Parenting Articles

When I was about 10 years old, my mother handed me a can of comet and told me to clean the bathroom. Well, she never actually told me how to clean, but somehow she thought that I already knew just from watching her do it. So I went in the bathroom and sprinkled comet everywhere and then used my hand to scrub out the sink and rinse as much of the blue off as I could. Needless to say, it wasn’t the most perfect job.

As parents, all of us have fought the battle with our kids as they are absorbed into a video game or movie on an iPad, tablet or smartphone. We’ve had a better chance of getting the attention of Tom Cruise walking the red carpet than our kids. Today, it’s common for two-year-olds to be using iPads, elementary schoolers hooked up to video games, and we all suffer (or live with) the challenge of prying your middle-schooler away from the computer long enough to eat a decent meal… Technology is everywhere and its draw on kids is obvious, but is technology helping our kids learn?r

There are many things about parenting that are enjoyable, such as holding your infant in your arms for the first time or seeing your child take her first step. On the other hand there are some events attached to parenting that we just don't look forward to as much and for many parents toilet training their child is one of them, especially if your child has an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

Major Depression and Family While most people have experienced a period of feeling down or blue, those who experience major depression experience a far more profound sense of feeling overwhelmed by dread and despair. Their feelings may be independent of, somewhat dependent upon and at times fully connected to life experiences. Often the intensity of the feelings will appear disproportionate to outside observers. It is believed that such individuals are genetically and biologically predisposed to such depression and that their depression is neuro-chemically mediated.

"Step on me, please."nnWhen I was a teenager, my grandmother and I were on a family vacation in my parent’s RV. The quarters were close, the beds at a minimum. My grandmother insisted I take the couch and she take the floor. I objected to this arrangement, of course: "What if I accidentally step on you in the middle of the night?"She reiterated: "Step on me. Please."nnHow absurd, I thought. It wasn’t until I had my own child that I understood. To some degree, every mother

Critical thinking skills are the foundation of education and all life skill development. When critical thinking and reading comprehension skills are coupled, they form a fundamental part of all education. These skills enhance a child’s educational development, as well as provide them with skill sets they will need later in life to achieve goals.

Usually parents expect to play with their baby - quite a lot at first, and then increasingly less as they grow older. However, if you are the parent of a toddler or preschooler, you may have learned that the more you play - the more they want, until some children simply do not know what to do for themselves if no adult is involved. If this is the situation at your house, you may be interested in learning how to set up an Independent Playtime as part of your child’s regular, daily routine.

The most popular New Year’s resolutions are to lose weight, exercise more, become better organized, get out of debt and quit smoking. Seldom, if ever, will you find someone saying, “I want to be a better parent” or “I want our family to be happier” this year. Wouldn’t that be a good goal to have? Many parents would agree that parenting is the most important job that they have. It’s a job that parents do 24/7. It’s a job that parents have for life. It’s a job that has the most influence on how a young adult turns out. Yet, few parents set goals on improving their parenting.

Here are Ten Principles of the Effective Parent: 1) Offer your children committed love. Let your children know, without a shadow of a doubt, that you love them and you will always love them no matter what. Make this a clear and consistent message. 2) Become the best educator of your children’s basic life skills that you can be. This is far more valuable than what you can ever buy them. 3) Teach your children to trust themselves more than anything else. Keep your children connected to their innate inner navigational equipment.

Think way, way back to when you first became a parent. For those who gave birth and raised biological children, the moment I am talking about was the exact moment that your child was born. For those who adopted, fostered or became kin care parents; however you became a parent……that first moment that you laid eyes on your child is the moment I am referring to. Since that moment and basically forever more while you exist on this planet, you are the role model, the leading example for your children.

I was reading "A Modern Infant Armada", a humor column in Maclean's Magazine written by a fellow humor columnist. Writing about it now is a bit like a painter painting another painter or a singer singing about another singer (but it not like a cook cooking another cook.).nnDavid Russell (yes, another humor columnist named David) laughs at his neighbor for parking both cars in the driveway to make room in the garage for four strollers for just one child. I laughed with him. Fo

I want to start off first by saying that I do not have a specific age recommendation for giving the sex talk because I truly believe that every child and family is different with a variety of values. Therefore these tips are simply things that most teenagers I speak with, wish their parents knew ...

