Has this ever happened to you or someone you know? Child: “Mom we need to go to the store tonight! My project is due tomorrow and I need a poster board and some construction paper!” Parent: “How long have you known about this project?” Child: “They told us two weeks ago, but I don’t see what that has to do with anything.” Parent: “You have known for two weeks and you just now tell me! I can’t take you tonight.
I hear of parents whose knee-jerk reaction to almost anything that their child does wrong is to take away their child’s cell-phone. “It’s the only thing they care about”, parents will tell me. “It’s the only thing that makes them do the thing I ask them to do!” Whether the misbehavior is talking back, refusing to do chores, allowing grades to slip, or being mean to a sibling, these parents whip out their one skill (the cell phone take away)
“Mom…Mom…Mom…Mom…” Do you ever hear this coming from your kids while you are in the middle of a conversation with someone else? Have you ever responded by turning and yelling, “WHAT!” and then felt just a little embarrassed (or maybe not) for yourself or for your kids’ rude behavior? Would you like a simple technique that will make you look the kind of parent who has it all put together? The technique is called squeeze my fingers and it can
Many parents complain about how their children leave stuff all over the house. Parents either feel like unpaid servants or like broken records constantly nagging their kids to clean up after themselves. Some parents say that it takes less energy to clean up after their children then to get their children to clean up after themselves. Other parents complain that their children don’t move to clean up until they start yelling – and they hate the fact that they yell.
It’s 6:30am Friday morning. My 4-year-old son comes wandering into my room and asks, “Dad, what day is it?” I respond by saying, “It’s Friday.” “It’s Friday!” he exclaims with a burst of energy. Then he asks, “Can I watch a woovie (movie)?” Because of the research indicating the negative effects that TV watching can have on the developing brain of young children, my wife and I have tried to limit the time spent viewing movies and television in our
Why is it that two set of parents can apply the same consequence but yet get very different results? Is it because the child that learns from the consequence is good-natured while the other child who becomes resentful is just a bad egg? Does it all depend on the temperament of the child or does the way the parents apply the consequences have any influence over their effectiveness? I am reminded of mother whose first reaction when her child did
Mothers, do you sometimes feel like you have the Burger King logo around your neck because your kids expect you to make it their way; right away? Do you ever feel more like a cab driver and a short order cook then the queen of the castle? Is that the way it should be? So many kids nowadays grow up with the idea that they deserve the best their parents can afford (or not afford). This entitled attitude ends up
As a six year old boy, I remember being so scared of the haunted mansion at Disneyland. The ride began as a group of people walked into a large room and listened to a narrator tell us what we were in for. As I remember, the narrator had a deep, spooky voice and he stated we were welcome to come in, but we would never get out. Then suddenly the lights would go out. Everyone would hear a scream and
Have you ever seen a kid have a meltdown over something that seemed unimportant? For example, you start to help your toddler get dressed and you grab the Spiderman Shirt rather than the dinosaur shirt and he suddenly goes ballistic. Or maybe you order a hamburger rather than chicken nuggets and your child throws a conniption fit in the back seat. What could be so important about a dinosaur shirt and chicken nuggets that could cause our kids to fall
It’s easy to fall into the trap of demanding and threatening as a parent – especially when you want your child to get something done quickly. “If you don’t clean your room right now, you can forget about playing on the IPOD for the rest of the day.” Or “If you don’t finish your chores in the next 30 minutes you’re not going to have any friends over today.” Or finally, “I am sick and tired of you leaving your