My daughter has just turned 8, and as she’s grown I’ve become increasingly frustrated when she doesn’t help around the house. When she doesn’t help tidy up, I start to feel like a ‘slave.’ It’s not a great feeling. I know that play and playlistening works well for these types of issues, but recently I’ve
A guest post from Sabina Veronelli Do you sometimes feel like your child has suddenly become grumpy or distant, and you have no idea why? When pre-schooler Charlie starts ignoring his friends one day at preschool and seems distracted at home, his mama wants to get to the heart of the matter. Here, Hand
One thing Shelley Macy likes to avoid is being called as an expert, despite the fact she has worked for decades training teachers. Shelley is an early childhood educator working with tribal early learning programs in Washington State and Idaho. She has native heritage but was raised in the white community. “That brings a white perspective,
Listen to Hand in Hand instructors Georgie Bancroft and Lyra L’Estrange in this past free parenting call on sibling rivalry. They will give you some fresh ideas on how to bring more harmony into sibling relationships using the Hand in Hand listening tools.
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) underlie what some researchers and clinicians see as the largest unrecognized public health crisis in our nation. Parents, teachers, and childcare providers often experience heightened stress as they care for children who struggle with the emotional, regulatory, and social challenges that can arise from early trauma. Strong adult-child relationships are the
An emotional project is a set of persistent feelings or behaviors that come up for your child again and again. When the same feeling or behavior is triggered many times in somewhat similar situations (like always hating to go to school or daycare, or always becoming aggressive if other children crowd too close), it indicates that there’s a big hurt under the surface. To heal that hurt, you’ll need to listen many times to the same big feelings—“You don’t care about me!” or “It’s not fair! It’s never fair!” As your child cries or rages and you listen with care, the two of you together will drain that big hurt, and change your child’s overall outlook on life and on his relationship with you.
Sarah would brace herself for the onslaught of hitting, punching, and threats that usually followed her five-year-old son’s glare. “He had a lot of fear and anger,” says the mom of two. He’d head butt and yell. Here’s what helped.
How do I control my angry child? Why won’t my baby sleep? What should I do about toddler tantrums? How do I build a strong bond with my tween? Parenting doesn’t come with a manual, it takes a village. But today, most of us are raising children in isolation. Parenting today can feel very lonely.
As Kirsten Nottleson faced the room of 30 female prison inmates, she could barely think. “We’d been told that these women were coming to the end of their sentences, that they would soon be reunified, and we’d prepared some pretty emotional stuff,” she says. But as she and her co-worker walked through the prison that
In his book, Playful Parenting, Lawrence Cohen says, “Play can be the long-sought bridge back to that deep emotional bond between parent and child.” Play invites adults into a child’s world, on their terms, and the giggles and laughter that follow releases tension, and helps barriers fall away. Bonding Through Play Sushila Hart, a nanny
Sabina shares a story of how the Hand in Hand Parenting tools are used together to help when a child is out of sorts and you don’t know why. handinhandparent…
The summer before Susan Derby began a graduate degree in Social Work she decided to run a class on connection parenting skills to a group at a non-profit housing facility in Los Angeles, CA. The organization provides shelter for homeless families with children, and Susan, a Hand in Hand Instructor, thought that visiting would be
Every Monday morning, just as soon as he wakes up, my son remembers that he’s supposed to go to the kindergarten and starts protesting: “I don’t like it, mommy and I don’t want to go; please let me stay home”. I listen to him every time, I hold him gently and then I say my “no”. He
Here’s a little question: …What’s going well for you? It’s a simple enough question and one that can bring a moment’s lightness when your day feels heavy. It’s also a question we ask a lot at Hand in Hand, and one that we encourage parents to ask each other, because we all know that parenting
by María Ignacia del Río Silva Read this post in Spanish One winter day, when my 6-year-old son was in kindergarten, I was – once again -surprised by the tremendous power he has to do “Special Time.” He loves that we see positive effects in out relationship and how he feels about himself. We had practiced
Listening Partnerships with Emilie Leeks When we first encountered Hand in Hand Parenting, we were struck not only by the non-judgemental, meet-you-where-you-are tone, but also by the practical ideas offered through the Listening Tools. Four of the five tools are aimed at the parent-child interaction, but the fifth tool, Listening Partnerships, is specifically for adults to use