When my son was around four, he had a hard time with playdates. He desperately wanted to play with other children, but these play times would quickly end in conflict. In particular, if a child came to our house, my son could not really enjoy playing with them; he tried to control the play, which
Part 1: Playlistening With Balloons My son loved playing with balloons when he was in control, but he had long been afraid of other people playing with balloons. He didn’t like the sounds balloons made when being filled with air, or when the air was released, or when the balloons popped. One day we were
My son had been through periods of using his small potty, but for some reason, he had become resistant. I tried putting him in underwear, hoping the natural consequences would help him learn, but it didn’t work. He did not want to use the potty! One day, when I was pretty sure he needed to
When my son was almost three years old, I really wanted to attend a conference on the other side of the country. I agonized over whether or not to go. The conference was several days long, so I didn’t want to leave my son at home; I would have to take him with me and
I was just reflecting on how much progress my family has made with the listening tools. Yesterday, I was working late, and my au pair (from Mexico) was eating dinner with my children and getting them ready for bed. The plan was for me to get home before 7 pm to take over the bedtime
Stop spanking and build a healthy discipline strategy both you and your child will feel good about. With Robbyn Peters Bennet, founder of StopSpanking.org, and Patty Wipfler, founder of Hand in Hand. From the Hand in Hand Toolbox Learn how to Set Limits with young children Setting Limits Without Blame or Shame Find your
My friend and I were doing Special Time together with her 4-year-old son, Cameron, at the local park. There were a lot of bull ants (a large and very aggressive kind of ant) on the ground. Cameron told us that ants were very dangerous, and scary, and that we should get out of their way.
Staylistening With Madeleine Winter Recently, one of the parents in a Parenting by Connection class I was teaching sent me this story about a success with Staylistening to her boy. Staylistening is where we stay close with a child who is upset, listening without comment, judgement, criticism or harshness. We make sure that everyone is
David and his mum came recently to a Parenting by Connection class series I taught, which included two Play Events. This is where families meet for a couple of hours, and the adults play with children just the way the children want to play. We do lots of Playlistening, where the children are in charge
Q. For a while now my son has been stuck in a theme of building “cages” or “prisons” to put bad guys in. He’s focused on all the places in the house where he could potentially lock someone in or out…While I realize this could just be something he needs to play with and get out
My five-year-old daughter and I had had a really fun evening together: a mommy-and-daughter dinner date at our favorite burger place, followed by frozen yogurt nearby. We talked a lot and were playful with one another throughout, but, toward the very end, her behavior started to go off-track. She wanted to walk on high walls that weren’t safe
These are simple practical ideas that will help when your toddler hits.
Angie was unhappy. Her mommy and daddy had brought her and her baby sister to a playtime at the Junior Museum. There was just one other child there, Nora, who was, like Angie, three years old. They had been playing in opposite corners of the playroom for a good while without acknowledging one another’s presence.
One of the key ideas of conventional parenting—the parenting most of us grew up with—is that when a child misbehaves, the parent should mete out consequences. The kinds of consequences we parents favor depend on the culture we’ve grown up in, but what if there’s another, more effective way to bring up well-disciplined children? Join
I invited my kids to my room for a nap after lunch. I told them I would get their mattresses and place them by the side of our bed and we all would rest together. It sounds like a good idea, doesn’t it? But as you know by now, I don’t write fairy tales.
When we decide to bring a second child home, we long for those siblings to be good friends. Or we at least hope to avoid siblings fighting all the time so we can get some quiet moments to ourselves. But inevitable tiffs, clashes, and explosions interrupt that dream we had for our children to play
My 7-year-old daughter, M, returned home from trick-or-treating this Halloween with a bag of candy that weighed at least 5 pounds. In past years, she would eat a few pieces of candy Halloween night, we would put the bag up away from the dogs, and then she could choose a piece each night after dinner. She would forget it was there after a couple of nights, and then we’d bring the rest into work for the office candy bowl. It didn’t quite work that way this year though.
The kinds of consequences we parents favor depend on the culture we’ve grown up in, but we’re all pretty well convinced, when we start out, that a parent needs to exact consequences for a child’s unthinking moments.