• parenting books Archive

    Eight-plus years into the parenting game, and I still feel like I don’t know what I’m doing. Whenever I think I’ve finally figured things out with my 8- and 4-year-old, WHAM!–they go and pull a fast one on me. The younger one lovvvves Double Noodle soup? I stock up at the store…only to have her tell me she “no longer likes the noodles ’cause they’re too long.” The older one showing signs of being more independent? Suddenly she can’t go 15 minutes by herself without wandering into the kitchen to “find out what you’re doing.” (Laundry, kid. It’s just not that exciting.) I know I should feel like a pro after this many years on the job, but I continue to live and learn…and take [&hellip

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    I never realized how my work as a camp counselor would someday come back to haunt me as a mother. Many moons ago, I had a camper who refused to play sports. Any time we were headed in the direction of a field or gymnasium, she suddenly felt sick to her stomach and couldn’t participate. Because I knew to play by the rules (and I certainly didn’t want the camp director reprimanding me for any bad choices), I let her sit on the sidelines. But of course, once the end of the day rolled around and ice cream time was upon us, her stomachache mysteriously seemed to disappear. Well, one day, rules or not, I was not allowing this manipulative child to have even one [&hellip

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    My 3-year-old has perfected the art of relaxation. Thanks to one of her preschool teachers who is instructing her classmates on the practice of yoga, she knows how to breathe deeply when the going gets rough. “In through your nose and out through your mouth, Mommy. Like this,” she says as she demonstrates her newly found technique. I smile to myself because her older sister learned the same thing and, much to my amazement, it came in especially handy over the years when she just “needed a moment.” Now that I have two kids and am often found carting around both girls on errands, to and from activities, meltdowns aren’t exactly, shall we say, convenient. In my experience, I found that when my kids know [&hellip

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