of his professional life working with remarried families, and one of the biggest challenges for these families is the role of stepmoms. Stepmoms are not children's biological moms, and we pretend they are only at our own peril, he says.
  

   

• Summers used to be longer, right? May 7, 2012 12:00 AM
  Our Ken Potts says summers used to be longer; when he was a kid they lasted forever. Summers were at least as long as the school year. Each day was filled with warm sunshine, countless things to do and time so much time. Hell bet your summers were like that, too. But then we all grew up. We somehow lost all that limitless time, or at least we seemed to.
  

   

• Stress management begins at home Apr 23, 2012 12:00 AM
  Theres one topic of conversation thats easy to predict when parents get together: How busy our children are, and how much time and energy it takes to keep them on schedule. Ken Potts says it may be time to eliminate some of that stress on both parents and their kids.
  

   

• Stress: Can’t live with it — or without it Apr 15, 2012 12:00 AM
  Stress. Its become a pop culture buzzword over the last few decades, and feeling stressed out is a common complaint of 21st Century life. Based on whatever bit of expert, or not-so-expert, advice we come across, a good many of us anxiously search out the stressors things that create stress in our lives. And, just as anxiously, we try to eliminate them.
  

   

• Consider what Easter’s truths mean to you Apr 7, 2012 12:00 AM
  Over the years, I think I've managed to say something about every major holiday on the calendar except for one: Easter. It's hard to write about Easter. It's an observance that tends to be very personal. The fact is, at Easter and during the weeks before and after, we acknowledge -- or perhaps try to avoid acknowledging -- some of the most significant truths about our individual and collective humanity.
  

   

• Check childhood baggage when dealing with family Mar 31, 2012 12:00 AM
  While talking to my sister, I found myself struggling with some of the same emotions I felt when I was a kid misunderstood, left out, hurt and frustrated. Im the oldest of five, and I never felt like I really fit in. I was the quiet, shy, brainy older brother who was always off studying, reading or working. My younger siblings always seemed closer and more connected.
  

   

• Marriage is hard enough without pre-wedding stress Mar 26, 2012 12:00 AM
  We invest a great deal of time, energy and money into weddings and all that goes along with them. But sometimes, we get so caught up in all the social trappings that we lose sight of the reason for all of it: The loving relationship being formalized in marriage.
  

   

• Parents get their own strain of senioritis Mar 17, 2012 12:00 AM
  If youre a parent of a high school senior, our Ken Potts says, youre probably experiencing what a lot of other parents are: You find yourself staring at your 17- or 18-year old, amazed at the near-adults theyve become.
  

   

• A job description for stepparents Mar 9, 2012 12:00 AM
  Wed just finished covering some of the common mistakes that stepparents often make with their stepchildren. The man in the back of the classroom was understandably frustrated by our opening list of donts, and actually writing a Stepparent Job Description was not a bad idea. So we did, sort of.
  

   

• OK, you just got married. Now what? Mar 2, 2012 12:00 AM
  It’s been three or four months since the last guest left the reception. You’ve returned the tux, packed away the wedding dress and (hopefully) you’ve taken that long-awaited honeymoon. In fact, by now you’ve begun to settle into a fairly normal routine of housekeeping, going to work, grocery shopping and all the other things that go into building a life together.
  

   

• Don’t fight spring fever Feb 24, 2012 12:00 AM
  Spring fever hits with no regard for age, sex, race, ethnic origin, religion or socio-economic status. From the North Shore to South Shore, from the lakefront to the West side and all points between, mighty Chicago is crippled each year by this dreaded (at least by employers) disease.
  

   

• There’s no excuse for spousal abuse Feb 17, 2012 12:00 AM
  A man hits his wife. “It was the booze,” he claims. Or perhaps the pot, cocaine or crack. And the court agrees it was the drug, not the person, who was really to blame. That is also the popular perception of one of the causes of most spouse abuse. Yet, a study conducted at the University of Illinois at Chicago concludes that in 75 percent of reported cases, the husband had not been using alcohol or drugs.
  

   

• Celebrate love — real love — this Valentines Day Feb 10, 2012 12:00 AM
  Valentine’s Day was not originally intended to be a celebration of the exploits of Cupid or to add the profits of Hallmark. And contrary to local lore, it also does not commemorate a local gangland massacre. Saint Valentine’s Day began as an early Christian holiday honoring two 5th century church martyrs — both named Valentinus — who are supposed to have died on February 14.
  

   

• Allow time for spontaneous fun Feb 3, 2012 12:00 AM
  If I am honest, even when I “relax,” my relaxation is more often planned, scheduled and complicated. Relaxing becomes yet another task or project to fill my already overly full day.
  

   

• Dads, young adult daughters can have special bond Jan 28, 2012 12:00 AM
  Over the holidays I had the chance to talk to some friends of mine who also have young adult daughters. As dads do, we compared notes on just how our kids were traversing the sometimes rocky path between adolescence and adulthood. We also talked about how we were doing watching our children who are no longer children making this journey.
  

   

• Make sure you’re being heard and understood Jan 20, 2012 12:00 AM
  We’ve all experienced it. We are talking about something important, but it seems like we are just not getting our point across. And the more important our message, the more likely it seems we have problems communicating it. Our Ken Potts says we can come close to knowing what we are saying to each other, but we still are missing something.
  

   

• There’s never a good reason to hit a child Jan 13, 2012 12:00 AM
  Our Ken Potts believes there is no valid psychological or ethical reason ever to use hitting, spanking, slapping, jerking, pushing or any other form of corporal (read: violent) punishment with children. Before you decide he's totally out of touch with the realities of parenting, let him explain.
  

   

• Soul mate? You may have more than one Jan 8, 2012 12:00 AM
  What do you think is the one thing young adults expect from marriage? The answer may surprise you. A recent survey by Rutgers University found that 88 percent of those surveyed believed that there existed one, unique, potential partner — a soul mate — with whom they could unite to create the ideal, lifelong marriage.
  

   

• It’s important to know what can change — and what can’t Dec 30, 2011 12:00 AM
  Research suggests there are actually two sorts of issues all marriages face: Those that arise from things we cannot change, and those that arise from things we can change. Ken Potts says we must accept the difference to correctly sort out the issues we face.
  

   

• Don’t put spirit of Christmas in the closetDec 25, 2011 12:00 AM
  At its best, Christmas is a time for family gatherings, affirming friendships, warm feelings and selfless giving. We try to put aside past hurt, anger or bitterness. We seek to open our hearts to those around us in a special way. We consider what really makes life worthwhile, what gives it purpose and meaning. It seems to last about two weeks, if that, then it’s back to normal. Too often, normal is none too good.