“Harmonious Parents”: Is This the Missing Link for Gentle Parents?
For too long, families practicing gentle parenting have struggled in feeling like they may be permissive. However, it may be that they have just been "harmonious" all along.
For too long, families practicing gentle parenting have struggled in feeling like they may be permissive. However, it may be that they have just been "harmonious" all along.
Most gentle parents I know don’t use punishment or love withdrawl (thank goodness) and so when they find themselves in a situation like we are in and their kids start acting out more and more, they can start to doubt that they’re doing much of anything.
Too often people think the key to learning self-soothing is to be left to experience distress, but science actually tells us it's the opposite: we need co-regulation.
Stress-Free Discipline promises techniques to help parents that will build the parent-child relationship. Unfortunately, it seems to be more of a behaviourist handbook than anything that will help families parent and discipline gently and meaningfully.
Sometimes our children's anger can seem irrational or out-of-place given the circumstances and in turn we react defensively and with anger ourselves. What if we could see the anger as really fear-based and respond in kind?
"Gentle" parenting or sleep training is making the rounds as an "it" thing, but is all of it actually gentle? Sadly there are too many wolves out there dressed up as sheep and it's up to us to identify the real gentle help from the pretend stuff.
Instead of ignoring your child or giving into a tantrum, what can you do? These are some steps to help you teach your child to solve their problems without hitting emotional overload.
Tantrums happen. Even to the best of us. The problem is when we feel our only options as parents are to ignore or give in. That isn't true. We need parents to know how to effectively handle tantrums for long-term emotional growth.
Your children find the flour and decorate your living room with it. What do you do?