routines
Raising Responsible Children
When I ask parents what kind of adults they hope their children will grow to be, they often use words like responsible, respectful, and independent. Which is a worthy goal, [...]
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Back To School Woes
Summer is here and the living is easy. Then all of a sudden it’s not summer, it’s September and school is here. And not everyone is excited about it. Some kids may be [...]
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Independence Day
When is the right age for our children to become “independent”? There’s no clear answer for this, but we hope that it is sometime before the age of 30 (fingers crossed). [...]
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Sometimes Kids Just Need To Hear No
Nobody likes to disappoint their children. It’s hard to turn them down, crush their hopes, or deny them. And it’s particularly hard to deal with their unpleasant reactions [...]
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Doing What Works (And Quitting What Doesn’t)
People have a tendency to think that if something should work, but it doesn’t, that the next step is to then do that thing harder, more often or more intensely. (For example, [...]
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Goals of Misbehaviour Part 4: Inadequacy
This month wraps up our four month series of trying to answer that nagging question, “Why do kids do that?” Having looked at the “goals” of gaining attention, power, [...]
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A Yelling Resolution
I was reading a little poll in an old Today’s Parent magazine. Even though it was from the December 2009 issue, I thought it would be interesting to post the poll and the [...]
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05Feb
Goals Of Misbehaviour Part 2: Power
Last month we began our quest to answer the question, “What are they thinking?!?” (“they”, of course, being our children). Recognizing that no behaviour happens by accident [...]
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30Jan
What Are You Tolerating?
We all have things that we tolerate in our lives. Some of them are big things (like a nasty neighbour), but many of them are small things (a messy desk is an example), and we [...]
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Side-Stepping Power Struggles
“You’re Not The Boss Of Me!” There probably isn’t a parent alive who doesn’t cringe or roll their eyes at the phrase “power struggle”. We’ve all been there – and some of us [...]
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