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

Six Super Helpful Ways To Keep Calm and Deal With Defiance

Six Super Helpful Ways To Keep Calm and Deal With Defiance

These Six Positive Parenting strategies can help you respond to your child when they are behaving in defiant, disrespectful or unhelpful ways. Children often act out when they are lost, fearful and in need of guidance. A child that is being defiant needs to reconnect with you and find his way back to calm. And until…

One Important Step To Take After Correcting Misbehavior

One Important Step To Take After Correcting Misbehavior

To encourage better behavior, make sure you are taking this important step after disciplining your child. Books went flying down to the ground. Screams filled the dining room. My heart skipped a beat as I quickly assessed the situation for injuries and damages. You know that feelings when you aren’t so sure if all your kids…

Why Children Misbehave Again and Again – And How to Stop It without Yelling

Why Children Misbehave Again and Again – And How to Stop It without Yelling

Inside: Why young children misbehave even when you tell them not to do something. Learn what you can do to discipline in a positive way that helps children behave better. It was mid morning at playgroup and tension was rising between Theo and his mother. There was a phone,  perfectly placed on the edge of…

How to Get Kids To Listen Without Yelling

How to Get Kids To Listen Without Yelling

Many parents I work with confess to yelling at their kids upwards of ten times a day. Parents say they do this most of all because they want their children to listen but they get zero cooperation. When promises, pleading and threats no longer work, yelling can feel like the only option. Especially if time is…

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…

Letting Calm Confidence Lead the Way

Letting Calm Confidence Lead the Way

Techniques galore. Time outs. Behavior charts. Chore charts. Get-out-the-door charts. 1, 2, 3 warnings. Homework first. Cry to sleep. Rock to sleep. Just sleep. “Eyes only” and one finger touches. Unwavering curfew. No reading until your teeth are brushed and jammies on. Be respectful or else. Consequences consequences consequences…and on and on and on. Techniques….

A Positive Parent’s Guide to Introducing a New Baby to Your Toddler

A Positive Parent’s Guide to Introducing a New Baby to Your Toddler

It’s something you’ve been looking forward to with a lot of excitement. And yes, an equal amount of anxiety. Introducing your new baby to your toddler. You know from experience that the first few months of having a baby are the hardest. And yet,  you are committed to not neglect your older child in the…

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?

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.

Beyond Obedience: The Importance of Fostering Cooperation at Home

Beyond Obedience: The Importance of Fostering Cooperation at Home

Getting children to cooperate and listen is probably the most shared concern I hear from parents. Similar themes repeat themselves, over and over.
“How do I get my kids to do their homework?”
“How do I get my kids to listen to me? I’m so tired of yelling…for nothing…it makes no difference!”
Our job as parents can be tough as the balancing act of encouraging cooperation positively and needing to get things done unfolds each day. Let’s be honest, what we want and what our children want are often out of synch. It’s easy, alright, a lot easier when everyone is smiling, cooperating and listening. Fostering cooperation reduces the need to yell, nag and demand.

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