Tag: Special Time

How I Faced Bedtime Fears With Play

My five-year-old son had been having trouble getting to sleep on his own. We had several weeks of him resisting bed time. He didn’t want to be alone in his room and kept coming up with lots things he “had to have” before he could sleep. My husband and I were curious about what had changed, but

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Why Special Time Helps You and Your Tween

This week my 12-year-old son and I took a few days off school. He is recovering from a heavy cold and I took the time off to look after him. I was also hoping to fill my own cup following some low-level ailments. Yesterday, we took a little walk out in the sunshine. He was

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Special Time Helps a Preteen Open Up

By Sarah Charlton We had just returned from a big family wedding in another part of the country and even though it had been a really good trip, we hadn’t had a lot of connection time to ourselves. We were feeling tired, so getting my son off to school the following morning had been fraught

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Separation Anxiety: Two Tools That Will Help

In the middle of preparing for a talk on Separation Anxiety with my fellow Hand in Hand Instructor, Anca Deaconu, my children decided to give me the perfect opportunity to practice what I preach. It started with beginning of the school year at kindergarten. This fall, my youngest one, Eva, started kindergarten. She had accompanied

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Take a Time Out from Time Outs

  Your son has been acting out all day. First he grabbed his friend’s toy truck at a playdate and refused to play nicely. He threw it across the room when you asked him to return it. Then when you got home he ate just two bites of a sandwich, turned his plate upside down

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Why Do My Kids Cry After We Have Good Fun?

  When I started using Special Time with my children they just fell in love with it. Special Time is a Hand in Hand Tool that works like this: You set aside a certain amount of time, say 10 – 15 minutes, and offer to play or do whatever your child likes. During this time

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Deux moyens pour stopper notre “spirale infernale” quand on est un parent à bout

Les sentiments intenses des parents pour leurs enfants, la routine de la vie quotidienne, les liens affectifs et la pression de la société sont autant de facteurs qui contribuent à ce tourbillon d'émotions, dit-elle. "Être parent est un travail émotionnel parce que nous aimons tellement nos enfants", a déclaré Patty. "La plupart des parents n'ont jamais ressenti cette intensité d'amour avant leur premier enfant. Ils feraient n'importe quoi pour eux. Et cela peut être accablant."

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Two Ways To Stop Your Downward Parenting Spiral

Parents’ intense feelings for their children, the everyday grind of daily life, emotional ties and pressure from society are all big contributors in this topsy-turvy whirl of emotions, she says. “Parenting is emotional work because we love our children so much,” said Patty. “Most parents have never felt that intensity of love before their first child. They would do anything for them. It’s overwhelming.”

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Learn Five Tools That Will Transform The Way You Parent In One Week

Discover Hand in Hand’s approach and an introduction to the Five Tools for calmer, connected parenting in Days 1-6 and then see how the tools work for real-life families on Days 7 and 8. Day 1: Five Tools To Transform Your ParentingDay 2: Special Time: Building Connection in MinutesDay 3: Three Steps to Setting LimitsDay 4: Staylistening: How Does Crying

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When Special Time got Me Soaked

I’d returned from a very rare trip to the hair salon in a good mood, and I found my son ready and waiting with a request to go out and play with his water gun. It had been snowing heavily for days and I felt that I couldn’t agree. I set the limit, but then

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Ever felt ‘Not Good Enough’?’

    A guest post by Skye Munro of Nurturing Connections Recently I had the privilege of sharing my passion for connected parenting with over 200 Early Childhood professionals. But right until they entered the room I was plagued with a case of the ‘What if’s”… What if I forget what I want to say?

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Monday Blues are Cured by Special Time

His fear is real. His tears are real. This is my son, trusting me, showing me how he feels. And I honor the chance that he offers me, that of being there for him. We’re together in this.

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Helping My Toddler with Her Fear of Dogs

After the incident, my daughter refused to go out of the house for the next couple of days. She would start screaming as soon as I would open the door. I took her gently in my arms and showed her out the window that the dog was in the kennel now and then we went outside. She wouldn’t let go, she stayed in my arms. The next day again we went back outside, and I called the dog to let her see that the dog couldn’t get out of the run.

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When my Son Asked, Mom, Does Santa Exist?

While I was shopping with my son the other day he saw Christmas decorations for sale. He wanted some bells and, to be completely honest, I wanted them too, so we got them right away. Once we got home, he asked me for the Special Time that we do every afternoon and I happily agreed.

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Using Special Time To Explore Things That Are Normally Off Limits

I had often heard that Special Time can be used by our children as a way to explore things that are normally off limits with our approval, and  I experienced this recently with my four-year-old son. He had been “experimenting” with the soap in the bathroom for a while. By this I mean he was

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