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?"
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.
Mother Nurture: Letting Go
A mom is dealing with so many feelings and needs and wants in her children and partner that the stress builds up over the course of a day. It's normal to feel like you describe. Plus, many women have been taught various ways to keep a stiff upper lip and not to say anything that seems like a complaint, which just keeps things bottled up and festering.
Meditating Mamas
If we want to enjoy our daily lives, it is exceptionally helpful to slow down for part of the day and focus on your breath. Research has shown that periods of meditation — of focusing on your breath — helps us transcend worries, lowers our anxiety, diminishes depression and increases clarity. Meditation balances our moods and enhances our ability to connect fully with who we are.
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.
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.
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.
Living Through Your Baby’s Colic
Quite simply an absolute nightmare for parents and babies alike, colic is likely to be the first major test of your parenting skills. It is dreadful for all concerned, but these tips should help you cope with this difficult time. You must at all times remember that your baby is not crying to annoy you or to punish you for something you have not done. It is not your fault that she is suffering in this way, nor is it hers. All you can do is to help relieve her pain.
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?
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.
Our children interrupt our conversations constantly. Even while I’m asking them to wait until we’re done talking...
Many parents admonish kids for interrupting, but in the same breath, they respond to the child’s interrupted request! Interrupting is habit forming. Like many annoying behaviors, once kids figure out that they can “get away with it,” the behavior will continue.
Our two boys, ages 7 and 9, are constantly fighting. The only thing that works is to separate them — my wife is with one, and I take the other. It's driving us nuts. Do you have any suggestions? Siblings will naturally vie for their parents’ attention, and fighting will be a part of that. It is completely normal. The problem with separating them too much is that they won't learn some of the skills that will help them to get along in the future.
The Holidays: Obligation or Opportunity?
The days between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day creates fathers frantic for the red Power Ranger, mothers who never bake, sweating and cursing in the kitchen till 2 in the morning and kids who “need” every toy on TV they see. It’s enough to make a grown woman cry. We can lament the crass commercialization of Christmas (and Chanukah and Kwanzaa).
Redefining "Grounding" for Your Teens
I invite you to ground yourself in love and compassion. For thousands of years, great, grounded teachers have exemplified the power of love and compassion to generate happiness and to feel the joy of being alive. Ground yourself in love and compassion, and you will feel that same joy.
How to Help Your Marriage Survive a New Baby
After a baby is born, about half of all couples experience a decline in marital satisfaction. If you have a baby in the house, here are some tips so that you can prevent this from happening to you.
When It’s More Than the “Baby Blues”
PPD is a medical condition - a specific type of depression that occurs within the first few months after childbirth. It is caused by the biochemical and hormonal changes that happen in the body after pregnancy and birth … nothing that is within your control.
I Yelled at My Kids
I really hadn't meant to yell, but the aftermath of it lay before me. My son was a whimpering mess on the floor, and my daughter sat statue-like on the chair in front of me.
My Kids Are Driving Me Crazy!
When I conduct parent workshops, I see the same issues coming up over and over for parents. The names and faces are different, but the issues are the same. And the truth is that parents are often responsible for many of these problems.
15-Minute De-Frazzlers for Families
15 minutes expressly for nurturing your children, your spouse, and yourself in a special way.
Stress - General
Quick Pick-Me-Up to Destress an Soothe Aching, Tired Legs
Melt Away Tension With Lemon Balm
8 Ways to Target Your Stress Points
Hobbies for Busy Women
Others ...
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
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?
