Your child’s behavior may cause you to have days when you feel the urge to lock your children in their rooms so you don’t have to face their difficulty. Although I think we can agree that imprisonment is not the best parenting strategy, there actually is a time for ignoring or overlooking their behavior. Ignoring…
Win-Lose Parenting: Why This Strategy Doesn’t Work
Parenting is one of the hardest jobs on the planet. Daily challenges can leave you guessing, hoping, and sometimes fighting to hang on to the management of your home. In the heat of some of these battles, it’s easy to slip into the mindset of win-lose parenting. This is one of the ways that many…
Parents, Give Yourselves Permission to do These 5 Things
Parents are very sacrificial people. They give up a lot for their kids–sleep, time, energy, money, comfort–and they seldom ask for anything in return. While raising three kids who played sports all year round, my husband and I sacrificed a lot for them. And there were days when I almost forgot who I was, besides…
Why Won’t My Kids Listen?
Why won’t my kids listen? Do you get frustrated because your kids ignore you? Or maybe they acknowledge you, but don’t actually seem to hear what you are saying? Maybe this scenario plays out in your home: Jack, turn off the video games and do your homework. (calm voice, nicely asked.) Jack, I said turn…
Your Kid’s Character is the Horse
How concerned are you about your kid’s character? Or are you more concerned about what they achieve in school or in sports? What do you want for your kids beyond a college education and the ability to get a good job when they are done? Perhaps it’s for them to find fulfillment in their work,…
What You Should Know About Your Child’s Friends
Your child’s friends are going to influence them, positively and negatively. Do you know who they are? Do you know anything about them? It’s important to know something about the friends your children choose so that you can help them discern right and wrong as they make choices. Here are 6 things you should observe…
WHAT DID YOU SAY?? Learning the Fine Art of Family Communication
How much time do you spend communicating? One study shows that the average American spends 70% of their active hours each day communicating verbally. That’s a lot of talking! But is it really communicating? As parents, it’s easy to give information to our kids and call that communicating. Don’t forget to …… Your dad will…
The Key to Helping Your Kids Change
Helping Your Kids Change–is that the real job of parenting? Change from being selfish and uncooperative. Change from being irresponsible, and change from any other number of irritating behaviors that parents see in their children. In fact, parents often settle into the thinking that their job is merely behavior modification, so changing a child’s bad…
The Best Valentines Gift EVER
What is your Valentines gift to your child today? February is known as a day of expressing love to the people in your life that are special to you. It can be argued that we should do this every day, especially for our kids. Knowing that their parents love them gives them a sense of…
Anger & Parenting: Should they co-exist?
Anger and parenting often go hand in hand. When the kids push your buttons, it’s easy to get angry, and then parent out of that anger. Although this is a natural reaction, it is not what is best for your child. Parenting out of your anger may result in you punishing your child, instead of…