Teaching Children to Make Good Choices - Food and Exercise
When it comes to childhood obesity, I'm not on the "blame-game-train." Looking for someone to blame is a cop-out. Instead, I vote we take responsibility and fix the problem. How? That's the problem and it's where we all come in, as parents, as educators and as a society. The job of a parent is to nurture, raise, teach and guide our children. No one should take that away from us, but it is a hefty responsibility. While the schools and others in the community play a role, we as parents are the ones ultimately responsible for teaching our children to make the right choices. It's not going to be easy, but here are a few steps that may help. Set Limits: While they complain about them, most children want...
7 Tips for Teaching Children Science
Getting kids interested in science at an early age is very important. It's easier thanyou think. Science does not have to be something mysterious. It is happening allaround us, and you can use everyday things to encourage your children's interestand knowledge. Most parents believe that they can't help their children with science. But you don'tneed a advanced scientific degree to teach young children science. All you need is awillingness to try, to observe the world, and to take the time to encourage theirnatural curiosity. You can help by having a positive attitude toward science yourself. Then start simplyby asking your child questions about the things you see every day. Why do you thinkthat...
Teaching Children the Savings Habit
It doesn't seem the time to start writing about savings, what with the all the financial turmoil that is going on around us. But this is exactly why we should be writing and talking about it and we should be teaching our children good saving habits. Watch out for a program in your local area where banks and credit unions set up shop to encourage young children to open accounts. They make it fun and interesting and if they get the savings habit now it will stand to them in years to come. My favourite recommendations for children's accounts are the credit unions, for several reasons. To begin with they are community based; they are off the community and for the community. In my experience they help...
Look! I Did it Myself! Teaching Children Independence
There is nothing sweeter than watching a child master a skill and know it. Whether it's potty training, learning to put on a jacket by himself, tackling cutting skills, or understanding that blue and yellow make green each and every time, that 'ah-ha' moment is priceless. Of course, it takes lots of practice for most kids to master something new, and there are usually missteps along the way. Oftentimes, the child gets frustrated when a new task is difficult, yet learning perseverance is also part of the equation. Sure, as parents we are all busy and there are many times when it is just easier for us to do things for our kids, instead of watching the painstaking process of them learning a new skill...
Teaching Children the Art of Kids Karate
It is an amazing fact that years ago when younger people played up or did not conform to society the most common answer was to enlist them in the defense forces (Army Navy Air force etc). This type of thinking does not seem to be in vogue any more but the violence in young people seems to be accelerating, is it the lack of discipline from an early age? What is the answer? Around the world thousands of parents enrol their children into the martial arts all with varying reasons, the reasons vary from: teaching their children discipline, giving their child/children more self-esteem or more confidence, giving their child the ability to defend themselves, a lot of parents see martial arts as a way of...
Social Scripts Autism - Teaching Children With Autism Better Verbal Communication Skills
Social Scripts Autism Children with autism commonly have to manage matters with verbal communication. This is usually due to the frequent speech and talk problems associated among the disorder. Though the actual motive that these topics are engaged by autistic children is unknown, many authorities believe which they are the result of multi conditions occurring before, during, or after the child's birth that have had an influence on the development of the brain. The inability to properly communicate verbally can make interpretation and interaction providing the simple market much more difficult. Social Scripts Autism The communication problems experienced vary from child to child, depending on the...
Many parents want to teach their children about renewable energy and energy efficiency early in life because once they get in the habit of it, it will be a habit they continue to follow for the rest of their life. But where should you start when teaching renewable energy for kids? A good start would be defining exactly what renewable energy is. You can suggest they make a list of non-renewable and renewable power sources and build from there. Some examples would be: Non-Renewable: Oil/Gas, Natural Gas, Coal, Nuclear Renewable: Solar, Wind, Geothermal, Hydro/Water Explain to them how renewable energy comes from natural forces. It is different from fossil fuels as it does not make greenhouse gases or...
