Our favourite 2023 texts from the Fritz+Fränzi magazines
A best-of list has advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that you receive key messages from texts that have inspired us on a silver platter. The disadvantage: we can't do justice to all our great authors. Limiting ourselves to a specific selection also means that we have to do without many wonderful texts.
Nevertheless, we have tried to find a good mix of dossier topics, monthly interviews and columns. The selection of texts is organised chronologically by month. You will find the link to the full article below each one. We hope you enjoy browsing and pausing for a moment.
1. the best parenting advice
Columnist Mikael Krogerus explains why parents should ask their children for advice and reveals his daughter's best tip.
«If we as parents are ever in a tricky situation, we should ask our children for advice. Of course, it's not about passing our adult problems onto children. It's about showing our children that all people - including us parents - sometimes face difficult situations or experience setbacks. And at the same time, we signal to them that we are interested in their judgement.»
Click here for the full column.
2 What is my life theme?
Many of us harbour beliefs that were formed in early childhood - and unconsciously pass them on to our own children.
«The better we understand the imprints from our own childhood, the better we can be the parents we want to be,» writes Stefanie Rietzler in her column. She continues: «In adulthood, it is worth taking stock of our inner life and asking ourselves: Which beliefs are still at work in me today? Which ones strengthen me? And which ones pull me down?» The psychologist has drawn up a checklist to help us clear out our inner life:
Question our thoughts and actively look for healthier views:
- Write down a belief that burdens you. For example: «I always have to be there for others!»
- Now put this sentence through its paces: Where does this belief come from?
- Does this thought help me?
- Is this sentence still true (today)? Is there any evidence for it? What counter-evidence could I put forward?
- Is this claim even realistic?
- What would a good friend say about this belief?
- What would my everyday life look like if I could let go of this belief?
Now you can consciously reformulate your belief so that it becomes more realistic and takes your own needs into account, for example: «I can decide when I want to be there for others and when I want to look after myself.» Think about the specific everyday situations in which you tend to go out of your way for others. How could you remember your new belief in these moments in future and act accordingly?
Click here for the full column.
3. how can parents deal better with stress in everyday life?
Many parents feel permanently stressed and rushed in everyday life with its endless to-do lists. Why is that? And above all: how can we get out of it?
Click here for the full article.
«It's perfectly okay to say: It's too much for me!»
Parent coach Sandra Schwendener explains how mums and dads can manage to correctly assess their own strengths before they burn out.
Click here for the full interview.
4. «Schools pigeonhole children too early»
Teaching and learning researcher Elsbeth Stern knows who children owe their intellectual potential to and what they need to realise it. The psychologist from ETH Zurich talks about the personality trait of intelligence - and what makes for good learning.
Click here for the full interview.
5. «Boys need to learn a healthy way of dealing with their aggression»
Boys' coach Anton Wieser knows that boys have a reputation for being more demanding than girls. They lack self-confidence in particular. The mental coach talks about struggling teenagers and parents who are challenged to strengthen their sons.
Click here for the full interview.
Thank you for being there for me!
We need teachers who like children and young people, want to give them something for life and enjoy their job, writes columnist Fabian Grolimund.
- Mrs Bergmann, my first and second grade teacher, signalled to me every day: 'You're safe. I can see you. You can relax.
- Saying thank you to a teacher and showing our appreciation doesn't cost much, but it's worth a lot.
Click here for the full column.
6 How can children overcome fears and develop courage?
Parents want their children to be brave. Courage manifests itself in different ways: jumping from the five-metre tower or defending a friend in a fight. What helps a child to become courageous? And how can parents support them?
Click here for the full article.
It's not your job to make your children happy!
Do you want to raiseyour child to be happy? That's a mistake, says our columnist Mikael Krogerus.
It's a tragic paradox: because we love our children, we want to minimise their suffering. But by helping them achieve short-term happiness, we lower their tolerance for sorrow. What can we do instead?
Perhaps we should treat them the way we want to be treated when we are in a difficult situation: We don't need a solution, we want to be understood. It is not our job as parents to solve every problem our children have so that they are happy, but to take their feelings seriously. Especially when these do not correspond to our own experiences.
Click here for the full column.
New series on the topic of separated parents
In Switzerland, 13 per cent of mothers and fathers of underage children live divorced or separated from the other parent. How family life works when the parents are no longer a couple.
Staying parents after separation - the series at a glance
Teil 1 Das kooperative und das parallele Elternmodell
Teil 2 5 Tipps zur friedvollen Kommunikation
Teil 3 Wie löse ich den Loyalitätskonflikt meines Kindes?
Teil 4 5 Ideen, wie das Betreuungswochenende gelingt
Teil 5 Neue Liebe, neues Glück – und wie geht es den Kindern?
