Dear Hand in Hand Parenting, I recently found out about your approach, and I really want to try some of these ideas. I have started Special Time, and it seems to be going well, but I’m confused about setting limits. You suggest a warm approach, with no need to yell. I’d love to work out
Dear Mama, If you have had a birth experience that did not go as you hoped or planned, it’s not selfish to have negative feelings about it. Even though you, or the people around you, may expect the joy of the new baby to erase any negative feelings about the birth, your feelings matter. Birth
Surely not one of us reading this set out thinking that parenting would be a breeze? We hear about sleep deprivation from the moment we announce that we are becoming parents. We know they’ll be allowances. Even when we vow that parenting won’t change us, we know, inside, that there has to be some. But
When my son was five years old, he asked to buy a set of army figures at the toy store. It was a set of about 40 small plastic figures, in different poses with different weapons and flags. There was also a plastic sheet with pictures of terrain on it. Although I didn’t want him
Playlistening is an invaluable tool that helps a child through situations when they feel powerless and have scared feelings and blocked fears. It usually works when there is some roleplay involved, like this story about a child who was scared of hairwashing, or this story, where playlistening helped with whining. In Playlistening, an element of
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, what better way to keep children safe than to simply ban all toy weapons and weapon play? Until I had
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 if I was reasonable and kind when I was setting limits that my son would kindly and reasonably comply. When