I saw an interesting way to think about money in Steve Pavlina’s post The Abundance Mindset:
Remember that money is social debt. The size of your bank account is a measure of how much society owes you for the value you’ve already contributed.
He’s not saying money is the only type of social debt, he’s just saying that it is social debt. People pay for things they value. So what do you do that people value enough to pay for?
I’ve read a couple of books on boys and the best by far is Speaking of Boys: Answers to the Most-Asked Questions About Raising Sons
But I found it most useful in understanding boys’ humor. I don’t find most "boy jokes" very funny and I struggle on how to respond and I struggle with understanding why they are funny – from farts to knock-knock jokes. (I’d like to be in on the joke! It looks like fun.) Michael Thomson did a really good job of explaining how boys use humor to gain status with their friends and in their social groups and he even gave some good advise to people like me who just don’t get it.
I learned a lot from this book and I highly recommend it to anyone who is occasionally baffled by boys – small or big ones.
New research shows that babies can "lie" as early as six months. For example, they can pretend to laugh or pretend to cry to get attention. Before this researchers thought kids didn’t know how to lie until they were about four years old. I don’t think they are talking about lying as a form of deception – crying to get attention isn’t lying. It’s crying on purpose.
I think any mom could have told you babies will laugh or cry just to get attention – not because they are sad or happy. At 10 months, Caleb has already mastered the art of laughing just to get people’s attention. Is he lying? Not really. He’s just learned that laughing gets people’s attention. He’s not pretending to laugh – he’s actually laughing.