With the Royal Jubilee coming up it has got me thinking about children and history. History I think is one of those subjects that you really love or you really dislike and for me it was not my strongest subject if you get my drift.

There are wars, battles, coronations, stories about kings and queens, marriage, divorce, adulteries. It is our heritage as people and to an extent children should know what happened before them coming into the world even if they cannot imagine anything other than how they are living today. It explains so much of why the world is like it is today.

But there is more about history than a child learns from school. What about the history of their family? Have you explained to your children about what their grandparents, great grand-parents did and how they lived? Most children love to hear stories about their family and the adventures they had and the fact that they did not have TV or computers etc.

Have you shared your family history with your children? If not, why not? What kind of stories do you think would interest them?

 As parents, we love to see our children thriving in activities, doing well at school, in sport and having skills that set them apart from other children. We are proud of them and we tell them how great they have done but how do we stop them when they take their competitiveness too far – when they make comments and exhibit superiority over their friends?

We can encourage our children to tone it down their language and explain to them how being competitive can hurt their friends. We can also discuss the difference between healthy competition and overly competitiveness – which one do they think they are displaying?

We are great influencers in our children’s lives and competitive may come from us. Take a look at yourself and ask are you are putting too much pressure on your child to win or are you punishing your child for coming second? It is very easy for proud parents to make ‘show off’ statements about their children – comments that put pressure on your child to succeed and also make them feel they are exceptionally superior to their peers.

 Not all children find friendships easy. They may find it difficult to make new friends, keep new friends or find it hard to break away from peers they are no so keen on any more.  If your child is having difficulties maintaining friendships you can check out that they are doing the right things.

1. Are they being friendly?

2. Do they ask friends questions about the things that are important to them?

3. Do they help others if they need help?

4. Are they dependable and reliable?

5. Are they talking kindly about their friends to other friends?

6. Are they making friends with people who are the same and different to them? It can be fun to have friends who like to do the things as them but it can also be fun to learn about something new.

 Grounding is a discipline technique which many parents use when their children have gone against their wishes. They can forbid them from attending social events – parties, sleepovers, play-dates for a specific period of time (long enough for them to reflect on their behaviour) or they can stop their children doing certain activities – watching television, using the wii or playstation, any ‘punishment’ that the parent thinks their child will learn from.

Some children hate to be grounded – after all their friends can still do what they can’t and they can’t wait for the grounding period to be over. Other children see the grounding as a challenge. They will try and find a way to still see their friends or use the electronic device they were banned from.

So how effective are they? Should we use groundings and if so when?

 Every so often I get an opportunity to do something different. There was the swimsuit photoshoot that I did to show girls that women come in all shapes and sizes (yes I actually posed in a swimsuit), there was the chance to present an award at an Awards ceremony (and make a speech) and more recently there was an opportunity to be part of an amazing website http://ideamensch.com/. I was recommended to be part of it  and the reason I said yes is because I love the quirkiness and profile of the site. It showcases so many great authors and entrepreneurs who have all had an idea and brought it to life and has got them to answer some real thought provoking questions. Take a look around it. There are some great interviews and check out mine too http://ideamensch.com/naomi-richards/ – it shares with you a little bit more about me, my dreams and my passions.

It’s good to do something different. It gets you noticed and pushes you outside your comfort zone.

What have you done recently that pushed you out of your comfort zone as a parent and business minded individual?