Parenting Articles

The new world of school brings many changes. Even for children who have been in child care or preschool, starting kindergarten will be a new world that is quite different from what they've experienced. The school's rules might be different from your rules, so children must learn flexibility. ...

You'll find numerous free baby shower invitations around. Just investigation the Internet to locate them. You'll find a lot of fantastic Internet sites that offer these sorts of free invitation. There is certainly no have to pay for them when they’re a lot of free around to choose from. Free baby shower invitations are a terrific alternative to share your baby shower plans together with your friends and family. They can be also meant to present the attendees an perception a

There are lots of times when you will dsicover people wearing exciting looking T-shirts with styles and words which interest you as you move by. These T-shirts which in the beginning view seem to be your average looking T-shirt are in fact promotional Tshirts. Unlike the standard T shirts which may have photographs like animation results, animals or sporting logos printed in it, these T-shirts have unique photographs and words printed. For example you might see good scenes fr

No matter how much effort you put into your life, you will never be truly fulfilled until you pour yourself out into the lives of others. Need is everywhere, and true greatness occurs when you are able to give of yourself. It may sound odd, but one way to make sure that your needs are continually being met its to continually try to meet the needs of others. It's so much easier to lift yourself up if you are focused on lifting up others in the process.

Do your children's words ever take you by surprise because they sound remarkably like something you've said? These "boomerang words" can be a good thing or not such a good thing. When we hear our children repeat our words, it's a strong reminder of just how much they are picking up from us. We also get a new appreciation for how those words feel to the person receiving them! Where have I heard that before? One mom told me that she was in her 6-year-old daughter's bedroom when she accidentally knocked a toy off her dresser.

Are you a manager or business owner in denial? • Are you one of those managers or business owner who denies that your personal life is creating havoc for you? • Do you deny the impact that your personal life’s challenges is having on your work and business environment? ...

Overheating is dangerous, even deadly, and by the time an overheated person experiences symptoms he may be in trouble. Kids are at special risk because they can get so caught up in playing they don’t take time to drink, seek shade, or slow down when the temperature climbs. To keep yourself and your family safe, follow these precautions: 1. For active kids, make a game of staying hydrated by setting a kitchen timer for every 20 minutes and teaching the kids, “When the timer DINGS, DROP everything and DRINK.”

I was once a prisoner of perfection. If I couldn't mop the entire kitchen floor perfectly, I wouldn't do it at all. If I couldn't declutter my entire closet, I wouldn't clear out anything. See, here's the deal with perfection. Some people may look at a cluttered, messy home and think, 'well, this person is definitely NOT a perfectionist.' But, that's not the way it works. The perfectionism is exactly WHY the home is so messy. A mom doesn't have enough uninterrupted time to do projects to a perfect standard. And for perfectionists, "good enough" just won't cut it. It's got to be perfect.

First I’d like to bring our awareness to the dangers of looking at children with a different quality of respect than we would an adult. The ideal states that all people are equal, it does not matter if you are 1 or 100, but is that what we really believe? Let’s say your neighbor comes over to ...

One of the biggest questions on any parent’s mind is: “How can I do the best for my teenager?” The answer? Let go. You want the best for your teenager. The best we can hope for is that they know success like we never had, so they don’t have to go through the struggles and pain we did. Every parent wants to raise their children to have better lives than they themselves did. This need can create a fear, however, and that fear can cause us to become too controlling. Chan

“If my dog ever bites my child, he’s out of here!” I hear that all the time. It just makes me want to scream, “But that will be too late!” Each year nearly 2.8 million children are bitten by a dog. Most of these bites are not coming from some scary dog that got loose. Sensational stories make ...

“If my dog ever bites my child, he’s out of here!” I hear that all the time. It just makes me want to scream, “But that will be too late!” Each year nearly 2.8 million children are bitten by a dog. Most of these bites are not coming from some scary dog that got ...

