What do you do when you and your rules aren’t respected? If you have this situation, I imagine you feel challenged with trying to gain respect. This is a complicated problem that doesn’t have one solution. In fact, it takes answering probing questions to try and find the sources of this disrespect. I’d like to…
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You might have noticed while reading my other articles, that I love talking about how to make changes so you can succeed as a parent. Many people will give you suggestions for new parenting strategies to try. This is helpful information however, I find that people have a hard time keeping up with the new…
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There may be several changes you would like to see within your family to make it a happier environment. Perhaps you would like more cooperation, a greater sense of connection, or for your children to respect you and each other more. These are wonderful dreams. However, my examples are not specific enough to know how…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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The Collaborator Parenting Role: Visiting Grandma versus the Movies Conflict Example Parents and children commonly experience conflicts on how to spend the weekends. As kids mature, they want more time with friends than with the family. When they are young, your parenting role is more often as a director where you decide what to do.…
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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…
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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.…
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Have you noticed that sometimes you can have a hard time feeling grateful that you have children? I ran into a former client at the local symphony and I asked how his 3 children who were such a challenge are doing now. “The youngest one, who is now a junior in high school is doing…
DetailsTerms 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.