Does your childhood impact your parenting? Are you noticing that you sound at times like your parents did with you? Many dads and moms I’ve talked to over the past 29 years are trying to parent in a different way than how they were parented. If, on the other hand, you want to repeat…
Parents often report that they say, “I love you” to their children. These are beautiful words for your children to hear. Did you grow up hearing “I love you”? My parents didn’t say “I love you” until my dad was in his late 70s and my mom was in her early 90s. Their childhood culture…
A new year brings out new determinations. Perhaps you want to get along with your kids better. Maybe you want to yell less and win cooperation more calmly. Or, you just wish your kids and teens would be more open with you. Whatever your challenge, know that by you just making a small change can bring…
Have you gotten yourself into a rut of doing most of the planning and preparing for the holidays? Perhaps you end up “asking” for help and you get resistance such as “Why do I have to? Can’t you do it? “I’m too busy.” “I don’t want to help.” In this scenario, you are acting…
The holiday break is a great time to practice having collaborative discussions about how the family will spend the time as well as other fun topics. Most of the time parents want to talk about having kids do chores. While I’m all in for doing chores, try using the 5-Step-Problem Solving Process on things that…
Raising kids is so challenging because we are emotional beings at our core. Our children’s words and actions can easily trigger our childhood memories so quickly that we react emotionally rather than logically. Our parent-child interactions may trigger feeling hurt, rejected, ignored, disrespected, etc. as a child, so we lash out as if we were…
We are born with our emotional brain, the limbic system, already developed. This is quite amazing and tells us why we respond first emotionally to events that happen to us. Because our baby first responds to us from the limbic system, we naturally look into our baby’s eyes and wait for a response in return.…
My husband and I are working with Cynthia and I learned that I was a part of my 10-year-old son’s outbursts. So, rather than trying to change him, which I would try doing through arguing and yelling which never worked, I’m working on changing myself instead. My son gets upset with projects at school, he’s…
Do you know anyone who says, “I like getting upset with my children”? What I hear instead are complaints that either their children are having upsetting outbursts and/or the parents are losing their cool and yelling which they regret immediately after. Parents may say that only when they get angry will their kids comply but…
I’ve been watching the Netflix series Never Have I Ever……about a California-born teen girl, Devi, whose father recently and suddenly dies. She is being raised by her East Indian-born mother with traditional Indian values. Frequent conflict arises! Not only does she feel deep suffering from losing her father whom she was very close…
Terms of Use: The articles in my blog are a matter of my opinion and perspective, offered to help stimulate parents' thinking about their child raising and common concerns, conflicts, and changes that typically occur. They are meant to be educational only. Because they are general in nature, they should NOT be used as a substitute for getting qualified professional psychological, medical, or legal help should serious need arise. The resources I recommend are mostly consistent with my parenting approach. Use them at your own discretion as you would my articles. The parents’ success stories are particular to their family situation. This does not mean that you would get the same results. They are to be used for inspiration that by you changing first, you have the greatest chance of creating a positive change in your family.