On the benefits of having an open mind about one’s child called a “retard”, or having intellectual deficits, being mentally deficient, and other interesting and ridiculous things... When I was just starting out as a child and school psychologist in Syracuse, NY almost 35 years ago, I administered batteries of tests to children to determine their eligibility for programs designed to remediate their learning disabilities, what were termed their “handicaps” at that tim

Back in my undergraduate years I took a required course for all psychology majors entitled Experimental Psychology. Early in that course in a lab we were each instructed to train a white rat to turn right in a T-maze. (A successful trial was defined as the rat not going past a line on the left side of the maze and the rat had to proceed all the way to the right within five seconds—to eat a small piece of compressed grain.) When the rat made five consecutive “correct” responses, it was determined that the rat had “learned” the appropriate response.

Is your marriage staler than a Moon Pie at the discount bakery outlet? I hear you, Mama. If you're staring at that man scratching his bee-hind and flipping through the TV stations and longing for your knight in shining armor, then you better think again. That IS your knight in shining armour. It's just up to you to shine up his armor and put him back on his horse. You can do it, Mama, and here's how: 1. Do a system overhaul.r

Who will criticize your children the most as they grow up? They will! It is their own negative self-talk that they will hear most often. Everyone’s mind produces a steady stream of thoughts. When these thoughts turn negative, fear, doubt and frustration quickly sets in. Stopping negative thoughts isn’t easy and it starts with actually noticing those thoughts. What are your kids saying to themselves?

Anger in children is often misunderstood by adults, who don't always know how to handle children's angry outbursts. We might be asking ourselves the following questions: Is my child just being overly dramatic? Is he or she trying to control me? How do I diffuse the situation and help my child handle himself more calmly? Let's look at the myths behind angry children--how to better manage it, and how to know when and if you should seek outside help. The Faces of Anger One myth

How do disrespectful kids become so mouthy? How do parents feel when a child insults them? Look inside to find out what you can do to change this kind of disrespect. Disrespect is like wearing muddy clothes. It’s sticky, nasty, and dirty. Like mud you don’t feel good until you clean up the tone and the words. Ask yourself, “Where did my child learn such disrespect?” If the answer is “me,” please don’t run away. Everyone understands how angry a parent can get. Let’s come up with ways to change your anger and model better behavior.

As a parent (particularly a mother), nothing is more important than listening to your gut. Your gut will tell you things that you cannot explain to others and you can’t understand. It will warn you against things and keep you out of trouble or unwary predicaments. Case in point: recently, ...

Kids require discipline for a diversity of reasons, including accepting their limits, learning self-control and knowing when to stop, according to the explanation given by Teacher Training Mumbai. Since kids don't automatically know all the guidelines, it is up to you to update them. Let them recognize up front what the significances of intolerable performance are. When you must implement the rules with discipline, they won't be astonished. Age Applicable A method of self-res

When we met, we each had one teen living at home, and three adult children from previous marriages living in other parts of America. One former spouse lived locally and the other in a different state. We wanted everything to go smoothly. Before we planned our wedding, we did as much "homework" as we could on blending families. We read books, manuals and magazines, and we took the advice we received to heart. And, most importantly, we practiced the concepts we learned. Over ti

I read an article today about how couples are having fewer babies because of the downtu in the economy. This is comparable to the Great Depression where many Americans put off having children until the economy recovered. I posit that this is a mistake for the following reasons. The average ...

I finished writing my first book not too long ago. I found it difficult identifying what my expectations were since I’ve never done this before. The entire process of getting the book in print and to being in your hands was an emotional roller coaster. I had to keep reminding myself “process Ken, remember process.” At times it seemed like every step of the way was a challenge. The lack of faith questions that I kept asking were: “Why this?” or ‘What now?”

