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 is no one structure to a blended family, children may be transitioning a lot. Your children may be coming and
A guest post with Irina Nichifiriuc E o seară liniștită de vară. Matei, Areta și Eva se pregătesc de somn. De câteva săptămâni și-au făcut ”culcuș” în camera lui Matei unde și-au întins saltelele pe jos și dorm clai peste
Every child has longings for more time and more closeness with their parents. These longings are a big part of why it’s hard to want to go to bed at night, hard to get dressed to go to daycare or to Grandma’s, and why it can even be upsetting to see Mommy or Daddy cuddling
Early one morning, my daughter began to be aggressive in her play with her younger brother. She was insisting that he play with her, and on her terms. He was doing his best to tell her no, but it wasn’t getting through. The situation was escalating, and quick.
By Ravid Aisenman Abrahmsohn I was reminded recently just how much children tell us when we listen – through good times and bad. One family in my Skill Building group has a five- year-old son and a four-month-old daughter. The parents have been practicing the Hand in Hand Tools for 8 months now, and have been
I have thought a lot about what words I say to my two children when they are pushing boundaries and I need to set a limit. I have found the phrase, “I can’t let you do that” to be so helpful. Of course, physically stepping in to be close, and my body language, is just
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.”
I have a friend who has twin girls. Ever since they were born one of the twins (the second to be born) was labeled the more difficult one. She cried more than her twin sister, she ate less, and was not very easy to please. When they were about six months old, I was visiting the family,
After a weekend together, my husband and I were putting our kids to bed. The lights were out, but my 5-year-old was not settled; he was making a raspberry noise. This annoyed his brother, my 9-year-old, who shouted, “Be quiet! Stop that noise!” We tried, “your brother is asking you, please stop.” But nothing seemed
I was so sad when they were not getting along and my oldest was hitting and biting, particularly because I had read so many books and was from the beginning practicing attachment parenting and positive discipline.
My three-year-old and I had a Special Time during my older son’s piano lesson. When it ended and was time to pick my older son up, my younger son asked if he could get stickers also. His brother gets stickers at the end of a piano lesson. I said casually, “Okay let’s go in and
My younger son (age 2-1/2) started biting when he was just over two years old. He would bite when he and his older brother had sharing issues, or when he didn’t get his way. He would bite really hard. He could not assert himself against his older brother, who was three years older, more able
My older son, who was six, had been constantly on the edge for a few weeks. He let out his feelings by crying on weekends and then go back to school on Monday. His first grade teacher told us that he would take a long time on each school task, and sometimes couldn’t finish. I
I had been having a harder and harder time carving out regular Special Time for my two sons. During the day, when I am the only adult present, neither of them can stand to be alone while the other receives my warmth and attention. I don’t blame them! I tried to do Special Time in
It felt like an MFA in parenting! I think he really got the message that I love him and accepted his feelings and would not punish him for sharing them. Which now I realize I WAS doing in the past even though I had NO IDEA I was doing that!
First I would like to thank for your support. I am so glad that I could attend the Tantrum Training seminar. I have a 2.5 year old son and a 16 month old daughter. As my daughter started walking recently, she invaded my son’s territory. There is constant fighting, crying and tantruming. I used to
I moved us over to the couch and pulled him onto my lap and held him while he cried away all the cluttered emotions that were getting in his way.
I talked about nail biting, how I feel about it, and how I feel about my sons doing it. It felt to me as if nail biting was one of those habits that was almost impossible to shake off. I felt that my sons were doomed to live with the habit for the rest of their lives.