Timely Tips for Time-Outs
Tired of holding the bedroom door handle closed when your child is trying to leave during a time-out? Fed up with your child’s trashing his room during time-out? Frustrated because you can’t get your child to calm down and think about restitution during his time-out?
Toddler With a Mop
The next time Maia came into the kitchen, I tried something new. Standing her up on the seat of a chair, I set her in front of the rinse water. Suddenly my whining toddler was happily helping with “dwisses.” I washed them, then she rinsed and put the dishes on the rack. The task sped by with happy chatter.
Living With a Moody Kid
It's extremely rare for a preschooler to be clinically depressed, unless something seriously traumatic has happened. Some children are simply vulnerable to getting bumped into a bad mood, and it's harder than one would like for them to climb back out of their slumps. This is very normal; lots of other kids have similar tendencies.
New Year’s Parenting Pledge
If you experience even a twinge of self-recognition in this incident, it's time to make a solid resolution as a parent. Ask yourself, "What resolution would make the biggest difference in my parenting?"
Your Child’s First Dentist Visit
First visits to the dentist can set up life-long fears and anxieties — or they can be a normal part of life. When I was a kid, we didn’t start going to the dentist until we had our adult teeth. Nowadays, dentist recommend having the first visit around age three for kids whose teeth seem healthy.
Using Guided Imagery With Your Child
Guided imagery is a dynamic way to increase a child’s chances for successful development of inner talents and personal resources. Parents, teachers and other service providers can use imagery with confidence to increase a child’s mental focus, help clarify values, increase study efficiency or instill other successful traits.
Living with Differences
In the first week at my daughter's inclusive preschool (half kids with special needs, half "typical" kids), the parents tried to figure out who had the disabled kids and who didn't. No one knew how to begin a conversation — we were afraid of offending each other. We found our common ground: we were all parents raising preschoolers. Some of us had children who loved music, couldn't use the bathroom yet or screamed when someone got too close. And some of us had kids with disabilities.
Eight Ways to Bond With Your Baby
Research indicates that babies who develop fulfilling relationships with their parents tend to grow into secure, well-adjusted adults and even perform better at school. Bonding is a natural process but there are many ways to help out, especially if you provide focused, responsive care in a nurturing environment.
How (and Why) to Teach Kids to Care
Raising caring kids is a goal most parents strive for — and one that's becoming increasingly challenging given the violence, in media and real life that children are inevitably exposed to these days. There is some good news, though. While researchers once believed that kids had to learn to care, it seems they may possess this ability even as toddlers.
Build Life Skills With Music
Love, respect and appreciation for music are easy to share with our children and build life skills at the same time. During the first years of our child’s life, musical skills build self-esteem and enhance expression. Musical rhythms spur motor development. Learning melodies and words stimulates listening capacity and help children develop receptive language.
Parent Better Than Your Own Parents Did
Your parents undoubtedly failed you as parents. All parents fail. No parent is ever adequate enough to provide one child — let alone two or more — with enough love, caring, support, wisdom or whatever to completely meet his or her needs. Therefore, parents naturally fall short when it comes to parenting. It is impossible to be a perfect parent. We teach our children almost all the skills they need to become doctors, engineers, plumbers, architects, truck drivers or any one of the millions of jobs in the world. We usually don’t teach parenting.
Old-fashioned Ways To Inspire Your Kids
Walk through any toy store and you will see walls and walls of toys that are loud — toys that require batteries, have flashing lights or look like your child's favorite movie character. But what about those of us who want to raise children with imagination and curiosity? I'll tell you what we do. We choose to fill our houses with some of the following old-fashioned items.
Yikes! My Kid is Stealing!
One of the more common problems that we as parents encounter (but that nobody likes to talk about) is what to do when your child steals. There are a number of different reasons children steal and a number of different ways to handle the problem. Whatever the reason a child is stealing, parents need to approach the problem with wisdom. If parents just react according to their natural inclination, their response will almost certainly be wrong and destructive.
