Being Attuned to Your Distinctive Child
How to Let Your Child Know He is Distinctive How do you know you have a distinctive child? It’s because there’s an invisible thread between you and your child. This is because you know more than anyone what makes him distinctive. You know her strengths and special qualities. Does she know you know them? …
Read MoreFaced with Unwanted Behavior: Ask, “What Does it Mean? Not, “What Do I Do?
How Do You Handle Unwanted Behavior in a Way that Doesn’t Make it Recur? Children of all ages demonstrate unwanted misbehaviors. They don’t always do what good-hearted parents wish. Babies cry after they’ve been fed, changed, stimulated and hugged. Toddlers make messes after you’ve just cleaned up. Two- and Three-Year-Olds thrive on saying, “No.” And…
Read MoreUnderstanding Gender Differences in Parents Helps Mothers and Fathers Understand Each Other
What Are Some Gender Differences in Mothers and Fathers? Pregnant mothers think a lot about gender differences. They often feel their moods shifting up and down as their hormones are changing within their bodies. They feel excited yet also worried as they feel these shifting changes and the awareness the growing life within. They feel…
Read MoreParenting a Teased Child
When Teasing Occurs When your teased child comes home from school or the playground irritated and hurt by another’s words, it’s hard to know what to do. Parents witness endless tears and misdirected outbursts in the aftermath. Once you learn the details, it’s tempting to just tell your child to stand up to their accuser,…
Read MoreCo-Parenting Through Divorce and After
The Struggles to Co-Parent The struggle to co-parent persists whether you use collaborative divorce, mediation, or litigation co-parenting is tough. While the divorce proceedings are going on and even after a reasonable settlement has finally been reached, hostile feelings often remain. So how do you co-parent effectively to release your children from all the tension…
Read MoreListening with Our Eyes: How to Respond to Your Child’s Body Language
When Body Language Tips Parents Off Sometimes kids just don’t talk about what’s cooking in their minds. They may be troubled, upset with something and need some guidance, but they’re embarrassed, confused, lost, or maybe just unaware that talking would help. So how do we even know something’s going on? It’s the body language…
Read MoreHelping Children Make Hard Choices
How Do Parents Engage Their Kids About Hard Choices? Children agonize over hard choices. What group of friends to belong to can seem to define who they are. How hard to study may determine the course of their future grades and class placements. Deciding whether to following rules that they disagree with may make them…
Read MoreMake the Most Out of Your Enjoyment of Your Children in 2015
Enjoyment of Your Children Makes Life So Much Fun Articles about children often seem to focus on the stressors they give parents. We read how they misbehave, don’t listen, don’t go to sleep on time, aren’t grateful, change our social lives and are even called “naughty.” This year let’s take a new perspective seeing their…
Read MoreGetting the Most Out of Enjoyment of Our Infants in 2015!
Enjoyment of Babies is A Great Stage of Life Articles about babies often seem to focus on the struggles encountered with infants. We read how they fuss a lot, don’t sleep well, cry for unknown reasons, change our social lives, and create all kinds of new stressors and frustrations mother and fathers were not prepared…
Read MoreBlended Families: How to Achieve Harmony and Make Changing Families Work
How to Make Blended Families Work in a Loving Way Blended families take a long time to work in a harmonious way as the years go by. As children age and parents remarry there are multiple adjustments. So how do the many parents involved help kids adapt early on to prevent future conflicts as the…
Read More