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.
We let kids stay up late, hang out with whomever they want, and do whatever they want, as long as they aren’t harming themselves or others. So why don’t they “push the limits,” and harm one another? I’ll explain.
How many times do you hear parents frustrated that their young child or toddler doesn't listen? What can you do and what can you expect from toddlers when it comes to "listening"?
Setting boundaries is one of the more difficult things we do as parents. Not only because it's hard to say no to those we love, but also because it's complicated to know what constitutes a healthy boundary and what is unhealthy for our kids.
Do you allow your children to talk back to you? How do you react when they do?
Do you believe that children are our equals? What does this theory look like in practice and are we doing our children any favours by acting as though they are?
I’m a big fan of natural consequences. But sometimes natural just doesn’t do it – like when my daughter decides to throw her toys at me – sure, she sees me sad and I will not play with her, but that doesn’t quite seem to curb it, especially when she’s angry and threw it in order to hurt me.
Our Muddy Boots wrote a wonderful piece on parental bullying, but it opened some questions for some people that I wanted to address here. So here is my extension of OMB's piece.
Wonderful story of three amazing, though very intense, births. And a lesson that no matter how much we plan, our births may not turn out as we would have them.