Parent Better Than Your Own Parents Did
Your parents undoubtedly failed you as parents. All parents fail. No parent is ever adequate enough to provide one child — let alone two or more — with enough love, caring, support, wisdom or whatever to completely meet his or her needs. Therefore, parents naturally fall short when it comes to parenting. It is impossible to be a perfect parent. We teach our children almost all the skills they need to become doctors, engineers, plumbers, architects, truck drivers or any one of the millions of jobs in the world. We usually don’t teach parenting.
Top 10 Ways to Be a Better Father
The expectations for fathers are increasing both at work and at home. Here are 10 ways for fathers to be more effective in the most important job they'll ever have. See your kids as capable. The Achilles’ heel of many fathers is to see their kids as "not good enough." Your kids will feel this, and they'll live up to these expectations. The more you approve of them, the greater they'll be!
Look At It From A Kid’s-Eye View
It's quite easy for most fathers to look at their kids with a critical eye. And why not? There's a lot riding on the outcome of your kids' development. There's the nagging worry that you're not doing your job well enough and that your child will develop "problems." There's also the fear of being judged as an incompetent or uninvolved father by others. And there's the relentless presence of your children, making mistakes by the truckload while you watch.
Fathers, Sons and Masculinity
My 5-year-old son had a quirky smile that showed a mixture of pride and anticipation. He'd shown me his art project from school, and he was waiting for his mom. "Come on over and look at what Michael made," I shouted to my wife. Michael ran out of the room crying. I was filled with visions of a son who was incapable of dealing with the challenges and frustrations of daily living. And I felt the responsibility of showing him how to be "tough enough" to live in a world that delivers plenty of tough times. At the moment, I felt like I was failing badly.
Stressed, Every Day
As I came through the door after a challenging day of work, the tornado began. "Daddy's home!" My kids wanted to share their day and their artwork, and my wife wanted to share how difficult her day had been. I wanted to lie down on the couch and be left alone. And this same scenario is happening all over the country with fathers (or mothers) and their families. Families are converging on each other at the end of the day with wildly different needs and moods. The result can be hurt feelings and distance between family members.
Let Kids Be Kids
I once heard a mom say, “My husband loves being a dad. He’s just like a kid again. He knows all the cartoons and action figures.” Is that what parents think being a kid is? Power Rangers and Rug Rats? What about imagination, creativity, curiosity? What about letting a kid just be a kid? I think we push our kids to grow up too fast. We bombard them with learning-based toys. We brag to our friends that our child can count to 10 and recite the alphabet by age 2. We dress them as little adults. We reward their precociousness. We’re embarrassed when they act like babies. We fill their calendars with gymnastics, soccer and music classes.
The Night Visitor: Trips to the Parent’s Bed
If your house echoes with the sound of pat-pat-pat down the hallway when your child leaves his room to climb into your bed in the middle of the night, rest assured that you are not alone. It’s perfectly natural for a toddler or preschooler to search out his parents for comfort and security — it’s a sign of his trust and his deep love for you. And it’s perfectly normal for parents to provide that comfort and security by bringing their child into their bed or by lying with him in his own bed.
Helping Kids Cope with Trauma
Whether after a personal trauma or a national tragedy like 9/11, our children suffer. Whether their suffering manifests as overt misbehavior or in quiet reticence, we can help children cope so they do not feel alone. While we cannot shield children's innocence, we can help them feel safe. Some symptoms of trauma are immediate, and other symptoms may not show themselves for months or years. Because we care for our children, the task before us is to watch for symptoms and choose an appropriate response. Our responses may be verbal, but more often our assistance can simply be nonverbal and supportive.
Find Your Child’s Personal Style
Every morning, six-year-old Josh and his mom clash at breakfast just as Mom is ready to walk out the door. A daydreamer by nature, Josh moves through life at a slower pace than his task-oriented mom, who values organization. Their distinct ways of relating to the world reveal their obviously different personal styles. When parents can communicate and interact in ways that fit their children’s unique styles, there is harmony in the home. Both parents and children develop confidence and self-esteem.
Disciplining an Infant: Are You Kidding?
The thought of disciplining a child in the first year of life seems wrong or even ridiculous. Yet every time an infant reaches up to tug his mother's hair and she gently removes his grasp, or when he pulls an unsafe object to his mouth and she intervenes, that's setting limits, that's redirecting, that's guidance — and yes, that's discipline. Effective discipline is not punishment. It's teaching. Discipline really starts from day one.
