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

When To Worry About Tantrums & Meltdowns in the Toddler Years

When To Worry About Tantrums & Meltdowns in the Toddler Years

Tantrums are typically the way your child releases big feelings. This can be frustration, sadness, tiredness or hunger. While sometimes avoidable, often tantrums just really happen in a blink of the eye. Your toddler can’t keep it together, whines, cries and screams for a bit. This can be a completely normal part of child development.
You can expect that most children will have a tantrum at some point, if not many, as tantrums are just expressions of overwhelm, frustration and other big emotions.

The Best Discipline Strategy When Children Become Aggressive

The Best Discipline Strategy When Children Become Aggressive

Inside: How To Use Positive Discipline To Respond to Aggressive Behaviors in Toddlers and Young Children It’s quite normal for toddlers and preschoolers to struggle with aggressive behavior from time to time. When your child acts aggressively it is typically a sign that she is feeling upset, scared or overwhelmed. Many parents worry that aggressive…

This Simple Change To How You Set Limits On Misbehavior Will Help Your Kids Listen To You

This Simple Change To How You Set Limits On Misbehavior Will Help Your Kids Listen To You

Inside: Learn Eight Key Phrases for setting limits without having to raise your voice using Positive Discipline The idea of parenting with kindness and firmness at the same time sounded so appealing when I first heard it. But I still struggled: What does kind and firm parenting look like, in the moment, when my child…

How To Discipline A Strong Willed Child In a Positive Way

How To Discipline A Strong Willed Child In a Positive Way

Inside: Parenting and disciplining a strong willed child can be challenging. Learn positive parenting approaches to reduce emotional outbursts and power struggles when your child is very determined and stubborn. At the dinner table, my two year old, easily described as a strong willed child, asked for water. I kindly poured some into the glass…

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?

Ten Parenting Practices That Build Your Child’s Self-Esteem

Ten Parenting Practices That Build Your Child’s Self-Esteem

Inside: Children with positive self-esteem recognize their abilities and feel proud about what they are able to. You can actively help build your child’s self-esteem by fostering connection, being encouraging and welcoming mistakes. After jumping down from a  tree at the park my son stood up, did a little victory dance and then ran off…

Toddlers: Competent & Capable As They Grow

Toddlers: Competent & Capable As They Grow

Including your toddler in the process of life—be it dressing, eating, cooking, cleaning, loading in the car, doing errands—is essential for building healthy, strong relationships and self-directed, capable, confident adults.

What you Don’t Want to Say to Stop Unwanted Behaviors

What you Don’t Want to Say to Stop Unwanted Behaviors

How often do you use the word ‘don’t’ to stop unwanted behaviour in your children? Does it actually work? Most parents say it does not. When I first became aware of the little impact this word has, it threw me. I had no idea how often I was using it, and how often it left…

Why Skipping a Nap Results in Meltdown

Why Skipping a Nap Results in Meltdown

Over time, as a baby’s sleep cycle matures he will be able to go longer periods between sleeps. It is not until age 4 or 5 that a child is able to go happily through the entire day without a nap, and sleep research suggests that even through adulthood a mid-day nap or rest break is extremely beneficial in reducing the pressure in all human beings.

Toddlers making Trouble:  11 Helpful Alternatives to Timeout

Toddlers making Trouble: 11 Helpful Alternatives to Timeout

Toddlers don’t really mean to be making trouble, they spend their days trying to understand and discover their environment, their place and space in the world.
Often, it’s hard to know how to best handle the messy, sassy, yucky situations. Time outs are so popular in the toddler years, yet just placing a toddler in the corner or on a naughty chair is unlikely to prevent a re-occurance as toddlers will not really learn by pouting all alone

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