How to Effective Teaching Children
No parents want their kids to be weaker or less active then their peers. Every child should develop his own talent. However, it is a mistake to count on school discipline alone to mold your kids. Good characters are growing from the combinations of school discipline and parenting. Due to the daily working load, many parents find weary or losing patience in educating kids. And persistent preaching is generally considered not effective and tedious both by parents and children. An effective and easy way is introducing the element of playing into familial parenting. Playing, the nature of kids and should not be deprived form a kid’s childhood. Also, knowledge and skills are faster learned in the...
K 12 Environmental Science - Teaching Children About the Impact of the Energy Crisis
The global energy crisis and the growing energy consumption in the United States are two topics that environmentalists have been pushing to the forefront of the media for a while. With the rising cost of fuels, it is now apparent that we need alternative energy sources. There are plenty of ideas available on ways to deal with this ongoing energy crisis, but the best way to ensure the future of our countries energy independence is to educate the future generations about our energy dependence on the world, our current energy usage habits and to teach different usage habits, and to most importantly cultivate new ideas of energy sustainability. It was therefore a natural progression to re- introduce and...
An increasing number of families are realizing the benefits of introducing their children to second (or more) languages from an early age. In this day in age it is becoming more and more possible to raise children bilingually. What an incredible gift! Choosing and sticking with a plan for what is best for your family in regards to how to go about creating a bilingual home life can be quite challenging. When I bring up signing with a baby/child, a concern I often hear from parents who speak more than one language at home is “Will adding yet another language to the mix (American Sign Language) be too much? Won’t this be confusing for my child?!” While this is a very natural way to feel...
Teaching Children About The Four Kinds Of Kinetic Energy
Your child comes home with questions about the different kinds of kinetic energy. So how do you distinguish between the many different types? You can use common examples to help your child understand the kinds of kinetic energy. Kinetic energy, or the energy of motion, is the ability to do work. If you use a force across a distance, you do work in a scientific sense. If you slide a book across a table, you have used kinetic energy. The many kinds of kinetic energy include mechanical, electrical, radiant, and sound. Four Kinds of Kinetic Energy #1- Mechanical kinetic energy is the most familiar and common example of kinetic energy. As an object moves, it has kinetic energy. In order to lift an orange...
Teaching Children Patience
Patience is a state of calm, confident acceptance of the time something, or someone, takes. Parents of infants often feel impatient to see their child's development, to satisfy their curiosity about the personality their child will demonstrate. Parents of toddlers often display impatience when their child wants to stop and explore where she is while on a walk. Parents of children of all ages often become impatient when their child wanders off task and takes longer than the parent believes is necessary to complete an undertaking. Parents most commonly feel agonized by the pain of impatience when their child displays impatience, like when an infant cries during the time it takes for you to cater to a...
Teaching Children About Thanksgiving Through Activities
Here are some activities that you can use to help teach your children the meaning of Thanksgiving. One: Thanksgiving Sequencing Activity With this activity you are going to need to have felt cut outs in the shapes of turkeys, Indian corn, pilgrims, Indians, and other symbols that are related to Thanksgiving. You want to have each of the symbols in a variety of sizes. For the activity, you can talk about what each symbol means as the children place the symbols in sequence from large to small or small to large. Number Two: Thanksgiving Matching Game You can make your own cards or you can buy cards that have a variety of Thanksgiving symbols on them; make sure there is one pair of each symbol at least...
Autism And Communication - Teaching Children With Autism Better Verbal Communication Skills
Autism And Communication Children with autism commonly have to deal with problems amongst verbal communication. This is typically due to the frequent speech and gobbledygook problems associated with the disorder. Though the actual reason who such problems are faced by autistic children is unknown, many experts believe which properties are the result of several conditions occurring before, during, or once the child's birth such a hold had an impact on the development of the brain. The inability to ideally communicate verbally can make interpretation and interaction with the child's world significantly larger number of difficult. The communication problems experienced vary from child to child...
Teaching Children to Cook - 6 Important Guidelines
Kids of all ages love to help in the kitchen. It's a great family activity and it fosters confidence and a sense of purpose as each child contributes to family life. Plus, your kids will be learning skills that they will draw upon throughout their lives. Here are six important guidelines to follow as you help your children learn to cook. 1. It's important to emphasize safety first for all kids in the kitchen. Determine beforehand what kinds of jobs will be appropriate for your children's ages. If your child has to stand on a stool or a chair to reach the stove, he or she is too young to cook. Start young children with jobs that are far away from dangerous kitchen items. Young kids can set and clear...
