While imagination, fantasy, play and magic in childhood is…magical… lying to avoid important conversations, setting a limit or explaining certain aspects about life can really be harmful to the parent child relationship. Here are four reasons to avoid lies and four reasons to strive to tell the truth:
Things will get messy, loud, sticky, complicated and stressful.Choose love and building a relationship over proving you have power. Children learn so much when given a chance to fix their own mistakes.
Boundaries or limits will often vary from family to family but when we set boundaries, it’s important to think about how those boundaries will protect or affect feelings, behaviors, thoughts and physical safety. Boundaries are supposed to provide security and guidance, not to make a child feel locked in and controlled.
Healthy sleep habits are such an important and vital part of healthy development for children, yet for many families, the bed time routine is a huge hassle. When children resist going to sleep, refuse to brush teeth, have a sudden inability to put on pajamas and start whining “I just can’t do it” and “I’m not going to sleep” it’s hard to stay calm. Here are 8 Ideas that may be helpful towards creating a more peaceful bed time routine for young children.
Consistency sometimes turns into rigidity and control.Will there be times when consistency is important? Absolutely, but being flexible does not take away your ability to be consistent. Positive parenting is flexible and amazing because you can be flexible and consistent. You can be consistently open to new ideas and re-evaluation, consistently kind, mindful and committed to parenting well!
when we are kind and others are kind to us, it has the power to create happiness! When our children experience kindness, in our requests, in our actions and intentions, our world together can become a brighter and happier experience. Children will listen and cooperate because our requests are sincere, understandable and our expectations are fair and presented in a considerate way.
No matter how much you love your child there will be moments when you feel totally frustrated, angry, and at a loss for what to do…that is OK…positive parenting is NOT about perfection…instead strive to solve these conflicts in a respectful manner, cool off, think it over, don’t be afraid to say “let’s start this over!” What do you do when you are too angry to deal?
As parents, we create a sense of safety for our children not only by meeting their physical needs such as nourishment and rest, we also create a safe home when we show our children that we love them by meeting their emotional and social needs for touch, care, learning, giving them the freedom to express themselves creatively, and emotionally and using positive parenting tools to deal with mistakes and “misbehavior”.
Have you ever had a conversation a bit like this? “Can I have that toy?” “Not today.” “But’s it’s my
Responsibility is not something we can demand or insist upon from our children. It is something that is learned, by trial and error, by observation and by receiving ample chances to do things over again when needed. The process of learning responsibility can come with great pride and sometimes it involves experiencing failure and disappointment. Responsibility is about having the mindfulness to solve problems in a way that reflects our inner values of goodness, peace and kindness.