Positive Parenting can help toddlers feel safe, loved, capable and cooperative. Toddlers love to test limits and say no. Sometimes toddlers may cry a lot. For that reason, toddlers get quite the reputation for being terrible… But the toddler years don’t have to be terrible. The so called terrible two’s can be in fact quite terrific.… Continue Reading

How To Raise an Emotionally Intelligent Child

How To Raise an Emotionally Intelligent Child

Emotionally intelligent children not only recognize and manage their own feelings, they are also able to understand emotional states of others.  Emotional intelligence is also important for healthy development.

Why Your Presence is What Your Child Needs To Thrive

Why Your Presence is What Your Child Needs To Thrive

The Importance of Quality Time With Kids It’s easy to think that video games, new clothes and ice cream cones are the way to a child’s heart. Parents often mistake a child’s longing for toys or begging for snacks as their way of saying what’s important. Some kids act out, whine or cry, other kids…

Why Threats and Bribes Don’t Lead to Cooperation and What to Try Instead

Why Threats and Bribes Don’t Lead to Cooperation and What to Try Instead

How to discipline children in a way that is positive and effective without using bribes, threats or rewards. Getting children to cooperate can be tricky at times. Especially when you have more than one child and busy schedules. It’s not unusual to turn to quick fixes like threats and bribes to get children to listen…

Positive Parenting: How to Follow Through With Limits

Positive Parenting: How to Follow Through With Limits

Most parents have great intentions when they come up with limits and boundaries. Which rules to set and why they are important are usually clear.  The power struggles and negotiation start when parents find that  keeping those limits, following through, just doesn’t go so well. While most children will not actually admit to wanting or…

This is The Perfect Solution for Ending Picky Eating Battles With Your Child

This is The Perfect Solution for Ending Picky Eating Battles With Your Child

Use the Division of Responsibility In Feeding  To Help Your Child Transform Picky Eating into a Healthy Relationship with Food It’s pretty normal for children to be selective about what they eat. Picky eating can be just a phase, especially in the toddler and preschool years.  Even if it’s normal, picky eating can bring up worries, frustration…

Discipline for That Kid that Bites, Hits and Screams

Discipline for That Kid that Bites, Hits and Screams

Danny just turned three years old and he used to be that kid.  That kid that bites, hits and screams at playgroup…The kid everyone kind of sighs about when he arrives. That kid that ends up being placed in time out several times or taken home mid activity. Danny isn’t that kid anymore!  Here is a glimpse of what…

How To Handle Toddler Temper Tantrums and Emotional Outbursts

How To Handle Toddler Temper Tantrums and Emotional Outbursts

When To Worry about Tantrums: Here’s a guide for understanding why tantrums happen and what really helps your child feel better and calm down.  Most children have tantrums and emotional outbursts during the toddler years. Tantrums can also happen when children are three or four years old, and even later. Unless your toddler is crying…

Child Discipline: Patience and Warmth are More Likely to Stop Misbehavior Than Threats and Anger

Child Discipline: Patience and Warmth are More Likely to Stop Misbehavior Than Threats and Anger

Discipline for Children: Three effective ways to stay patient and talk so your child will listen and cooperate. Discipline for children is most effective when it’s aimed at creating cooperation and a sense of trust and respect. When parents focus on using discipline strategies that are respectful and positive, children thrive and grow well. One…

The Benefits of Messy Play And How To Make it Slightly Less Messy

The Benefits of Messy Play And How To Make it Slightly Less Messy

Messy play gives children an opportunity to tap into their creativity, explore all sorts of possibilities, enhance and experience their senses, practice cooperation and of course…get messy. Glitter, play dough, paint, slime, goop, glue, mud, muck, water and more… Children just love it and well, some parents really just don’t like it all that much. It’s…

When Children Test Limits and Don’t Accept Choices

When Children Test Limits and Don’t Accept Choices

Consider this. Your child chose C because it is his job. His job to practice being in charge of himself as often as possible. Her job to test you, to let you know HER preference, to state loud and clear “I am the boss of ME!” And your child is right. He IS the boss of himself, and as the boss, he gets to ultimately decide what choice he will make. This is truly evidence of just the kind of self-directed, independent soul you (most of the time) want to grow. Someone who is in charge of themselves.

Okay, but you still need to get out the door. To continue to support your child in their quest to be independent it is important to respect their choice. How does this look and still get out the door–maybe on time?

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