Baby Massage From A-Z
Baby massage has been practiced since ancient times. It can be as simple as a gentle rub with lotion after a bath or a more practiced infant massage. The benefits are many for both baby and parent. You can, and should, massage a child of any age from newborn to adulthood. Children learn much about the power of gentle touch. There's something very special about spending a little time giving your teenager a backrub or foot massage. It maintains a beautiful parent-child connection throughout a lifetime.
Are violent movies, video games, and television programs harmful to my child’s education?
The answer is “yes” — experts agree that violent media is harmful to children and their education. Education is the act of acquiring knowledge; therefore, any activity that impedes this knowledge acquisition is undesirable and problematic. There are many factors that contribute to a child’s education, but popular media such as movies, video games and television are profoundly influential because statistics show that the average child spends more time in these activities above all other activities except for sleep.
The Family That Eats Together Stays Together
You often hear that families should eat together. What evidence is there that this is a good thing? A recent study suggests that family meals might increase adolescents’ well-being. Middle school (n=1608) and high school (n=3074) students, ages 11 to 18, completed surveys. The frequency of family meals, level of family connectedness, academic performance, substance use, self-esteem, depressions, suicidal thoughts and suicidal attempts were assessed.
Get more Time, Energy and Money!
Time, energy and money are chronically lacking in parents’ lives. They are too tired because their children keep them up at night, they are strapped for time between juggling work and family, and they spend all their resources on their kids, the house, the car and the mortgage. Everybody has a dream. Whether you know it or not, at one time you dreamed all the time. As children grow, their imaginations grow with them. Then they become adults, and the reality of the world sets in. Have you forgotten how to dream? Do you feel as if you have no time to breath, much less make your dreams reality?
Yoga for Kids and Parents
“Baby yoga! Baby yoga!” This is my daughter’s chant any time she reaches over to place her hands in front of her toes, in essence doing the toddler version of downward facing dog. I fantasized about doing yoga with my children before becoming pregnant, but I never pictured it like this.
Create a Peaceful Home Sanctuary
We must find a way to create a place that is comfortable and peaceful where we can relax. We need to make a peaceful place in our lives and the lives of our children where everyone can feel calm and connected. Our homes can be that place -- a haven of peace for our families. It is the attitude and the conscious choices the members of a family bring to a home that actively make it peaceful.
Long Term Attachment Parenting
Are AP groups and ideas a thing of the past now that your little ones are big kids (or even – gasp! -- teenagers) and you’re no longer breastfeeding and diapering? Are you an attachment parenting graduate (or drop-out)? Attachment parenting is not just for babies – and you don’t have to stop as your kids grow older!
When is Playing Not Playing?
Many toys on the market today encourage passive rather than active play. In this age of high-tech toys, children frequently push a button and are entertained by watching play happen.
Can There Be Too Much? - Attachment Parenting
By not respecting the feelings of our infants, we raise children who do not respect the feelings of their peers, adolescents who do not respect the feelings of their parents and adults who often can’t respect even their own feelings.
Parenting Style Differences
This other baby’s early months were spent strapped in his stroller, hearing people but from an uninvolved distance except for the occasional visitor who leaned over his seat. His nights were vast hours of loneliness, his cries ignored.
Getting Out Sans Baby: Is It Just a Matter of Milk?
It can be worrisome for loving parents to think that their baby may be in a situation in which an important need such as hunger cannot be satisfied. Many nursing mothers assume that the answer to this dilemma is to teach the baby to take a bottle, so there will be an alternative to nursing if it is ever needed.
Nursing: It’s More than Breastfeeding – And Every Mother Can Do It!
Breastfeeding isn’t only about providing mother’s milk. While seldom recognized in literature, doctors’ advice or common conversation, there’s a whole lot more to breastfeeding than nutrition and immunity.
Caring vs. Caring Too Much
When you become overly concerned and caring, you cross a line into what's called an overdriven striving. You focus on it too much and can affect your own thinking and functioning, as well as that of others. You demand too much and usually get too little. It's exhausting to everyone concerned.