Toy Boxes - A Key to Teaching Children Organization
Toys are the best friends of a child ever since he or she is born. Apart from shopping for clothes or hearing that the stork is to arrive, mothers and fathers to-be are on the lookout for unique rattles and bright Fischer toys to welcome their baby before it is even born. Since everyone is on the fast track and doing things ahead of time, toy boxes too should be the norm for all babies as soon as they are able to amble along. Getting to them while they are young and teaching them to look after their toys and keeping them away at night can go a long way in building lifelong good habits. For clutter is the biggest dread and ill of modern times, and the sooner a child learns to deal with it the better...
Home Spun Schools - Teaching Children at Home What Parents Are Doing and How They Are Doing It
In this day and age we often find that, the more we know the more we still have to learn. Whether it is in discovering that the moon or Mars may contain water to finding new species of ocean life, we continually come to the conclusion that there is much left to discover and learn about our universe and about ourselves. This is also the case when it comes to the field of education. It wasn't that long ago that children were receiving formal education in a one room schoolhouse with all age groups in attendance. This well-meant approach quickly revealed many problems. In addition to the difficulty controlling the older children to not unduly influence other children of a younger age, there was the...
Teaching Children Values Through Reading
You can teach values through reading with your child. Illustrated picture books are a good way to start this process. These books tell stories that a young child can understand and through the plot and theme values are represented. Young children ask many questions and a character that thinks about situations and asks questions of a wiser character is someone your child can relate to. He can put himself in the place of the young character. It is a good way for him or her to learn about values like wisdom, right, and wrong. The book can help your child learn values easier as they are demonstrated through the good and bad actions of a book's characters. Sometimes an older wiser character shows the...
The Importance of Teaching Children Entrepreneurship
Being an entrepreneur is a great way to make a living and is one of the most enjoyable careers to pursue in one's life. Almost every entrepreneur wishes he or she could have started at a young age and many believe that some form of entrepreneurship should be taught to students in school. Developing a curriculum, creating an after-school club or establishing a business plan competition are all ways that schools can implement strategies of introducing children to entrepreneurship. This subject should be just as important as learning about science, math or history. Creating a class devoted to entrepreneurship will allow students to learn all types of concepts focused on starting and operating a company...
Teaching Children Responsibility
What does it mean to teach your children responsibility? Every parent has a different answer and a different expectation of when and how their child will assume personal responsibility. One thing is for sure and that is that responsibility must be taught. It is not a natural skill, but it can be learned at any age. You do not become responsible when you are mature, but rather you become mature when you are responsible. Four variables in this exciting venture; 1. Your child (learning style, age, motor skills, interest, hot buttons or incentives) 2. Your expectations (perfection or ever-learning, do you punish for the truth?) 3. Your example (use the 4 r's, recognize, remorse, restitution and resolve...
Why Teaching Children to Keep Promises is Important
The bible said to train up a child in the way that they should go and when they are old, they will not depart from it. Keeping our word builds character, it shows that we are dependable and people can rely on us. This trait is easier to develop as a child rather than learning it through trials and errors as an adult. This is why it's important to teach children to keep their promises. We should teach them to keep their promise as best they can otherwise they would be labeled as a liar and this label can follow them all their lives. We wouldn't want that. It is easy to make a promise and not keep it especially when things go wrong but it doesn't change the fact that a promise was made so if it can't...
School Systems and Global Warming - Teaching Children About the Causes of Global Warming
Among all of the things that are being taught in our public schools, one thing that should have a little more time and dedication put into it is the subject of the natural causes of global warming along with the man made causes. These future grown-ups will need to understand just how serious this is, what impact humans have on it and what we can and cannot change about the process if they are to succeed as adults. The more we understand about all of the causes of earth warming, the better prepared we will be to end it. If you ask a lot of the kids out there what they know about the cause of global warming they probably will not be able to tell you much about it at all, if anything really. This is a...