7 «Child development does not have to conform to the norm»
Is my child developing normally? Am I doing enough to make sure it makes good progress? Many parents ask themselves these questions. We asked development experts Heidi Simoni, Moritz Daum and Oskar Jenni for their opinions at the summit.
Click here for the full interview.
What children learn for life from gaming
Gaming has a bad reputation - wrongly so, according to our columnist Fabian Grolimund. He owes many of his favourite childhood memories to gaming on the computer.
- I think it's a shame when adults categorically reject computer games without ever having played them.
- Anyone who enters the digital world with their child with an open mind will realise that computer games are not asocial per se.
- The preconception that gaming automatically stupefies children cannot be upheld.
Click here for the full article.
What happens to our data after death?
We all leave a lot of traces and data online during our lifetime. How to organise your digital legacy.
- Dealing with your digital legacy during your lifetime is tedious. But we must not shirk our responsibility.
4 tips for your digital estate list
- Make a note of the name, address and URL of the respective provider
- Make a note of the corresponding user name and password.
- Leave your mobile phone number and SIM card PIN for all messenger services.
- For each item, write down what you think should happen with the account.
Click here for the full article.
8. «AI is an aid, not a panacea»
Philippe Wampfler, secondary school teacher and media expert, teaches his pupils to take a critical approach to digital media. He explains where schools are reaching their limits and what artificial intelligence (AI) has in store for them.
- I reach students better when I communicate in a group chat instead of by e-mail.
- Media literacy consists of assessing the impact of our actions online.
- I only appeal to the students' common sense and self-discipline to a limited extent.
Click here for the full interview.
An end to selection
At the end of primary school, children in this country are categorised into different performance levels. This is anything but fair, says the highest Swiss headteacher, and calls for a radical rethink.
- Selection after sixth grade dates back to a time when teenage education was reserved for the privileged.
- Grades are not objective. The assessment made at school depends on many factors.
- Young people are labelled in ways that are sometimes unjustified and have a lasting negative impact on their learning careers.
- If we want to do really well in Swiss primary schools, we need to do away with traditional models and abolish selection. Instead, we should provide learning opportunities of varying difficulty within lessons and the children and young people should choose the level themselves.
Click here for the full article.
9 New love - new happiness?
When parents start a patchwork family with their new love, there are many stumbling blocks waiting for them. However, the family model also offers opportunities - which requires perseverance and empathy.
Patchwork families offer great potential for personal development.
Click here for the full article.
«Many have taken on the shame of their parents»
A lot has happened in terms of sex education in recent years, says sex educator Nadia Kohler, who advocates a relaxed, holistic approach to the topic of sexuality. She places particular responsibility on fathers.
- Sexuality education used to be thought of as a one-off conversation focussing on biological functions and contraception. Today, more emphasis is placed on a holistic approach, on the various aspects that sexuality involves, such as having your own feelings and needs, setting boundaries and so on.
- Fathers often have the feeling that their insecurity has to do with their gender.
- Risk behaviour is a field that fathers are more likely to engage in than mothers.
- Sexting describes the sending and receiving of self-produced, revealing images via computer or smartphone.
- Cybergrooming refers to the initiation of sexual contact with minors on the internet.
- Sextortion refers to a form of blackmail in which the perpetrator threatens the victim with the publication of nude photos or videos of the victim, for example to force them to pay money or perform sexual acts, whereby the perpetrator has previously obtained the content in question with or without the victim's knowledge, for example through sexting or cybersex with the (bona fide) victim.
Read more about this in our dossier Cyberbullying.
Click here for the full interview.
10. perfectionism: We don't put any pressure on you!
What attitudes do parents have towards achievement? And to what extent do they pass this on to their children? Three exercises to help mums and dads become aware of their own attitudes.
- It takes courage to come to terms with how your own approach to the subject of performance shapes your child.
- Many parents want to prevent their child from feeling pressurised. But they shouldn't be completely indifferent to their own performance either.
- No one has to be good everywhere and all the time.
- What messages did I receive in my own childhood?
- How does my attitude influence my child?
- What does a healthy approach to pressure look like?
Click here for the full article.
«Parents need a lot of confidence. In themselves. And in life»
Many parents want to bring up their children in a needs-orientated way and primarily fulfil their wishes, says educationalist Inke Hummel. The author of the guidebook believes that the reason for this is a reluctance to engage in conflict that stems from their own childhood.
- As a rule, it doesn't get any better if the parents do everything they can for two hours to ensure that the child leaves the house happily in the morning.
- Above all, parents should be predictable for their child.
- It's about leaving room for mistakes, for the realisation that things have gone wrong.
- It is generally underestimated that time with children is also working time.
- It's not just about: What does my wild child need to get along in the classroom? But also: What does the class need? Needs-orientation does not stop at your own front door, but should be seen as a social task.
Click here for the full interview.
