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Parenting Styles: Should I Stop My Kid’s Weird Habit?

July 18 by Jessica Timmons

Little kids have weird - sometimes super gross - habits, and any parent will tell you so. A lot of them are pretty standard. At one point or another over the last eleven years, I’ve asked my kids to please stop biting that toenail, or to get their finger out of their nose and use a tissue, or to stop sucking on the collar of that shirt or that chunk of hair. But over the last six months or so, I’ve repeatedly asked our almost four-year-old to stop twirling. Sounds like no big deal, right? But … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Jessica, Parenting Tagged With: calm parenting, parenting styles, positive parenting

When You’re the Last One Standing – Part Two

June 4 by Jessica Timmons

The drama continues, you guys. For a household that’s pretty low-key - even with the hustle that’s just part of the package with four busy kids - we have been craaaaazy for close to a month now. We’ve been up all night, skipping school, racing to the ER, the pediatrician, the after-hours pediatric clinic, the pharmacy. And the drugs! Liquids, pills, steroids, inhalers, I mean, you name it. Because that’s what happens when your family is ridden with, in order: walking pneumonia a … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Jessica

Parenting Styles: When You’re the Last One Standing

May 7 by Jessica Timmons

We’ve been hammered around here lately - pneumonia, a broken arm, miserable weather and the start of our kids’ insane new sports schedule. As we all know, moms aren’t allowed to get sick, or maybe my obsessive hand-washing and frantic hand waving gestures whenever someone coughed their infectious germs right in my face actually did the trick. Whatever the reason, I got stuck running this pneumonia-and-broken-bone-ridden show solo, after my poor husband wound up sicker than he’s been probably … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Jessica, Parenting Tagged With: parenting styles

Parenting Styles: Better Than Me

March 28 by Jessica Timmons

Image Credit: © Alton Jefferson II | Horse Stance | CC by 2.0 My kiddos are suddenly old enough to be better than me in certain things, and I’m as humbled about it as I am impressed. I’m not particularly competitive with my children, but as I sat watching my daughter at her martial arts test a few weeks ago, I realized that there is no way I could do what she’s doing. She’s eight. And she’s on the small side for an eight year old. But her Thai kicks are insanely high, her punches are … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Jessica, Parenting Tagged With: karate for kids, kids karate, kids martial arts, martial arts for kids, parenting styles

Parenting Styles: Hot/Cold Friends Are the Worst

March 6 by Jessica Timmons

I have two daughters, and once upon a time I was a grade school girl myself. I knew girl drama was in the cards, but I was deluded enough to think that between an almost-nine-year-old and a three year old, I had years before we’d be dealing with that. Surprise! Seems everything starts earlier these days, because third grade has been rough. There are twelve or thirteen girls in my daughter’s class, and G has known most of them since kindergarten. One new girl - older and with a mean streak … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Parenting, Uncategorized Tagged With: girl drama, little girls can be mean, parenting styles, Smart Girl Guides: Friendship Troubles

Parenting Styles: Busy Little Lives, Times Four

February 20 by Jessica Timmons

About four years ago, when we had a seven, six and three-year old and a six-month old baby, I thought life was busy. Between first grade, preschool, diapers and not nearly enough sleep, I did a lot of running around. And I had this idea that things would get easier as all these kiddos got older. I pictured a time - and I’m almost there, actually - when no one would be in diapers and everyone would be in school and able to keep themselves occupied in a non-destructive way that wouldn’t involve … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Parenting, Uncategorized

Parenting Styles: The Cavity Club

January 18 by Jessica Timmons

With four kids, the chances that we’d escape childhood with no cavities were pretty slim, right? Still, I admit it, I was getting a little smug. After visits to the dentist every six months for the last five or six years with no trouble at all, I kind of thought we had the tooth thing dialed. I mean, we’re religious about brushing and flossing in the morning, and we do get a little lazy as the day drags on, but they brush and floss more often than not at night. Still, I thought their … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Jessica, Parenting Tagged With: kid cavities, parenting styles

Parenting Styles: Kindergarten Intervention

January 9 by Jessica Timmons

Sounds ominous, right? With our third kiddo in kindergarten this year, we’re old hands at the parent-teacher conference. But this year, after the usual awesome conferences for our oldest two, we heard something we’d never heard before. “We’re lucky this year to have intervention at the kindergarten level, and I hope you’ll be open to letting B participate,” his teacher said matter-of-factly. For a second, I really floundered as I considered what exactly they were intervening in. Refusing … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Jessica, Parenting Tagged With: kindergarten, learning letter sounds, parenting styles

Parenting Styles: The Lessons that Sink In

November 30 by Jessica Timmons

One of the big things about being a parent is this idea of modeling good behavior. I mean, we talk about expectations for behavior, and I think that’s important, but then we have to actually put them into practice. Things, like being kind and treating others as you'd like to be treated yourself, are a big deal in our house. Around the holidays, we also talk about giving and the idea that you can experience real joy when you give to others. You’d think that would be a hard concept for kids, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Parenting Tagged With: parenting styles

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