Nanny personality and risk assessments are psychological tests that help parents assess potential Nannies, Au Pairs or Babysitters. The tests provide a better insight into the caregiver’s personality and traits, as well as an assessment of possible risk factors, and allow parents to select the best possible nanny. Similar tests are used by corporate and government organizations worldwide (including some 80% of the US Fortune 500 companies and 75% of the UK Times 100 compani

Could your marriage use a boost? If you could unlock the door to happiness, would you? Would your children be happier if you were too? Inside you’ll discover one simple master key to becoming parents in love. Because of busy lives, the demands of children, and little time for each other, is ...

Your children are going to encounter other children who are different than them. Here's three ways to teach your children to accept other children. 1. Understanding: We all have situations. There are always underlying circumstances that people are going through that they don’t outwardly express. Often, past events have affected how they view the world. And also view themselves.

If you’re looking for some discipline help so you can increase motivation, responsibility, and learning in young people, then stay away from the following 10 counterproductive discipline approaches. 1. BEING REACTIVE Parents and teachers too often become stressed by reacting to inappropriate behavior. It is far more effective to employ a proactive approach at the outset to inspire children to want to behave responsibly and then use a non-adversarial response whenever they do not. 2. RELIANCE ON RULESr

Many parents of children with ADD and ADHD will read the title and throw up their hands. Come on. Really? Praising children has been a technique used for motivation since the beginning of time. It can backfire? Hold on. Don’t throw up the white flag yet. Here it is boiled down to three simple errors to avoid when praising your children: Avoid Praising Intelligence

Whether you work outside the house or stay at home full-time, the toughest part of the day is the same: those frantic early evening hours when there are mouths to feed, homework to do, and cranky kids to handle. The trick is to streamline your to-do’s so you can feel calmer and focus on what counts – spending time with your family. Here’s how. 1) Ease into the Evening

For most parents, saying no to their children is hard. Parents may feel that they are being mean, unfair, or that they are denying their children life’s pleasures by not letting them have their every heart’s desire. Often times, parents take the saying, “Ask and you shall receive,” a bit too literally. nnWith brighter, shinier, faster toys on the market these days, it seems that children hardly have a chance to play with their toys before they want the

The conversation about changing our minds, our schools, and our nation to a paradigm that focuses on strengths begins with parents and teachers. Parents, teachers, and students can begin to form a strength alliance between the home and the school. If you are a parent and use this book at home, share it with your school. Likewise, if you are a teacher and practice these exercises and philosophies with your students, waste no time in sharing them with your students' parents. He

When our children reach age two, it can be very tempting to push our children to potty train, whether or not they are ready. As a parent, when we see our children's peers master something new, it can be hard to sit back and wait for our child to naturally achieve the same developmental milestone. But potty training before you and your child are ready often leads to stress, frustration and an unnecessary battle of the wills. Fortunately, if you wait until your child is ready to begin potty training, many of the power struggles that traditionally come along with it can be avoided.

With childhood obesity, autism and other childhood disorders on the rise, everyone from doctors to teachers and parents are seeking solutions for better health. At the most basic level, everyone can agree that kids can benefit from eating healthier. Truth is, with all the glitzy candy and processed foods competing for your kids’ attention how do you get them to eat healthy meals? Over the years, we’ve found many solutions, but we also salute the creative parents who’ve

Wondering how to make Christmas morning a hit for your child without breaking the bank or bringing in more brightly colored plastic toys to your house? I have some time- tested ideas for you! I'll list them according to the age of your children. Some items listed will be of interest to all ages, so feel free to mix and match! BABIES and YOUNG TODDLERS Box of Kleenex to explore and watch each new piece pop up (It's only Christmas once a year!) Toilet paper roll to explore (keeps baby busy while others open gifts)r

Even though parents argue as to the best residential schedule, choice of school, faith, holiday time, Christmas and extra-curricular activities, these issues are simply not as predictive for the outcome of children of separated parents as conflict alone.

Imagine this scene: A neighbor is at your house, visiting over a cup of tea. You start feeling irritated and pressured when you realize you are running late for an appointment. What would you say to your neighbor? Imagine the same situation, except it's your child at the breakfast table. How ...