Dad's Guide to Raising Kids - Teaching Children Table Manners
Introduce them to a spoon and fork Parents are constantly worried about how little their toddlers eat. It just never seems to be enough. What they don't realize is that toddlers have very small stomachs, which fill up very quickly. One way to deal with this is have them eat more frequent meals. Weaning toddlers off to the snack table is no easy task, as every parent knows. What they can do, however, is make eating a fun experience by adding lots of taste and variety in their diet. Teaching table manners to toddlers may seem like a futile endeavor when you can't even get them to sit still at the table. However, it has been observed that spoons and forks tend to give toddlers a 'handle' on the...
Raising Children Successfully - How to Do It
The Importance of Loving Your Child Loving your child should come naturally but showing your child love may, at times, be more difficult. It is essential though that you not only love your child but that you also show them this love as if they do not know your love it can lead to serious problems later on. Teenagers Who Do Not Feel Loved are More Likely to Become Rebellious If you want a good relationship with your teenager then start now. If a teenager feels loved by their parents and accepted unconditionally then they are less likely to rebel. Rebellion is often a way of trying to get attention and feel noticed but if they already feel important in their parent's eyes then they will not need to go...
Tips For Single Mums Raising Children
If I could give advice to single mums regarding raising their kids I would say this: Give your kids good boundaries. Let your kids know exactly what you expect of them. Sit down and talk to them about these boundaries. Help the kids understand that the household rules are for their benefit. When kids understand the reason behind rules they are much more likely to abide by them. With my kids I write down consequences and they are stuck up in the kitchen in a prominent place. The kids and I have talked about certain consequences such as withdrawal of privileges like play station and desserts for three days if they are caught using bad language. This really helps kids. The idea here is that if the kids...
Asian Girls and Raising Children
Asian girls that come to the United States and become citizens are often choosing to raise their children much differently than their parents raised them. In fact, some of the Asian elders worry that with so many young people running off to other countries that the Asian culture will be lost along the way. The truth is that those Asian girls that choose to raise their children in the Western manner do so because they find it more appealing. They may not think it is as good as their cultural roots, but they often find it easier. For instance, Asian girls send their children to daycare in America more often than not. In the Far East, women are supposed to stay home and take care of the children...
Raising Children Using The Five Love Languages Part 3
Love language number 3 is all about hugs. It is called "physical touch" and it belongs to all the huggie people out there. I am sure you have met them. The people who have this love language, just love to hug people and touch people. I have a friend who owns this love language. I am not a huggie person, but she is and I know that she feels loved when I give her a hug. Funny hey? Just a hug, but it means the world to her. Maybe you have huggie friends or family members that just love hugs, or like to touch you. Now you know that this is their love language, you can make sure you speak to them in this love language and make them feel very love and wanted. Children show this love language a lot, you...
Raising Children - Hobbies are the Best Medicine
Hobbies are very beneficial for children. It gives the child ample opportunity for the expression of one's creativity and it also gives them a platform for discovering their own talents and skills so that they can build their self esteem. They also serve as educational tools. A child who is interested in collecting rocks gets to learn more about science and geology and a child who enjoys writing stories gets to learn more about grammar an structuring sentences. Hobbies also help children learn how to set goals and achieve them, make decisions and solve problems. Hobbies can also help influence the career your child follows in the future. Hobbies often become life long interests that translate into...
Raising Children With Your Ex Spouse
When the decision has been reached to get a divorce and you have children together, the next most important thing is to decide upon a plan for co-parenting. While certainly it's true that divorce signifies the final end to the marriage, it should not also signify the end of a family. It's widely accepted that parents who decide to divorce or separate but continue to cooperate as far as the parenting of the children are concerned, often create the best transition and adjustment period for their children. The term co-parenting is used to describe a situation where a divorced couple work in tandem to keep a polite relationship between them and are consistent in their efforts to share the parenting...
