Roger McEwan's Blog, page 4

Teenage vocabulary

When you’re seventeen you know everything. When you’re twenty-seven if you still know everything you’re still seventeen.

— Ray Bradbury

My son, as soon as he was able, loved to talk and chat. Once he started there was no stopping him and he would impressively hold in-depth conversations on a range of subjects. Now he has entered his teenage years his at-home vocab has shrunk to approximately 15 words. He is still friendly and great fun to have around but his in-depth conversations seem r...

The Safety Plan

Don’t be afraid to take a big step. You can’t cross a chasm in two small jumps.

— David Lloyd George

My risk manager colleague keeps hammering into my head that a hazard is the factor that can cause harm and a risk is the chance that any hazard will actually cause somebody harm. Risk management is, therefore, identifying hazards and putting steps in place to mitigate their chance of occurring or reducing the impact if they do. The key point is you can’t eliminate risks and so, from time...

Home Alone

The best part about being alone is that you really don’t have to answer to anybody. You do what you want.

— Justin Timberlake

I had a dilemma. At what ‘stage’ can I leave my children home alone for a night by themselves? I use the word ‘stage’ deliberately as I know the legal ‘age’, in New Zealand it’s 15. But when can I feel comfortable that, if I’m not there, they’ll be alright. The answer of never doesn’t help!

The reason for this dilemma was I had to facilitate an overnight work “re...

Holidays

The young always have the same problem - how to rebel and conform at the same time. They have now solved this by defying their parents and copying one another.

— Quentin Crisp

I wrote in my upcoming book that you need to choose holiday destinations with your children firmly in mind. You have to balance the perception of an idyllic family holiday with reality and this, I’ve discovered, gets harder as they grow into adults.

When children are little you create the world for them including th...

Boyfriends

Silence is golden, unless you have kids, then silence is just plain suspicious.

— Anonymous

My daughter has recently turned 15 and she has entered that time of life that many parents dread, especially dads. It brings with it the arrival of a new species called boyfriends.

I was once 15 and so I know what these boys are probably like. Worse, when I was 15 we didn’t have the internet and so 15 year olds are likely to more than I did which may be a good and a bad thing if it has been a balan...

Merry Christmas, lets hope its a good one

It's that time of the year when everyone should be able to put their feet up with family and friends and enjoy the festive season. Unfortunately with war and terrorism in Berlin, Aleppo, Mosul, Mexico, just to name a few, and poverty, there are many people in the world where Christmas will not be celebrated. My hope is that 2017 brings less of the negative things we saw so much of in 2016.

To all the parents out there, especially the single parents, I hope the holidays are great with laughter...