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”. Continue Reading
Cooperation Begins with Trust
Category Archives: Help By Age & Stage
15 Positive Strategies for Dealing with Conflicts, Arguments & Back Talk
Have you ever had a conversation a bit like this? “Can I have that toy?” “Not today.” “But’s it’s my favorite kind.” “I said NO.” “Why???” “Because I said SO!” “Ugh, but… I waaaaaaaaaaaaant it!” “Please don’t argue.” “But I REALLY want it.” “If you don’t stop arguing, you are not getting any sweets tomorrow… Continue Reading
Making Time To Connect On Busy Days
As parents, our days are often busy and bustling, whether we go out to work or not. And although these busy days have their pros – we get to socialize, make friends, change our scenery, get fresh air and be productive – they can also be difficult and overstimulating for our children. Continue Reading
Responsibility: Building Block for Positive Parenting #5
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. Continue Reading
8 Ways To Talk To Children That Encourage Listening & Cooperation
Speaking forcefully with threats, bribes, empty promises or lies seldom gets us any closer to “getting” children to willingly do what we hope them to do. When we speak kindly, with the intent to connect, explain or share, our ideas become appealing and interesting and the other person can feel welcomed into the conversation and welcomed into potential solutions. Continue Reading
Freedom: Building Block #4 for Positive Parenting
Welcome to the Beyond Discipline: 10 Building Blocks for Positive Parenting Series. This is the 4th post in a series of 10 on the Building Blocks for positive parenting. If you missed them here are building blocks #1 #2 #3 Building Block #4 Freedom Children have ideas, wishes, desires, just as much as… Continue Reading
Three Alternatives to Saying “Good Job”
if you’ve communicated accurately and encouragingly, kids inherently know that something they did was “good,” and they’re motivated to do it again. Instead of telling your kids that they just made you feel proud, they decide feel proud of themselves. Their accomplishments, as they should be, are about them, not you. Continue Reading
Encouragement: Building Block #3 for Positive Parenting
When a child is misbehaving, have faith that they are capable of learning what to do and give them a chance to do it over. In other words, encourage learning and making amends instead of deciding to punish or shame. When we parent with the intent to be encouraging, we don’t focus on evaluating their steps as “good” or “bad” but rather we seek to help them find their own way, to feel capable and interested in learning, achieving, doing and discovering. Continue Reading
Chill-Out Corner: A PositiveTool for Learning Emotional Self Regulation
The basic idea is that it will help diffuse situations before they escalate into chaos. Even if this doesn’t happen often young children can get overwhelmed by big emotions in their tiny bodies, whether its frustration or anger or sadness and this provides him an appropriate outlet for these because we all know big emotions can escalate into yelling, shouting, name calling, lashing out, tantrums and even physical attacks which we do not want. Continue Reading
Family: Building Block for Positive Parenting #2
A sense of family matters to children. It doesn’t matter if it is a small family or a large one, single parent or two – what matters is that the child feels like they belong and have a place in their family. Children that feel like they belong to something bigger than themselves tend to be… Continue Reading