Raising Children Who Are Emotionally Healthy
It's widely known that for healthy children, you need to take care of their physical needs. Women often take very good care of their own bodies during pregnancy because they know that it helps the unborn child. Once the child is born, there is a lot of information about how to feed them, burp them, and care for all their needs. They are our future, and a lot of attention goes into this field. But taking care of the emotional needs of infants and children is not always as easy to understand. When is it okay to let the baby cry? How important is it to hold the little one? What kind of bonding needs to happen between the parents and the child? If there is no father present, how can you involve other...
Maria Montessori believed that even though the child is not able to talk before the age of 1.5 years, it does not mean that he is not learning anything. In fact, a young child's mind is able to absorb knowledge exposed to him and also has the power to teach himself, despite not being able to speak. This is what Dr Montessori refers to as the child's absorbent mind which is in fact 'at work' during the first three years of the child's life. During this time, the child "learns everything without knowing he is learning it, and in doing so he possess little by little from the unconscious to the conscious, treading always in the paths of joy and love". (Absorbent Mind, p.26) By this, Montessori means...
Raising Children - Helping Lazy Kids Improve Grades Remarkably
All parents with school-going children will face the same concern of how their child performs in school. Such concerns will give the parents headaches if they are told by the teacher that their child has the potential to achieve better grades at school but is apparently too lazy to put in sufficient effort. It is important that the parents should start to analyze the situation carefully and consider how to really help the lazy kids to improve their grades. This article will offer tips on how to motivate your child to become interested in learning and thereby making a marked improvement in his grades. For many parents, the moment they see that their child has attained poor grades, the emergency...
Raising Children - Is Parental Influence Important?
Parenting does not come naturally to everybody. It is a learning process with lots of struggles and hair-pulling along the way. Of course, there will be lots of joy as well when you watch your child grow up healthily and happily. During the times when your older child refuses to listen to you or talks back to you, do you wonder if your child was under the bad influence of his peers? Or could it be parental influence actually? Have you ever argued with your spouse over trivial issues in front of your young children? When your child refuses to read, did you stop to ask yourself do you read with them at night from young? Or was the television turned on full blast while shouting to your children to...
Raising Children's Intelligence
Remember when you were growing up and you were told by your parents that you should do this and you should not do that? Mostly, it did not really feel right but you obeyed them anyway. It was easier to obey the parents and it often continued that way your whole life. In fact it is easier to go with the crowd. We know the crowd's intelligence; it operates at the lowest common denominator and the weakest link of the crowd is the intersection of ignorance and intelligence. This is where you had the choice to rebel or obey. It has always been a natural thing to want to be honoured, respected and loved and for this we have had to be obedient. When we were obedient we were praised and loved and when we...
Raising Children in an Age of Instant Gratification
Most parents these days are concerned about the effects that technology will have their children. Electronic producers are targeting their products to younger and younger audiences, so that children are more accustomed to interacting with their electronic gadgets such as phones, ipods, computers, and video games, and less likely to interact with one another. Is there a reason to be concerned about this electronic preoccupation, and can anything be done about it? In a book by Dr. Osit entitled Generation Text, the author explains that the combination of technology interactions and immediate gratification is challenging todayâs teens for developing a misguided and distorted self-image, work...
Raising Children Who Care - Teaching Charity and Compassion
There seems to be a generalized opinion that kids and teens in America are selfish and spoiled. While this might be true of some kids, it doesn't have to be true of yours. By setting a good example, talking about people, animals and things that need help, exposing your child to charitable opportunities and stressing the importance of community, you can raise children who are empathetic, giving and kind. The Most Important Role Model - You It is nearly impossible - not to mention not fair - to expect your child to be caring and charitable if you are not acting that way yourself. On the other hand if your children see you donating canned goods to a food drive, clothes to a thrift shop and toys to...
Raising Children - Learning Through Montessori's 'New Education' Method
Maria Montessori believed that in order for the world to become a more peaceful and more civilized society for people to live in, the new generations must be taught to live in harmony and their hidden potential must be developed to the fullest. She believed that the only way to do it was through education. However, there was a need for the old educational system to be reformed as it was too teacher-centered, so it would not be able to maximize the potential in each child. The traditional system also did not prepare the child for life in society as the activities did not teach the child to work in collaboration with others, neither did it teach the child important skills such as concentration...
