Parenting Tips (Page 8)

• • • • • Parenting Tip April 25, 2014 Keep Connections Open Some of the ways parents relate to their children work against emotional closeness. Be careful not to undermine your own efforts with actions that close your child’s heart. Here are a few examples of things to avoid: 1. Using anger as discipline. Angry responses, sarcasm, and mean words may seem justified at the moment, but they do more harm than good. Anger builds walls in family life.…

• • • • • Parenting Tip April 12, 2014 Strong-Willed Children are a Blessing There’s a lot of talk about strong-willed kids. These children know what they want and are not easily deterred. They’re often driven, inflexible, and know how others should fit into their plans. They have the determination to face resistance, even if that resistance is some kind of authority in their lives. The reality is that these kids will likely be leaders in the future, and…

• • • • • Parenting Tip April 5, 2014 Parenting Babies Parenting is a complicated job with very few easy answers. When parents try to simplify it by setting policies they think will last for years, they are making a serious mistake. One mom said about her one-month-old son, “I’m going to stop the teenage rebellion right here.” She proceeded to set some pretty strict rules about feeding and sleep times. An important thing to understand about children is…

• • • • • Parenting Tip March 24, 2014 Emotional Cues Since the heart is where decisions are formed, commitments made, and beliefs established, your child’s emotions become an opportunity for parenting. Look for ways to use your children’s emotions to help you understand their hearts. Many parents are afraid of their children’s emotions and try to minimize them. It’s true that one parental responsibility is to help our children manage their feelings effectively. But, contrary to popular belief,…

• • • • • Parenting Tip March 14, 2014 Dealing with Morning Dawdling Mornings can be a stressful time for families. One single mom told how she addressed this for her children, ages 9, 10, and 11. “I didn’t like what I was seeing in me. I heard myself nagging and prodding them along, yelling, “You’re going to be late. You better hurry and brush your hair.” “Get your shoes on.” So she gathered the children together one evening…

• • • • • Parenting Tip March 8, 2014 Be Firm Without Being Harsh Some parents believe that the only way to be firm is to be harsh. Firmness says that a boundary is secure and won’t be crossed without a consequence. Harshness uses angry words and increased volume to make children believe that parents mean what they say. Some parents have assumed that firmness and harshness must go together. One mom said, “The thought of separating the two…

• • • • • Parenting Tip February 25, 2014 Teaching Children to Look for Ways to Help We love to teach about honor. One of the parts of our honor definition is that we do more than what’s expected. That means seeing what needs to be done and doing it. It means solving problems instead leaving them for others. One family had a sign in their kitchen that read: If it’s broken, fix it. If it’s empty, fill it…

• • • • • Parenting Tip February 19, 2014 Obey First and Then We’ll Talk About It When parents give an instruction but children don’t want to comply or it’s not convenient for them, sometimes they need to learn to “obey first and then we’ll talk about it.” This emphasizes obedience. If little Brian has pulled a chair over to the counter and is climbing onto it, you may say, “Brian, we don’t climb on chairs.”“But I was just…”“No,…

• • • • • Parenting Tip February 11, 2014 Ending Every Discipline Time Positively After a consequence or a conflict time, it’s important to have a Positive Conclusion. It’s usually best to talk about what the child did wrong, why it was wrong, and help the child develop a plan for next time. After that discussion, end the whole discipline by saying something like, “Okay, go ahead and try again.” An affirming statement at the end says, “I believe…

• • • • • Parenting Tip January 24, 2014 Teach Children What to Do Next Time Do you feel like some days you have to discipline kids for the same things over and over again? The child who has a problem hitting, interrupting, or just being annoying to others may need a lot of correction. It’s these problems that are great candidates for a Positive Conclusion. Each time the negative behavior takes place, have the child take a short…