A five month old baby is lying in his mother's arms. He is close to sleep, then wakes and begins to grizzle. His mother tells him that he should stop being a naughty boy, and that she will be cross with him if he doesn't sleep. An 18 month-old
How to raise caring, responsible children without spanking, grounding, time-out and other punishments. Tired of holding the bedroom door handle closed when your child is trying to leave during a time-out? Fed up with your child trashing his room during ti
Biting in the early years is not different from hitting, throwing things, pushing, pulling hair or any other aggressive behaviour. Some biting can be benign and transient, but repeated biting has a deeper emotional cause that has to be addressed. A frustr
The arrival of a baby can be an extremely heart wrenching experience for a young child. She may feel excited yet also shocked and heartbroken. A mother I counselled confided to me that the arrival of her sister, when she was three, was the most traumatic
Your son rides his bike without a helmet. Again. You've nagged, begged, pleaded, and informed him of the dangers of riding without one. Next, you've issued Consequences! You've taken the bike away and put it in the garage for a day, then
All children act in annoying, obnoxious, or hurtful ways at times, and they dont always cooperate with our requests. Before dealing with inappropriate behaviour in children, it is useful to know why they act the way they do. Once we know this, it is easie
“If you guys give me any more crap today, I'll take you to the RSPCA –and leave you there!” I yelled at my son and his mates after a recent “no-sleep over” which had deteriorated into a mid morning farting competition i
Anger journal entry, June 1 2001 A flash of irritation this afternoon: Nora Jade requests to pour the drink mix from the packet into the glass for my friend Maureen; I agree, and half of it spills onto the carpet. I'm thinking, “She's do
The word discipline comes from the Latin word disciplina , which means instruction or teaching. This tells us that discipline involves everything that we do to teach our children, rather than just how we deal with difficult behaviours. Gentle discipline,
The First ‘No' Emma was 20 months or so -my sunny, sweet first child- and we were sitting on the sofa together, having tea with our neighbour, who was planning her first pregnancy. Emma had never really used the word before, and I had wishfull
