Practical Positive Parenting Advice and Resources
Watching a friend suffer the loss of a child or baby is one of the most difficult situations you may ever encounter in life. Surviving infant loss is one of the worst experiences a mother can go through. Miscarriages, loss, and death combined with what is typically a positive, joyous occasion puts a mother into a state of shock and despair, while their friends struggle to know what to do and say….
We talk a lot about death in our family. I guess that goes with the territory of losing a child. But not in a morbid way. In a way that lets my children know it’s okay to talk about death, dying, grief. They are not afraid to ask questions, and they have a general understanding of what it means for someone to get sick and go away for ever. And they know, that while it is sad, it happens. It’s important to be able to have an open discussion about tragedy with children….
It’s no secret that the teen years are difficult. They’re hard for everyone! Parents, teachers, and even younger siblings that have a teenage brother or sister (believe me – I am the youngest of 3 kids, I have really lived through this!). But, most importantly, these years are hard on the teens themselves! However, there is also so much GOOD and beauty (between the braces and acne marks) that comes from being a teenager! Read below to discover how you can better understand and connect with your teen – all from a teenager’s perspective….
If you aren’t having your tweens and teens cook dinner for the family regularly, you are doing them and yourselves a disservice. It really does make life easier.
In our house, this started out of desperation. I was in the car from school pickup through dinner time every day of the week with one girl or the other. And if I had to hear one more complaint about the lack of home cooked meals, I was going to lose my last marble.
Of course you want a from-scratch, hot meal on the table every night over which to leisurely dine and bond as a family. But you also have busy kids who can’t drive and need to go to voice lessons, swim practice, and so-and-so’s house to work on this week’s group project (oh, don’t EVEN get me started on group projects). How are you supposed to pull all of this off?
I’ll tell you how.
Each of your kids has at least one activity free evening home, right? And they are now old enough to stay home alone while you haul around their sibling(s), yes? (We started the stay-home-alone thing at age 12, but every house is different). Ok. Read below to learn my secret to making life easier….
I am an over-explainer. It’s a weird trait for an introvert, but I feel that my kids will benefit from a full explanation and understanding of situations, decisions, and circumstances. But sometimes the questions are just. Too. MUCH! My husband and I went to a parenting talk given by the brilliant psychologist, John Rosemond, many years ago. We learned a lot, but the simplest, most lasting take-away for me was his teaching on how to say “No” to kids.
He suggests that when you say “No”, and your child asks for a reason or explanation, one of the five following answers always fits the bill:…
How many times have you said “If only I had the perfect consequence? If you’re like the rest of us – hundreds. Parents are on a quest for the perfect consequence, the one that really drives home your point so that your child will do exactly what you want him to do….
Download, save, and print your own copy of this free potty training certificate printable!
Continue reading below for more potty training help…
Many parents dread the thought of potty training, and i can be hard to know where to start. This is why we have compiled a whole bunch of parenting advice on the topic of potty training!
Shari covers the following topics in more detail in her article: Gentle Potty Training – 12 Parenting Tips for Potty Training Success
Learn how one mom of three kids potty trained each child in just a few days! Keep in mind that every child is different, but in this parenting article We are sharing strategies that have worked well for each of her children – despite their differences.
Karissa covers the following topics in detail in her article: Potty Training Advice – How I Potty Trained All 3 of My Kids in a Few Days
For more on this topic, check out the full Potty Training & Pacifiers collection
Printable sticker charts can be a wonderful way to work on your child’s behavior one skill at a time! For example, if your child is struggling with sharing their toys, you could use a reward chart to work on this particular behavior. If they share a toy, they get a sticker! When they fill up their behavior chart, they get a pre-selected prize.
It is a wonderful, visual way to help your child understand the expectations & allow them to be an active participant in the process of improving their behavior.
For more on this topic, check out the full All About Toddlers, Child Behavior, and Free Printables collections
Below are 8 different designs for printable sticker charts that you can print out for free! Then be sure to continue reading below for insight into how to best implement behavior charts in your own home.
Now that you’ve downloaded your own reward charts, how do you use them? The short answer is that you can use behavior charts for any behavior that your child seems to be struggling with currently!
The keys to using reward charts successfully is focusing on one behavior at a time. We want to narrow in on a specific area that your child clearly understands instead of being too broad and overwhelming.
A sticker chart for “being good” is way too vague for a child. They will get frustrated quickly when it seems so difficult to earn stickers.
A sticker chart for putting away toys is much more manageable and clear. You can set realistic expectations around how many toys your child should put away and how much you’ll help them based on their age and level of development.
But the goal is to keep things simple!
Keeping rewards system positive is also extremely important! It can be tempting to take away points for negative behaviors, but this method often causes children to give up entirely.
Imagine earning a hard-earned paycheck only to have some of it taken back the following week because you made a mistake… You’d be downright angry!
Sure, a sticker is not quite the same as a paycheck; but… it is amazing how important it feels to children to be making progress.
We want to frame reward systems positively, and we want to maintain that positive approach to behavior management.
Let’s go back to our toy example… Your child can earn 1 sticker for their reward chart for every 5 toys they put away without complaining. If they put away 10 toys, they get 2 stickers. If they put away less than 5 toys, then get 0 stickers. If they put away 5 toys but whine the whole time, they get 0 stickers.
But! Under no circumstance do they lose stickers off of their behavior chart.
They keep what they’ve earned – fair and square. And they begin to learn that they are responsible for their own progress!
Our goal at Adore Them is to provide personal stories and resources in the hopes that it will make your own parenting journey more enjoyable! We fully understand that there are (many) difficult moments that occur while raising a family, but we also believe in taking a proactive approach. How can we troubleshoot the areas where we are struggling the most? How can we better understand our children so that we can get back to genuinely enjoying them?
Child Discipline and The Lessons I Have Learned
Helpful Reminders to Set Expectations
A List of Appropriate Chores by Age to Encourage Responsibility
And much more in the full Child Behavior, All About Toddlers, and the Free Printables collections
When my son started playing soccer, he was five years old. We decided to try out different options available for a young competitive kid who loved to run and kick. Now that he’s played every spring and fall for the last three years, we have started to accumulate medals, trophies and memorabilia. We recently decided to create a keepsake sports display. Check out this simple DIY guide, along with photo examples, below….
There are many ways to build positive behavior growth and healthy relationships with our children. One way is through delivering reinforcers, or rewards, for good behavior. Another way is through sweet pet names and praise.
Everyone uses praise and pet names. Pet names are a fun way to bond with those around us, whether it’s our spouse, friends, or children. However, have you stopped to think about whether your kiddo’s pet names might actually be harming their self-image? Or harming the way they interact with the world around them? Unfortunately, just like with reward delivery, pet names and praise are easy to get wrong….
