All children love to engage parents in power struggles at one time or another, but they commonly end up being no-win situations as the parent and child each vie for power.
During power struggles with their children, parents usually feel angry, drained, and helpless, wondering if they are the only parents who can’t seem to control their child.
Parents of boys are more aware than anyone when their bright, eager sons hit an invisible wall somewhere near fourth grade, after which they go from engaged to unengaged, discouraged, and disaffected. But as parents, we don’t always know what to do about that, and we hope the school will solve it. No! Let’s take back the power and pleasure of raising our boys, and figure out what we can do outside of school to help halt that potential slide down a slippery slope.
Have you ever noticed that when you want your kids (or spouse or anyone, for that matter) to get something done, that the more you yearn for them to get started and finish it up, the more they resist and drag their feet?
Tooth Fairy spending skyrocketed in 2013 and shows no signs of slowing down. A survey by Visa shows that American children are receiving an average of $3.70 per lost tooth this year, which is a dramatic increase of 23% over the $3.00 per tooth left in 2012 and 42% over the $2.60 left in 2011. Based on this rate of return, a child would net a substantive $74 for a full set of 20 baby teeth.
Screens are ubiquitous in our lives and our kids’ lives. They are abundant and we use gadgets without realizing that some of them even have screens. In my house we have 2 TV’s, 2 tablets, an e-book reader, 2 cell phones, 2 iPods, 2 laptops and 2 monitors for our desktop. That’s a total of 13 screens for just a 3 person household!!
Our children, from the time they are born, are surrounded by screens, despite our best efforts to curb their use and interaction with them until they are at an appropriate age. As they get older, they start collecting their own set of devices – hand held video games, computer games etc. So how does screen time affect our children’s well-being? How does it affect their health and mental well-being?
by Visa Shanmugam
It’s that time and you can’t believe it’s here. How did your baby grow up so quickly? How can they be ready to move out of their crib into a toddler or twin bed? Or are they?
Most parents tend to jump the gun when it comes to transitioning their toddler from a crib to a bed. If your child hasn’t learned to sleep well on their own in their crib or if you are still facing bed and night time challenges then they are most likely not ready. Changing them to a big boy/girl bed, in the hopes that they will start to enjoy sleeping on their own, is probably not a good idea. You will have a toddler who has a new game to play – leaving their bed and room to come find mom and dad.
