Latest From The Blog
To Parents of Teens Who Want to Improve Communication with Their Kids
As our kids get older, we have less and less control over their lives. By the time they get to adolescence, they’ve chosen their own friends, they’ve seen things online that would make our eyeballs fall out, and they’ve had romantic interests we know nothing about....
The Importance of Play in Child Development: Nurturing Growth and Well-Being
Guest post by Annamarie von Firley from Fledglings Flight Play is an intrinsic part of childhood, as children engage in imaginative and spontaneous activities that encourage curiosity and fill them with delight. While play is often perceived as an indulgent activity...
Parenting with a Partner: Why it gets hard and how to make it better
“Conflict is an opportunity to learn how to love each other better over time.” Dr. John Gottman Underlying our children’s behavior are often simple questions they want answered everyday… Am I good? Do you love me? Will you keep me safe? With partners, those...
How to Use Special Time to Make Summer Time Go Better
For kids, summertime can be a respite from the pressures of school, a chance to meet new people, and explore new places. For parents, summer can mean juggling care and work, listening to complaints of boredom or arguing about screen time. Sometimes it’s about managing...
What if you knew how to navigate disappointments and desires?
Expectations can run high during the holidays…and so can disappointment. When the presents are opened, do you ever here your kid say: 😢 I never get what I ask for. 😠 Why did my sister get that and I didn’t?! 😞 This is the wrong color....
Safe, Seen, and Connected: Why Children Can Be So Challenging
Our child’s behavior can be perplexing, infuriating, and downright worrisome. But when we have an idea of what’s lying at the root of their upset, it can help us develop more empathy, understanding, and a more targeted response. It can help us apply the right...
The Best Ways to Minimize the Back to School Blues
For most kids, going back to school is a big transition and for some it feels like a momentous challenge. Whether your child is starting school for the first time or changing schools or teachers, going back can bring up lots of feelings for kids and adults! Fears and...
Scared Out of Our Minds: What To Say When a Child is Afraid
There are many things that can scare a child: a loud noise, an angry parent, a barking dog, a hospitalization, witnessing violence. Sometimes we know children are afraid because they tell us so, but at other times, it comes out in their behavior. They act out, they...
“No, We Can’t Send Her Back”: Five Keys for Preparing Your Family for the Birth of a Sibling
Two days after my son was born, his five-year old sister carefully and quietly carried his bouncy chair to a room in the back of the house that wasn’t used much. When I walked back into the living room and found him gone, she said, “He has gone to the baby dungeon,...
The Secret to Helping Your Baby’s Brain Grow
Although we parents might feel like we spend every moment with a new baby, our days are also filled with the work it takes to run a family. There is laundry to be done, meals to prepare, diapers to change, showers to slip into when we have a moment, and errands to run when we can. And so we get busy around our babies. Even when we’re with our babies hour after hour, sometimes 3:00 p.m. rolls around and we haven’t actually connected with them yet.
There is More to Sharing Than Taking Turns
Sometimes children love to share. A child passes out a cupcake to each friend at a party; offers his baby sister the toy he knows she’ll love; or asks grandma to buy something for her siblings in addition to her own gift when they are at the toy store together.
But sometimes…children are not so generous or loving. All children have trouble sharing at times. A child might hoard all of the “best” sandbox toys for herself, or run to snag the best seat in the car before his siblings get there.
Your Fear Toolkit: How to Help Your Child with Fear and Anxiety
When children are afraid, they can be inflexible, stubborn, aggressive, or timid. You might remember being in a similar state, yourself…
Contradicting the “Mama’s Boy” Myth: Strategies to Support Your Son as He Grows
Messages about how to parent your son are everywhere: “Don’t coddle him.” “Push him out into the world.” “He’s being a crybaby.” “You better let him go.” Feeling a cultural pressure to disconnect with their sons, many mothers feel conflicted about how to stay close,...
The “do-nothing-say-nothing” Challenge
OK, that’s it! Time out! And no more screen time for the rest of the week! Have you tried time outs, punishments, or rewards lately? The problem with these parenting techniques is that they tend to increase your children’s anger and resentment. Your kids are actually...
Avocado Throwing Fit and 4 Other Times to Use this Sanity Saver Tool
Did it take your kiddo forever to get his pajamas on last night or did she flat out refuse to brush her hair in the morning? Or maybe he always puts up a fight when it’s bath time. Wouldn’t it be great to have a ten minute tool that can turn your child’s worst...