Bill Belew has raised 2 bi-cultural kids, now 34 and 30. And he and his wife are now parenting a 3rd, Mia, who is 8.

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Smart parenting and emotional responsibility | Stop playing the blame game

When things go wrong, we want to know why. And, since I have never been a kid before I am going to make mistakes = do something wrong.

And lots of mommies and daddies haven’t done the parenting thing before, so, you guessed it, there are going to be mistakes.

Click to read => Learning the 6 Rs of growing up.

Nobody needs to be blamed. Sometimes things happen.

Besides when we blame or are blamed it spoils the mood. And can ruin a day, or a trip, or a meal.

What can we do when something goes wrong?

1. Don’t be too serious – life is short, take it easy my mommy says. I am only going to be a kid for a short time. Let’s take it easy.

2. Tease each other but don’t take it seriously – teasing is playing. I love to tease my daddy. He can take it. But, let’s not overdo = make anybody mad.

3. Laugh at mistakes – teach me to laugh. Tell me how to do better next time. But let’s laugh, giggle, chuckle, smirk along the way.

4. Don’t try to rationalize the mistakes – sometimes things just go wrong even we do everything right. The wind blows, the foot slips, something unexpected comes out of nowhere. Remember number 3.

5. Celebrate victories – when I make a mistake and do things wrong but get it right the next time, let’s have some cake or ice cream … okay maybe not. But let’s celebrate.

But most of all … let’s don’t blame. It’s called LIFE because sometimes ‘life’ happens.

Talk to Bill and others about their experiences raising bi-cultural Japanese-American kids.