Our five-year-old locked himself in the bathroom at the neighborhood coffee shop a few months ago, and now we're dealing with the fallout. At the start of the school year, I fell into the habit of a latte and a chat with a few other moms before the 3:30 pm chaos, so we hit this place up regularly. It’s not every single school day, but we’re there enough that the baristas all know me by name and drink order – and my husband has pointed out more than once that an espresso machine would be a lot … [Read more...]
Free Webinar: Get Kids to Listen Without Nagging, Reminding or Yelling
Image Credit: © fairuz othman (text added) | tears | CC by 2.0 Tired of the yelling? Tired of the whining? Tired of being tired? (And, no, I'm not talking about the election...) You’re not alone. From toddler temper-tantrums to teenage talking back, parents wonder what it takes to get kids to cooperate. If you’re tired of nagging, reminding and yelling to get your kids to listen – I've got just the thing for you. I'm excited to once again partner with Amy McCready, founder of Positive … [Read more...]
Do You Know The “Right” Way to Hug Your Child?
One of the things I have loved, loved, LOVED about being momma to baby M are the pre-nap snuggles. My third baby is the only one who truly loves to snuggle with me. Even as infants, S and C would wiggle in my arms as I rocked and sang to them before nap. They weren't upset, they just wanted to look around - at the room, at the fan, even at me. They were never fully relaxed enough to snuggle up as I had envisioned they would. Eventually I came to terms with it, figuring that's just how … [Read more...]
Parenting Styles: She’s Six. She’s Not Your Girlfriend.
I think you're really going to enjoy this installment of our column, Parenting Styles. It resonated so much with me and what I've experienced this year with both my 7-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter. I've found that it can go both ways as far as unwanted attention and it's something parents don't seem to know how to address... Something happened a few weeks ago, and I’m still mulling it over. My daughter, a first grader, invited us to her classroom presentation, some goats and trolls … [Read more...]
Why You Should be Spring Cleaning Your Parenting Each Year
I've got a fantastic positive parenting guest post today from Annie of Motherhood and More. I discovered Annie through her hilarious and insightful facebook posts and was instantly smitten. I absolutely love her idea of spring cleaning your parenting each year. It can be so easy to get stuck in our habits and routines without putting much thought into what we're doing. By putting a parenting spring clean on the calendar every year, you're ensuring that you're not parenting on auto-pilot! … [Read more...]
Parenting: When Modeling Good Behavior Backfires
It sounds like such a great parenting philosophy – modeling good behavior. Treat others as you want to be treated, and show those little hurricanes zooming around the house what it means to live consciously and kindly. Show them what it means to be patient, to be kind, to be generous. Show them how to have a healthy relationship with food and fitness and technology. Show them how to be a happy, healthy, functioning person. It’s what I strive for, and boy, I’m constantly falling short. I … [Read more...]
Parenting: When Kids Dish Out (Your) Attitude
Image Credit: © Donnie Ray Jones | Elsa's Getting Mad | CC by 2.0 It’s a startling thing to see this whole parenting thing – specifically, your whole parenting thing – from the perspective of the kids you’re parenting. Kids are sponges, I know, but it turns out, their innate talent for picking up on your curse word slip (whoops) is the least of it. Our oldest son is eight, and our oldest daughter is six. And we are dealing with all kinds of attitude these days. I’m hip to the testing … [Read more...]
A Few of My New Favorite Things
I realized lately I've been steadily filing away a lot of things I've wanted to share with you but - for one reason or another - haven't yet. No time like the present, right? 100 Ways to Be Kind to Your Child First up is this absolutely fabulous poster, which was created by one of my Camp Mom: Summer Activities Kit co-writers, Alissa of Creative With Kids. It arrived last week and now resides in a place of honor above the play kitchen in our play/family room (side note: this room looks … [Read more...]
Life Hacks: 30 More Tips to Make Life Easier & Better
Life as a mom of three kids six and under can be, in a word, hectic. Which is why I really, really, really like having all of my best resources available in one spot - I just don't have the time (or the patience) to go rummaging around all my pinterest boards seeking out what I need. Judging by the wild popularity of this post, you guys are totally feeling me on this. So today I've decided to repeat the magic, and once again round up the top 30 pins filling my feed lately. Some are our … [Read more...]