Why Does My Child Always Want Mom?
Our son is nearly three years old. He still goes through some separation anxiety when he’s without his mom. We usually put him to bed together, but the other night, my wife needed a break.
Hold The Limit, Honor the Struggle: Homework Battles and How to Help
It’s the beginning of the school year, and as surely as leaves will drop, so will the homework. Pages and pages of it. Sometimes whole binders worth. Homework can be the source of many arguments,
“I See You’re Having A Hard Time”: Why Connection Doesn’t Reward “Bad Behavior”
We’ve all had those mornings. The one that begins like nothing will ever be right again: “I do not want to get dressed. I want breakfast.” “I don’t want cereal. I want oatmeal.” “I
How I Made Peace With My Son’s Gun Play
Do you know that expression “I used to be a perfect parent, then I had kids?” I think that perfectly describes how sure I was that my children would not play with weapons. After all,
Our Very Last Walk to School: A Pause In Parenting Transitions
I’ve just walked my son to school for the last time. It feels significant because he’s my second child and my youngest. His older sister made this same leap from primary (elementary) to secondary school
When I Couldn’t Stop Yelling
I was excited to become a mother, but I didn’t have any idea what I was in for. I thought that parenting would be lots of love and gently guiding my child. I thought that
How to Help Siblings in Blended Families Get Along
Blending a family, and nurturing new sibling relationships, isn’t a simple task. It requires us to be thoughtful of each child and remember the separate, and long-established, histories they each bring with them. Since there
Releasing My Feelings About Household Chores Was Good For the Whole Family
Like many parents I often feel the amount of stuff to do around the house is endless. Cooking, cleaning, washing, tidying, and laundry makes me feel exhausted just thinking about it! My partner helps out
Parenting as a Team: Using Humor To Diffuse Tension
A Guest Post from Megha Mawandia In part one of this series on Parenting As a Team we talk about how to become more confident in making parenting decisions. Today we focus on an unexpected
Three-Steps to Parenting As a Team
A Guest Post from Megha Mawandia You may have heard the proverb, “It takes a village to raise a child.” No doubt, it is a beautiful thing for a child to be able to spend
Five Positive Things You Can Do To Promote Sharing On Playdates
Parenting can be all encompassing. It can seem to take us an age to figure out what we can accept and what our boundaries are at home, and then bam! We have to leave
Help School Troubles Using These Tools at Home
Dear Hand in Hand, My child is having serious aggression issues at school. She’s been acting out a lot. Her teachers tell me she throws tantrums and she cries loudly when she gets told off.
Connection Helps Create Trauma Sensitive Classrooms
Trauma can really undermine a children’s ability to thrive at school, affecting relationships and making it hard for them to follow school structure and directives. Dealing with these behaviours can be taxing on teaching staff, but
Unexplained Crying May Come from an Emotional Need
With Laura Minnigerode You thought you’d covered everything. It’s late in the day, your baby is fed, healthy, and their diaper is changed, you’ve jiggled and jostled them until you are exhausted, and they
Troubling Behavior: How to Take On an Emotional Project
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
Five Tools That Radically Transformed A Mom’s Relationship with Her Aggressive Son
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
These Parenting Tools Foster Lasting Change for Parents and Kids, Even in the Toughest Communities
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,
One Way to Unblock Stuck Emotions
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