Why Responding With Calm Helps An Upset Child
When my daughter was five and a half, we decided to take our craft project outside on a gorgeous afternoon. As soon as she sat down, a big black spider jumped on her arm and
Category: Setting Limits
Staylistening Surprises: When Things Don’t Go As Planned
If you’ve discovered the simple and seemingly radical tool of Staylistening – of staying and listening through your child’s upset – you may have been amazed by how your child recovers from that tantrum or
One Way To Stay Connected As Your Kids Get Older
How can you keep connected to your children as they get older? In this video, Roma talks about the value of listening to your tween and teen when they offload, and why this one
6 Things I Learned When I Brought Connection into the Classroom
Hand in Hand Parenting Instructor Sarah Charlton works as a learning support assistant with secondary school-aged children in the UK and has seen the benefits of bringing connection tools into the classroom, with teachers and
Kids Will Cry When You Set a Limit, And That’s OK
A guest post from Marilupe de la Calle My daughter, age two, was showing signs of tension and off-track behavior. She was easily dissatisfied and cranky. As soon as we arrived back home after an outing,
Four Steps To Resolve Children’s Big Fears
Many children are afraid of visits to the doctor, but my daughter was TERRIFIED. She’d had a difficult birth and was in the NICU for four days; perhaps those early experiences had stayed with her.
Why I Let My Child Hit During Her Upsets
“My daughter, who is seven, always wanted to sleep in my bed. She went through a period of crying every night about sleeping alone. I listened to her cry each time, hoping it was doing
Playful Parenting Improves Your Child’s Manners
A Guest Post by Michelle Hartop My daughter’s manners got lost somewhere between 5 and 6 years old. Once the reigning “thank-you queen,” by school-age, she seemed bothered even receiving a gift, let alone actually
Simple Ways to Be a More Peaceful Parent
Finding ways to be a peaceful parent is much simpler than we make it out to be.
An Empathetic Response to Sibling Fighting That Avoids You Taking Sides
My middle daughter Dody recently got her sister Toty a present. It was really thoughtful of her, but she didn’t know that Toty had bought exactly the same notebook in exactly the same color
How To Set Limits That Help Children Sleep
In this post on sleep issues, we talked about using play as a tool that helps children release the minor fears and tensions that hold them back from sleeping well. Sometimes those fears run deeper
How Tantrums Are Actually Beneficial to Family Life – Replay
It’s easy to feel infuriated when your child becomes rigidly uncooperative or loses it over the tiniest, most illogical thing. But what if tantrums were actually a healthy and useful phenomenon? In this call replay
Why Our Children Just Want To Be Heard
Sometimes the things that affect our children are not things that would upset us. In our bids to offer solutions, however well-meaning, we often forget to stop and listen. Yet one of the best solutions
Screen Time Doesn’t Have to Mean Scream Time
On the podcast this week, Elle and Abigail talk about the difficulties they, and many parents have, setting limits on screen time. They view the issues that worry us most, from the addictive nature of
Understanding Why Tantrums Happen and How to Support Them
A Guest Post with Roma Norriss Tantrums are an inevitable element of childhood. No matter what we do, beginning at around age two, big upsets and crying always appear. It can be as late as
The (Terrifying) Transition to Toddlerhood
Abigail gets an Instagram message from a confused dad whose sweet little baby is just becoming a toddler. He asks, “What discipline tools actually work with toddlers?”
A Three-Step Plan To Help With Afterschool Upsets
I had come to pick up my six-year-old from school one day. We had planned on eating lunch at a restaurant for a change. She had asked me, before she left for school, to bring
Respond To Children’s Hurts In A Way That Builds Confidence
How can you respond to a hurt child calmly, when you feel panicked yourself? Instructor Emilie Leeks discovers it takes some practice, but the results are easy to see. “We’d only just left for the