Guest Post: Taking Back Their Right to Talk Back
Do you allow your children to talk back to you? How do you react when they do?
Was It Always So Easy?
For those who struggle to be gentle and help their young children through emotionally trying times, but don't seem to be seeing the results, I just have this to say: It's not easy, but it is completely worth it.
The Myth of Warmth
The argument is that if you have a warmer relationship at other times, the failure to be responsiveness or to even be hurtful is not a problem. The problem is that science doesn't back that up at all...
Logical Consequences: A Quick Guide
When I wrote about the benefits of adding logical consequences to our toolkit with our daughter, I was met with some resistance from people. Most of the resistance centered on the fact that people view logical consequences as punishment and children don’t learn from punishment. I disagree and I thought I’d share a bit more on how to implement a logical consequence, along with what it does and does not include.
The Benefits of Logical Consequences
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.
Becoming a Gentle Parent
For many of us, we grew up with physical punishment, yelling, shaming, even full-on abuse. We so desperately want to change that cycle, but how? It can be unbelievably difficult to do. One mom asked if I could do a post on ways to change and work towards being the gentle parent we want to be. So here we are.
Reward Charts: What Are They Good For? (Almost) Absolutely Nothing
The idea is that children will receive a reward which will reinforce the behaviour you desire. And not surprisingly it works. When there is a reward, children will work towards that goal, sometimes even harder than they might if there were no reward. So what’s the problem? Isn’t this great?
When I’m Not So Fun to Be Around
After having a crappy day myself and shutting myself in the bedroom because I was ready to scream at everyone and throw whatever I could find out the window, I had to write this. So… how many of these can you relate to?
Bullying, Parenting, and Communication
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.
Yelling (Part II)
Part 2 of the Yelling posts, this time covering the loss of control over emotions and outcomes that can lead to yelling behaviour.