Tips For Raising Children With Manners and Morals
Manners and morals are subjective to the circumstances and environment a child lives in. They mainly depend on how you see the world around you and what you perceive. Teaching a child these values can be a bit complicated. If you have certain principles in life, then they are based on them. Your child may never understand why those principles are so important for you because they have not had the same experiences as you. Also, if the child sees that a majority of the world does not live sharing these principles, then they may never believe in them. In a world where morals depend on the circumstances you have to deal with, how does one teach their children the value of morals and ethics? The best way...
How To Treat "the Slave Of Raising Children"
Recently, a post named "The Slave of Rising Children" -- A 80s'Mother-to-Be Suffering from Melancholia has caused great dispute online and created a new identity, succeeding Car Slave, Card Slave and Mortgage Slave, for the people born in the 1980s. Some people list the high expenses needed to be undertaken at the moment when the baby is born, which includes an expense of 4,000 yuan each month that amounting to almost 480,000 yuan to 1 million yuan for cultivating a child. When the people born in the 1980s have children, they become anxious and try every measure to avoid from illness, luxurious consumption and changing jobs. Because of the great living pressure and high expenses of raising their...
Guidance will be aplenty on behalf of being a parent. Family, a best friend and the internet furnish guidance meant for an inexperienced parent. However, just how will one decide whose guidance is helpful as opposed to whose information is not. One will discover advice regarding parents and breastfeeding, teaching an infant sign language signs as well as the amount of sleep the child needs. Sometimes, this input may seem confusing. Breastfeeding happens to be possibly the easiest preference for an unexperienced mother. Lifestyle will play a significant role so a mom may not have an alternative. If one is able, then to breastfeed will be a wonderful choice. Studies have found to breastfeed will be...
When it is time to re-enter the job market there may be hurdles to overcome when you are creating or updating your CV. Your career break may mean that you have to take a step back and perhaps retrain, especially as you may find that things have moved on in your area of work. Of course, it depends how long you have been away from the job market and whether your employer has given you leave and perhaps kept your job open for you. The longer you have been away from your job, the more work you will have to do to convince a potential employer that you are up-to-date in your field, and that you will not have any significant childcare issues when you return to work. You will need to show the transferable...
A Third Culture Kid (TCK) is generally being referred to as " a person who has spent a significant part of his/her developmental years outside the parents' culture". Third Culture Kids enjoy a lot of advantages such as an expanded view of the world, a cross-cultural enrichment of their personality and many additional language learning opportunities. By meeting people and making friends from different cultures and countries, the child is exposed to different ways of thinking, different attitudes, habits and views early on and learns that there is more than one way to everything. This gives them a mature and balanced outlook on many topics and a tolerance and respect for different people from the...
Growing a Tomato Garden is Like Raising Children
Most people who like growing tomatoes prefer to grow them from the seeds rather than from the tomato plants from the nursery. Although there are many varieties of tomato plants which are good for first-timers like Better Boy, Creole and Brandywine, many seasoned gardeners prefer growing tomatoes from seeds as they feel that this helps prevent any soil or plant contamination that may have been brought to the greenhouse and nurseries from outside environments. A good tomato garden needs a very sunny place. Lighting is of utmost importance to tomatoes and the seedlings might end up being very leggy looking for light if the ambience isn't very bright. Whether you decide to use seedlings from your local...
Parenting Advice - What to Do When Your Child is Talking Back
Are these things you hear from your child when you tell or ask them to do something? - No! - You can't make me! - I don't want to! - Go away! - I won't do it! Hearing things like this from your little one can have you feeling embarrassed, sad, angry, and hopeless...Nobody likes to be shouted at and it can be especially painful and irritating to be yelled at by a child. Usually, parents and teachers who are dealing with back talk feel out of control and helpless about changing the situation... So here's something you can do as the adult to help your child or student start being more respectful toward you... It's something totally within your control... It's not a magic pill, but it WILL eventually...
