My partner’s son has to do one hour of eye exercises each night. Needless to say they are the last thing he wants to do. To give my partner a break from the limit setting and listening that followed I told him I would do the exercises with his son instead. When I approached his
One day, we were traveling by car six about hours away from our home town. I got food for the kids so they wouldn’t feel hungry during the ride, and they were soon tucking in. But after about five hours, my youngest daughter asked for a sandwich. By this time they were gone, so I
Playlistening is an invaluable tool that helps a child through situations they feel powerless about, scared feelings and blocked fears. It usually works when there is some roleplay involved, like this story about a girl who was scared of hairwashing, or this story, where playlistening helped with whining. In Playlistening, an element of roleplay helps
A Guest Post from Anca Deaconu and Megha Mawandia In part one of this series on Parenting As a Team Anca and Megha talked about how to become more confident in making parenting decisions. Today they focus on an unexpected tool for diffusing tension: Play Often when we make decisions about parenting, others are not in agreement. They might
The outburst happened immediately after my two children’s father brought them to my home. My twelve-year-old son wanted to use his father’s phone, but his sister wouldn’t share it. He screamed, “She always gets her way!” Then he went into a rage. I could tell straight away that this was a pretext, a reason he found
My son had been avoiding brushing his teeth for a couple of days before Christmas, and then on Christmas day, he’d eaten more sugary foods than he’s usually allowed. My husband was getting concerned, and as a result I could hear him getting rather heavy handed about tooth brushing and trying to set a limit
And even though he felt better, I ended up emotionally spent before my day even started! I was desperate for something different and decided to try playlistening.