Being that you’re female, you probably thought that raising a girl would be a piece of cake. It kind of makes sense because, after all, you have been through all the ages and stages of girlhood, I mean how hard can it be? And then your little princess arrives, and you soon realize that all those years of hands-on experience did little to prepare you for being a girl’s mother. Parenthood is exciting and terrifying at the same time. There is no “Parenthood 101” in our s

Fred and Kate clashed constantly over how to parent their six year-old son, Jerry. “Kate lets Jerry get away with murder.” complained Fred. “It’s anarchy!” “Fred’s always on Jerry’s case.” Kate countered. “He jumps on Jerry for the slightest infraction.” Fred saw Kate’s parenting style as soft while Kate saw Fred’s parenting style as harsh. As the three of us talked in my office, it quickly became clear to me that Fred and Kate had polarized. Fred ha

One of the most fulfilling, but toughest, jobs in the entire world is “parenting.” Parenting children with special needs, such as fetal alcohol spectrum disorders brings its own set of challenges.nnMany parents of children with an FASD are adoptive or foster parents. Some of these parents knew about the FASD when they welcome their children into their family, while others did not. In either case, accurate information is the key to success in raising children with

How do you know if your picky eater is just exhibiting normal picky behavior or ifrnyou need professional assistance? The toddler period presents huge changes in development in many areas. Feeding in particular presents several challenges for parents. The once eager eater who opened his mouth for everything you presented on the spoon is now much more likely to reject foods and have a hard time sitting still for meals. Toddlers do not grow at the same rapid pace that infants grow and their food intake drops off significantly. Toddlers by definition are often on the move.

Decision making is similar to a muscle and as it is used over and over again it becomes stronger and stronger. Allowing your child to make a decision on what clothes he or she wants to wear and what food he or she wants to eat can help to strengthen your child’s decision making muscle. nnThe toy section is where many children enjoy visiting when they go to the store. When they are told they can buy one item, they get very excited. However, when it comes to deciding what to

A new survey shows that the average adult tells four lies a day, or 1,460 lies a year. Is it any wonder that our children tell fibs, too? Yet chances are when your child tells a whopper, it makes nyou mad. Why do kids lie? Kids lie for lots of reasons. One of the biggest reasons is to avoid ...

Living away from home can put added stress on your financial situation especially if your family frequently contributed to your entertainment. No longer are family members treating you to dinner out or at their home. Mom and Dad are not conveniently saying “My treat.” If you continue to exchange gifts, you are now paying for shipping and if you decide to nix the gift exchanges, you might find yourself buying more presents to fill in the gaps for your children.r

In Part 1 of this series, we looked at how adults can and do invalidate children’s feelings, thoughts and emotions. Whilst our focus and emphasis is on the parent/child relationship, validation is an important component in other relationships and environments. In this article in Part 2, we are looking more closely at how to validate a child (or oneself or adults, family and friends).

Kids these days have twice the amount of homework that we did. And when your kids have homework, you have homework, too. I’d like to take this opportunity to share tips from Irene Gutmann, an academic coach who works with teens and college students on achieving academic success. Also, I’d like to invite parents of elementary school-aged children to attend my “Relief for Homework Headaches” teleclass scheduled for Fri., Sept. 22 at Noon CT. (See the class schedule for full details.) 1.

Did you sense how your identity changed when you became a parent? At the moment of birth or adoption, our lives are never the same because once a parent, always a parent. Despite the fact that our self-identity shifted once Mother Nature inaugurated us as mom or dad, this new role is not necessarily a fixed one because our children will always impact it.

It seems like only yesterday you were changing diapers and recording home movies of his first steps. Now your son is entering into a new phase, one that is threatening and difficult to navigate. He is becoming a teen, and these are the eight milestones you are going to witness along the way. He Is Thinking More Abstractly In the past your child’s thinking was rather juvenile and basic. Now he is starting to think less about ‘what’ and more about ‘why’. This is an ex

Watching butterflies, going for a run and singing (out loud) to the music, the sun beaming down from a clear blue sky with my hair blowing in the wind cruising in my convertible. Just a few of the many experiences of summer freedom that I enjoy. It’s July, and the kids are on vacation with a ...

Problems with students so often arise from imposing, rather than eliciting. When teachers impose “logical” and/or “natural” consequences on students, they are using their authority to impose a form of punishment. It matters not if the adult’s intention is to teach a lesson. Imposed punishments increase the likelihood that the student will feel punished by the adult. Anything that is done to another person prompts negative feelings of reluctance, resistance, resentment, and sometimes even rebellion and retaliation.

