I had just spent the prior week talking (i.e. stressing) about how much I should hold a limit around my daughter’s following through with activities. Should I just let her quit when she’s afraid or nervous? When is it time to push and when do I step back?
At the park one Sunday a little boy lifted my daughter, who is 3-1/2, in a tree and she fell. I heard her cry and ran to her. Her hand was dangling at a 90-degree angle from her forearm. I knew it was not good. Â I calmly picked her up and walked to the car.
Sometimes, in our house, it’s fine to eat candy. Sometimes — like when it’s 30 minutes before bedtime and we’ve already had sweets earlier in the evening — it’s not. My five year old daughter was really, really wanting to have candy at 8:30 p.m. one night, and I felt pretty clear that it was not the right time for such a thing.
My five-year-old daughter hadn’t been riding without her training wheels for long. She could pedal and ride along fine after getting an initial push from me, but she was determined to be able to start up on her own. So off she and I went to the park to practice!
Parenting by Connection Certification candidate, Otilia Mantelers, explains how she gently but firmly set a limit that allowed her young daughter to share di…
Setting Limits With Kristen Volk My six year old daughter seemed fine when she came home from school. Her nine year old brother had been sick for three days and I was looking forward to her being with us. However, it wasn’t long before she started being uncooperative, demanding and grumpy. She said, “No, I’m
I’m the mom of a young son, who has been my greatest teacher in life and has guided me to my deepest passion, parenting! My work in Theater from the time I was a little girl up until now pairs beautifully with my work today. I’m passionate about helping parents connect with their children and
Your child is good, precious, and, we hope, full of beans! If early needs somehow didn’t get met, or if the daily connections aren’t made, you’re going to hear about it in the form of challenging behavior. We hope you’ll move confidently to bring a limit. Limits help her relieve the stress she is under, so she can regain her innate good judgment and joy in cooperation.
It’s no secret that parenting well is a complex art form and each of us brings our own unique style and beliefs into the day to day raising of the children in our lives. But here are ten ways of thinking about your parenting career that can help, no matter what your style or the
In many Western cultures, there’s a longstanding history of permission to spank children. Many of our parents spanked. And most of us hold the perspective that our parents were doing their very best to love us. So whether to spank children or not is a confusing issue—if we turned out OK, and our parents spanked
Odd as it may seem, a child hitting means that child is afraid. To help them stop hitting, it’s helpful to understand that the fears that cause trouble for a child who hits usually have their roots in some frightening experience earlier in life, even though they may not seem frightened at all. To manage
Sooner or later in our lives as parents, we find ourselves locked in a power struggle with our child. It can happen over being fed with a spoon when a baby is just a year old. It can happen over getting dressed in the morning, over brushing teeth, and over going to bed. Our children, like
Many little boys I have known, and many girls too, go through a long phase during which they love to use body words and potty words to shock people, and to laugh and laugh. This is normal. It happens all over the world. So if your child is using potty words, fasten your seat belt for
Playdates can be great adventures for our children, and be a nice break for us as parents. But it’s important to establish some policies ahead of time to ensure the children will get along. When you and your child join or set up a play group, or get together with other families, it helps to
Helping children learn to deal with the desire for instant gratification is a big part of parenting A big part of our experience as parents has to do with developing ways to address the deeply felt wants and needs of our children. We deal with wants and needs from our babies’ earliest moments through their
Biting! Hitting! Pulling hair! Has your child ever lashed out and hurt someone? Has another aggressive child ever bothered him? If your answer is yes, join the crowd! Almost all of us struggle with understanding and helping our children when they hurt others, and when they are hurt by other children. It’s a shock to
Your child needs you to set kind, sensible limits and to have you close to them while they burst out with the intense feelings they have. This spilling of feelings, together with your kind attention and patience, is the most effective way to speed your child’s return to their sensible, loving self.
If we wanted to make a list of things that irritate parents, we’d find children whining near the top! It’s a behavior that every child tries sooner or later. Some children fall into whining and can’t seem to climb back out. By the time a parent decides to search for advice about handling whining, they