When our grandson was one, and just walking, we convinced his parents to let us babysit so they could have a night out. They were quite nervous because they did not like to hear their son crying. We told them
Everything went well until we got to the checkout line and he asked for gum. I said no and he began to have a full blown tantrum, I was completely overwhelmed with the baby, the groceries and him. So I bought the gum. All the way home, I kept saying to myself, “You are being controlled by a child! This can only get worse.”
When my son was 4 he went through a period when he was very resistant to getting dressed. It didn’t matter if he was dressing himself or if I offered to help him, it was a struggle every morning. Over
What a gift setting limits with children can be when the limit is set with lots of warmth and patience for our child to go through the process of releasing their upsets.
The night before last, my three-year-old, awoke at 4:30 am crying and very scared. He kept asking, “Is someone gonna come?” He had watched Kung Fu Panda with us earlier that day, a movie that he’s seen many times and
One Saturday, we took our family to a club with an outdoor swimming pool. My step-daughter loves swimming and my son is starting to enjoy it more. There were two beautiful outdoor pools, a water slide, and a hot tub
Since that evening, he has practiced piano most every day, sometimes starting on his own, other times with my encouragement, which had never worked before. Piano practice did not feel like a dreaded chore any more. Something was lighter. I could tell that my son was playing because he liked it and he wanted to.
We had all been excited about watching the Olympic torch run past our house. My 6-year-old son had been particularly excited about it, as he had been working on the Olympics at his school and was interested in the topic.
I recently attended the Hand in Hand Weekend Retreat and wanted to report on what happened upon my return home. The retreat was wonderful. I was surrounded by beautiful redwoods, had fabulous meals prepared for me, and got a much
My husband, daughter, and I were on our way out the door to go to my daughter’s little tot swimming class. My husband had given my daughter a few pieces of candy in the house before we left. While we
Occasionally he would slow down enough to look over his shoulder to make sure I was with him. I’d say, “Yes, I’m still here. I love you. You can be as mad as you need to be and I’m going to stay with you.” The he’d keep on ‘running’. I have to admit it was hard not to chuckle at how sweet he was, with his little arms pumping away trying to get as far away from me as he could.
A sweet 9-year-old student whom I tutor came in the other day in a somewhat low-key mood. He got ready to do the math that I had planned for him. We were working on calculating the area of various shapes
Ever since Annie had been a little girl she’d had huge tantrums and long cries. Her mother was at the end of her rope. She didn’t understand why her daughter’s emotions were so big and she admittedly didn’t have a clue what to do.
When my kids were about 16 months old and taking a bath, one of them pulled up the shower knob and doused them both with cold water. Both of them cried a long time. Several nights after this I went to give them
“Hi, Hand in Hand Parenting, My almost 3 1/2 year old is having an especially hard time right now with family coming to visit. He has always had an extremely high need for connection. He still needs to sleep right
Words don’t work well in setting limits with children of any age! Move in close, offer a tone of generosity and warmth, and gently but firmly stop the unworkable behavior.
Well, I have bad news for you. It’s true that timeouts are infinitely better than hitting, and yelling. But Timeouts teach the wrong lessons, and they don’t work to create better behaved children.
Often times my son will walk by his siblings and push them down or punch them on their backs or yell in their faces. If they are doing something that irritates him, he will get extremely close and ball up his fists and visibly shake with anger.