1. Ignore whining: Whining is a device used by the children to get a response from you. As long as you are responding the child continues to repeat it. The only solution is ignoring the whining altogether. Even you can say that "I'm ignoring you when you use your whiny voice. Try again in your normal voice then listen to you." 2. Whine back. Even if whine back using a bit of humor to cue her to notice her whining by showing what a whiny voice sounds like. 3. Stop her immediately:

The babysitter rate of pay varies depending on a few factors. For example, the number of children that will be cared for by the babysitter is one very important factor in determining the acceptable pay rate. In addition, the ages of the children will also weigh heavily on the price you will have to pay a sitter. For example, a 10 year old that requires limited supervision will cost less per hour than a 2 year old with special needs. Where you live is another factor that shoul

Last Friday, we featured a post (It’s not too early to have the Talk) from Shadra Bruce about the importance of talking to your teenagers about sex. Today we’re following-up on this important topic from a teenage girl’s perspective.rnMy generation is constantly surrounded by messages of a sexual nature in the media, in the hallways at school and at recreational get-togethers. The problem is they’re all sending a different message. You hear conflicting political messag

Having a baby is a beautiful thing. The feeling a woman has after having grown a little miracle and seeing that miracle come to fruition is indescribable. Motherhood is a gift from God that is cherished more than any other job today. Most women only think that a hospital is where one has a ...

Kids of Separated Parents: The Annual Holiday Access Dispute Forget about the last minute gift shopping. The real issue for separated parents this season is who gets what time with the kids. With divorce seemingly as popular as marriage, more and more kids will be subject to the annual access ...

Can Your Children Be Honest? Parenting Advice: Establishing Open Communication and Trust I often hear parents say, “My child does not tell me anything.” Children go through phases, particularly during their adolescent years, when they see no logical or justifiable reason to communicate with their parents for any reason other than to have their most basic needs or their material desires met. After spending ten or so years as the apple of their child’s eye, parents are sudden

Do bullies call your child names? Does he come home crying? Look inside to find out how you can strengthen his character and deal with bullies. Bullies are always cowards at heart and may be credited with a pretty safe instinct in scenting their prey. – Anna Julia Cooper Let’s say your Weston, ...

Do your children care for themselves according to their age and abilities? Would you like to boost their self-esteem and character? Inside you’ll find age-appropriate chores that instill the “I can do it myself” attitude. Childhood Wisdom: “When Heidi was 5 her mother decided to give her $1 a ...

It was a hot summer day and with little rain having fallen lately, I went outside to get the hose. I was just about to turn on the water and then I saw it. There it was, in the middle of my garden, a spectacular sight, something I had never seen before. Imagine this image - two rose blooms – ...

If you have a baby under a year old, chances are you spend a lot of your day in daily care-taking. You change diapers, give baths, feed, burp, carry, bounce, clean, play, entertain, and that is just in the first 3 hours of the day. Your baby needs your constant attention to his every need—and ...

Conflict of Libidos? Libido refers to sexual drive. Over the course of the human life span, libido can increase or decrease depending upon numerous factors. Those factors can be divided into biological, psychological and social. Of the biological factors, a woman’s menstrual cycle is ...

“And they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.” --Matthew 1:23 (KJV) The Christmas story is one of light, love and joy—the light of the star, the love inspired by a precious child, and the joy of hope ete al. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, we light Advent candles representing hope, peace, love and joy. We move from a season of gratitude into a celebration that the Christ is born within us and God is with us. We celebrate the spirit of Christmas.

Teenagers today are much more overconfident than in the past, often feeling they can handle things they actually can't and having a sense of entitlement to things they aren't entitled to. On the other hand, dangers are not only more varied, but they can be very subtle for a teenage mind. It's not a good combination by anyone's standards.

Mother’s Pride, the most loved pre-school invites babies from the age group of 0-3 years to be a part of the grand Baby show to be held on 24th March’2012 and showcase their most endearing talent in front of a large audience. Baby show is organized to give an early platform to your little ones before they step into the outside world. We invite all the parents to enroll your little angels and see them transformed into mega stars and super heroes. Baby show not only invites