Falling off the AP Wagon
A Discuss! at Natural Family Online transcript from members as they discuss their feelings about falling off the AP wagon when children reach toddlerhood.
What is Attachment Parenting?
Attachment Parenting: Is It For You?
What is Attachment Parenting?
The Science of Attachment
The Chemistry of Attachment
Long Term Attachment Parenting
What exactly is “attachment parenting” as it applies to all ages?
Siblings Articles and Sibling Rivalry
Siblings Fighting
Tips to Build Sibling Attachment
Siblings at the Baby’s Birth?
How do we know if we’re ready to have another baby?
How to Help Your Marriage Survive a New Baby
Others
Natural Parenting
Pitching In: Simple Ways to Get Your Family Involved
When Your Parenting Comes Under Fire
Should Both Parents Work? Should One Stay at Home?
Playdates for Parents
Is it ok to spoil your kids?
Unplugging your family
Others...
Articles on Getting Kids To Sleep
My 6-month-old baby wakes up almost every hour to breastfeed.
My baby won't nap! She fights sleep but gets fussier and fussier as the day progresses.
Using White Noise While Babies Sleep
Write a Family Bestseller: “My Sleep Book”
Why Isn't She Sleeping at Night?
Others...
Co-sleeping and the Family Bed
Tips for Successful Family Beds
We’re expecting our first baby soon and thinking about using a family bed.
Using a Family Bed - Co Sleeping
Checklist For Safe Cosleeping
Top 10 Uses For a Crib (other than sleeping!)
Co-sleeping and the Media
Others...
Babywearing - Using Slings
Getting Back to Basics with Babywearing
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Slings
View our February 2004 sling review series
Your Child's Feelings and Emotional Intelligence
Build Your Child’s Emotional Toolkit
What You Say and What Your Children Hear
Helping Kids Cope With News of War
Top Ten Ways to Raise Emotionally Intelligent Kids
Be Smart With Your Children’s Feelings
How You Can Teach Your Child Respect
Teaching Responsibility - Responsible Children
The Hidden Messages of Parenting
Others...
Natural Fathering Articles
10 Reasons to Tell Your Kids Stories
Help Your Hubby Support Breastfeeding
Help For Overwhelmed Fathers
Natural Fathering - Save Memories of Your Children
Fathers, Tell Your Stories
Top 10 Common Sense Rules for Fathers
Parenting Stress
How to Help Your Marriage Survive a New Baby
When It’s More Than the “Baby Blues”
I Yelled at My Kids
My Kids Are Driving Me Crazy!
Others ....
Positive Parenting Articles
10 Reasons to Tell Your Kids Stories
Getting Kids to Organize Themselves
Top 10 Ways to Keep Your Kids From Fighting
10 Ways to Get Your Kids to Talk to You
Give Your Kids Household Chores!
Encourage Children to Play Naturally
Getting Your Kids to Cooperate
Others..
Homeschooling
How to Homeschool Your Child
Building the Unschooling or Homeschooling Village
I do not feel qualified to teach my children
Husband's involvement in homeschooling
Multiple Kids
How should we structure our school year?
Science in the Blink of an Eye
Unschooling
Building the Unschooling or Homeschooling Village
Can a Single Parent Unschool?
Isn't “unschooling” just a fancy way of saying you ignore your children? Is that even legal?
Gentle Discipline Articles
Redefining "Grounding" for Your Teens
Give Your Kids the “N” Word
Keep Your Kids From Fighting - Fighting Kids - Fighting Siblings
Of Conflict and Control - Kid Discipline
To Spank Your Child or Not to Spank?
Get Your Toddler to Cooperate - Parenting Toddlers
Others ...
Parenting Teens - Parenting Teenager Articles
You CAN Influence Your Teens Attitudes About Sex
The Family That Eats Together Stays Together
Are violent movies, video games, and television programs harmful to my child’s education?
Redefining "Grounding" for Your Teens
Summer Jobs: Your Teen’s Ticket to Success
Start a Teen Reading Group
Job Shadowing:Valuable Job Experience for Teens
The Easy Way to Start a School Drama Club
Getting Kids to Organize Themselves
Parenting Teens - Connect With Your Teen
10 Ways to Get Your Kids to Talk to You
