

Compassion and kindness in children
When I read the story of the three little pigs to my daughter, who was two years old at the time, I noticed a peculiarly uncomfortable look on her face. “I don’t like this story,” she explained at the end. “I feel sad for the wolf when he lands in the pot of boiling water. It must hurt him a lot. Why don’t the pigs just talk to the wolf so he can say sorry and they all can be friends?”... Read my full column on TheSwaddle.com


Teaching children to fail
When I teach classes on Positive Psychology, I ask postgraduate students to share a life event that was difficult for them—a crisis, possibly, or setback, or disappointment. Then, I ask them to write about what the event taught them. Every time, I’m amazed at how everyone finds the event, which was a setback at the time, ultimately empowering. People point out that they developed inner-strength in a moment of crisis, or that their natural resilience and grit emerged because o