Working with parents whose marriages are on the cusp of failure or already separated parents fighting it out over the care of their children is a challenging proposition for the mental health professional. Whether acting in the role of couple therapist, mediator, assessor, arbitrator or parenting coordinator, there is a sub-group of persons for whom none of these services provide relief.

Raising children is both a joy and a challenge and balancing it all can be overwhelming at times. Sure, they're cute and cuddly at birth, but getting them through the many years to adulthood is not such a leisurely walk in the park! rnMy personal take is that the basic role of a parent is to equip one’s children with the knowledge, skills and insight needed for them to grow into well balanced, caring, independent, capable, responsible, fulfilled and contributing members of

It’s easy to get into power struggles with your children. However, once you learn what triggers power struggles, you can avoid them. Let’s look at how to do this using a couple of examples. In the first situation, five year old Jacob has asked his mom if he can have a cookie. ...

If you're a mom on the go, you know how tempting it can be to hit the drive-thru or the vending machine when your kids' tummies start to growl. But there are healthier and less expensive alternatives. To ward off last-minute munchies, keep a bag packed in your car or in your fridge with some of the following: 1. Healthy granola bars It is possible to find healthy, organic varieties of granola bars, but you'll have to look at the label carefully. Look for a brand with high fib

Does your older child boss your younger child? Are you worried about your younger child’s self-esteem? Inside you’ll find 3 parenting tips for building character and handling bossiness. Childhood Humor: George bossed and teased his little sister every day. She screamed. She cried. She ...

Contact is a major issue for foster children who often have confused feelings about their family and the reasons they are in care. Foster children usually want contact even if it is stressful. It is one of foster carers main role to support contact which might be directed by a court or agreed between the childs social worker and the parents but contact often has problems for the foster child and the foster carers. Foster children often feel anxious before contact which effe

One specific trait that single moms naturally acquire is smart shopping. It is an innate characteristic hinged on a mother’s survival instincts. We instinctively learn to take care of our offspring and provide them the best when there is no one else to depend on. Despite my limited financial ...

The family setting is an interesting arena that is rife with a gamut of emotions, trials and tribulations Sometimes relationships can get strained and individual family members can be singled out to bear the brunt of the family strain. Scapegoating is something that happens in any setting, group, gender, age, or race however, for the purpose of this article, I will be focusing on the nature of scapegoating in the family setting and family system.

As we approach Mother’s Day, I am drawn to reflect on the beliefs and feelings that surface as I ponder my experiences of being mothered and on how those experiences directly and indirectly affected my own mothering and continue to influence my grand-mothering. Each night during my childhood, mother snuggled me into bed asking that the Guardian Angels be at my side to enlighten, to guard, to rule, and to guide. Last evening as I tucked my youngest grandchild into his bed I wa

In the book, "The Five Love Languages For Children" Gary Chapman and Ross Campbell, the authorsn describe five ways to show love. Apparently, eachn of us has a preference for receiving love in an particular way. Discovering your child’s preferencesn gives you a big advantage and ...

How can we motivate our children to work harder in school, in a sport or in practicing an instrument? Will the promise of a reward for practicing the piano help our child practice more? Or will the threat of punishment be more effective? When we try to motivate our children to work harder, we can often end up feeling frustrated by the results. Understanding Internal Motivation Ideas about motivation are changing as new research teases out some of the key elements.

Some parenting ideas come and go like fads. Others stick around for decades. The ideas that last are those that work well in the long run to help parents with the challenging job of raising children. The common foundation for many current parenting ideas is Alfred Adler's (1870-1937) philosophy of treating each other with mutual respect. Parent education pioneers like Rudolf Dreikurs, Jane Nelsen and Adele Faber extended the Adlerian ideas into practical parenting tools.

