Introducing The Great Sumo Play! My most recent fun idea for dissolving sibling struggles between my 6 and 12 year old is (drumroll): Sumo wrestling shirts! We get two of dad’s big t-shirts, stuff the front and back with bed pillows (2 in front, 1 in back seems to work well) and then, let the wrestling begin!
My 3-year-old daughter had never been away from me for more than half a day, until I went to the Hand in Hand Parent Retreat this year. She stayed with her father in a hotel close by so I could spend the nights with them. But during the day I was away. My daughter did
A few weeks ago I noticed that every time I asked my almost six year old son, Gabriel, to do anything he said, “No.” Well, in actuality he said, “No way, José!” very loudly. Like any normal mother I hoped this behavior would change. I hoped some more. And still more. Days went by before
Two years ago, we arranged for Dad to leave the Christmas party to “buy the paper” and a few minutes later Santa Claus arrived with presents in a bag. He then proceeded to read the rhymes on each present and distribute them before hasting off to the next family. This is the typical way that
When my kids were about 16 months old and taking a bath, one of them pulled up the shower knob and doused them both with cold water. Both of them cried a long time. Several nights after this I went to give them a bath and my daughter willingly returned to the tub but my son would have
Playlistening with Ravid Aisenman Abrahmsohn The other day my oldest daughter who is 10 came home from school very tense. She was hot, tired and hungry, but there was also something else that was bothering her, and she wouldn’t say what. After I fed her and let her cool down a little, it was time for
A parent asked me the other day, “If our goal is to create teenagers and adults that can manage their own feelings, shouldn’t we be teaching them to ‘self-soothe’ as little ones? Shouldn’t they learn to stop their own crying?” The implication here is that we grown-ups ‘manage’ our feelings all by ourselves. That just
Your child will have big feelings when special holidays or birthdays come up. It’s one of the phenomena you can set your clock by. We parents wish the universe were governed by forces a little easier on us than this one. But it may help to know that every other family deals with the same