Parenting Help - Saying Sorry to a Child
Today I found myself apologizing, genuinely, to my 4 year old daughter. We were out shopping for materials to create a "good choices jar" (whole other story - trying a new discipline technique!) and out of the blue she says to me "I don't like it when you call me little." I asked her what she meant and she said "You always tell people that I am little for my age and I don't like that because I'm big." To explain, she is 4 and has always been around the 25th percentile for height and weight on the growth charts. My 2 ½ year old is just about 4 inches shorter and only 2 pounds less (she's always been around the 75th percentile) - she's not fat, but she's dense - the older is skin and bones and...
Parenting Advice on Shopping With Children
Every parent knows that shopping with children can be very challenging. Tantrums can be excruciatingly plentiful in the shortest of shopping trips. However, parents can ensure a more peaceful supermarket excursion with the following guidelines. 1. If you're planning to shop with your children, plan it ahead. Determine beforehand where you'll be going and what you'll be looking for. Inform your children the kind of shopping trip they can expect. But if your kid is not especially comfortable in supermarkets and tends to get cranky every three minutes, then it's best to go shopping alone. 2. Shopping with your kids can be totally stressing. Before you go ahead with that shopping trip, be sure that you...
Child Parenting Advice - Divorce and Children
Divorce is rarely a painless process and is frequently a time when emotions are running high and there is a great deal on anger in the air. The way in which parents deal with anger and hostility is critical for the wellbeing of the children in both the short and long term. There can be few things in life as traumatic as a divorce bringing with it a mixture of feelings including anger, betrayal, confusion and uncertainty. It is a time of high emotion and often considerable change as living conditions are altered, finances are affected and normal routines are upset. Divorce is rarely a painless process but, in all cases, it is vital that throughout the process the interests of any children are...
Parenting Advice: Playing Favorites
Q: We have quite a dilemma in our house and I'm not sure which way to go. We have two daughters, ages 15 and 11. The 15-year-old has taken to blaming all her bad behavior on her sister because she thinks we treat her younger sister as the favorite. Can this make her behave badly? Do you think we should change how we treat them? A: Put two or more children in one family and someone will eventually cry "you treat him/her better than me!" So that leads to the question, should you take this seriously, and if so, what should you do about it? First, ask yourself if there is any validity to the complaint. It could be that one child is easier to deal with than the other _ high maintenance vs. low...
If your child accuses you falsely of child abuse, understand this is a common and scary result of a damaged parent-child relationship. An angry and hurt child can lash out against you to other family members, non-custodial parents, caregivers, teachers, school counselors, therapists, and doctors. Child Protective Services (CPS) workers know that a child rarely accuse parents with whom he has a good relationship. If you suspect that you may get a visit from CPS, clean and organize your household. It is difficult to think when you are emotional, so recall as much as you can. Write a list of the answers to these important questions: 1. What happened? 2. Who was involved? 3. When did it happen? 4...
Reasons to Ignore Parenting Advice
Everywhere you go, people spout their opinions. In-laws and parents alike, neighbors, coworkers, people at church: they all have their opinions and freely tell you what you should and should not be doing. Listening to wisdom is a good thing, but sometimes these people aren't offering wise advice. Sometimes they are just bragging about how much better they are, building themselves up at your expense. Sometimes they've never had children. Sometimes you watch them say some pretty nasty things to their own kids. Sometimes their advice just won't work for your family's needs. And when you are a home schooling family, everybody feels the need to put in their two cents about your child's education. This...
Parenting Advice - Managing Fever in Children
Mrs. Kumar gets tense every time her three year old son, Rohan, gets fever. She knows that she is in for a tough time, as Rohan becomes almost unmanageable when this happens. He stops eating, tends to throw up and keeps whining the whole day. He won't leave his mother, sticking to her like a leech. He doesn't sleep, and also has a tendency towards fever-induced convulsions. The combination of all these factors is enough to drive Mrs. Kumar up the wall at the thought of her son getting fever. Hers is not an isolated case; almost all mothers dread fever in their child, for they know that ensuing week is likely to be completely crazy. Fever is the commonest symptom that indicates that the child is...