Grant is sitting on his leg and tapping his pencil. As his mom observes the class, she notices that many of the other children are already turning in their work. Grant doesn’t even have one word written on the page. When the student sitting next to him complains about the tapping, the teacher kindly asks Grant to stop. He is quiet for a minute, but then begins hitting his shoe on the leg of the chair. The teacher recently reported that the number of incomplete assignments has placed Grant at risk for not passing 5th grade. Grant suffers from ADHD.

Child behaviour can be a tricky thing. Parents can tell themselves that defiant or inappropriate behavior is just a phase that their child is going through, but often, it just gets worse with time. What can you do about these problems? How can you restore a sense of peace and order to your home without going off the deep end or resorting to drastic measures? Many parents are at their breaking point when it comes to their children. Behaviour that was unacceptable and severely punished when we were kids, like being disrespectful to adults, seems to be a given with the kids of today.

We establish rules to help keep our kids safe. We'd all like to believe our children would make the right choice when presented with a situation like whether or not to answer the door to a stranger. But what would they really do? What would your kids do? Recently NBC's Dateline tested a few kids in tough situations in a program called "The Perils of Parenting". Although it wasn't a scientific test, they demonstrated how easy it is to get kids to break rules.

The call it the "terrible twos." That period when parents first see a child's attempt at autonomy. While a child may show signs of temperament earlier, it is not until they are between 20 and 24 months that their acts are deliberate. A battle of wills can begin as the child attempts to exert their authority. This can last well into their teens. The level of resistant behavior will vary, but children will be rebellious, headstrong, frustrating, negative, argumentative, stubbor

Studies have shown that early reading is a good indicator of future success in school and in life. And learning to read starts with a desire to read. But what can you do to foster a love of books and reading in your preschool child? Read To Your Child Everyday The best way to get your child to love books and want to learn to read is to start reading everyday as early in your child’s life as possible. Make reading an experience and go slow. Talk about the pictures on every page, discuss what the characters are doing and what they might be doing next.

Working mom's guilt is the biggest downside to working away from the home. As a working mom, you get lots of benefits, from feeling a sense of contribution, to retaining your identity, to supporting your family. But a feeling of guilt is inevitable, especially if your kids are very young. Here are some tips for helping you work through the rough patches: 1. Do whatever it takes to feel confident that you are making the choice that's right for you. rnIn recent years, there has

I'm not sorry!

There are two ways you can approach parenting: one, from a reactive place and two, from a proactive place. Although you need to know and consistently use a simple, loving and effective discipline approach like I teach my clients, it is important, if not crucial, to learn proactive ways of avoiding misbehaviours in the first place.r

Having recently returned from a vacation back east, which included a visit to New York City, I found that it took me several days to recover from the jet lag due to the three-hour time difference. One of the first clients I saw upon returning to work in my practice involved an adolescent male whose mother remarked that with school about to start she wondered how her son was going to get to bed at a reasonable time and awaken early in the morning in time for school—given the summer schedule he has been living. My jet lag and this mother's comment caused me to think.

Magazine Messages nnThere are dozens of teen magazines, but almost all of them are directed toward girls. And although these magazines are theoretically targeted to teens, there's no doubt that they encourage and attract tween readers as well. Four best-selling teen magazines that target girls are Seventeen, Cosmo Girl! J-14, and Teen People. Headlines from these magazines emphasize fashion, clothes, sex, makeup, celebrities, being hot, and finding boyfriends. Most of the pho

Within the past fifty years, motherhood has gone from exaltation to embarrassment. Instead of being proud to claim motherhood as a career, we cower in the corner and mumble out a feeble, "I'm JUST a mom!" Just a mom? Give me a break! This entire mentality wasn't even present in our culture until recently. The media is a powerful force! It can discredit motherhood with its lies and we just gulp them up like hot doughnuts. So, what lies are you living?

You've heard the saying "Many hands make light work." But many hands also make the work a lot more fun. Moms constantly have projects up their sleeves. A good way to foster friendships and get your work done at the same time is to include your friends in some of your projects. You will all reap the benefits of quality time together and successful work accomplished. And if you have kids of the same age, they can enjoy a playdate as well. Here are some ideas to get you started: