Family MattersPractical Parenting Blog

Manipulating Your Kids Will Make You a Good Parent

Father kissing giggling daughter

Many parents feel uncomfortable about the idea of manipulation. They get upset when their children manipulate them, and feel uncomfortable about manipulating them in return. But I think it’s a valuable parenting tool.

The word “manipulation” has negative connotations and implies bad intentions. But in most cases, we don’t manipulate others to harm them. Quite the opposite.

In my parenting programs, I’m amazed by how many parents don’t think they have the right to make their children think or do some things. These parents don’t seem to understand their role.

What?!

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Helpful Staycation Ideas to Make Your COVID-19 Holidays Great

Staycation: suitcase with a laptop screen containing a home and a yard

The holidays are coming and this year, 2020, isn’t a normal year. We can’t go on vacation the way we did in previous years. So, what can we do? We can have a staycation. But first, we need some staycation ideas.

With COVID-19 looming, limited money, closed attractions, and restricted events and restaurants, a proper holiday seems difficult, even impossible. So, we either have a staycation or go nuts.

A staycation isn’t staying at home. It’s having a vacation, and enjoying our time, at home, or close to home. But how do we do it?

Read Helpful Staycation Ideas to Make Your COVID-19 Holidays Great »

How to Overcome Fight, Flight & Freeze in Relationships

Little girl looking happy and excited

There’s some amount of stress in every relationship, and we respond to it through Fight, Flight or Freeze. So how can we overcome these responses, relax and stay together?

Watching babies and toddlers playing “hide and seek” can teach us a lot about the human mind and how we can improve the relationship game.

Our granddaughter is 3 years old, and we look after her once or twice a week (lucky us). She loves to play “hide and seek”, and we all love to watch her having fun.

For a long time, we had to nominate a person to hide with her, so she would get the hang of it. Because whenever we asked, “Where is Ayla?” she would answer from her hiding place…

Hilarious, right?!

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Formal vs. Informal Learning: Which is The Best During COVID-19?

Girl with mask saying 'Welcome back to school'

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many parents ask themselves if formal education is enough to give their kids what they need. What was normal before COVID-19 is not the same now. I suggest informal learning instead.

I believe many good things came out of COVID-19. For example, some of my nephews blossomed with remote learning. Unfortunately, some of them, who had been brilliant students before, just collapsed.

Lately, the parents of many of the children I coach told me of real challenges at home. I believe this difficult period highlights challenges each family already had before. The uncertainty, the restrictions, the financial burden, and the isolation just added more pressure into the system and the system no longer copes.

Read Formal vs. Informal Learning: Which is The Best During COVID-19? »

100 Easy Ways of Entertaining Kids During COVID-19

Girl lying on the grass looking bored

Many parents are looking for easy ways of entertaining kids, but that’s happening now more than ever before. The restrictions that came with the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic have created challenges for many families around the world.

Usually, kids spend a lot of time at school. Their time is full of learning, variety, and activities to keep them interested and occupied. It’s very hard to get bored at school. So, parents just need to entertain them in the afternoons.

Now, however, they spend most, if not all, of their time at home. This period is very difficult for them because they locked up and bored out of their little mind. Finding entertaining things to do is a much bigger challenge than it normally is.

Fortunately, you’re at the right place and I’m here to help!

Read 100 Easy Ways of Entertaining Kids During COVID-19 »

How to Inspire Your Kids’ Natural Kindness

Toddles showing natural kindness to baby

Humans are kind in nature. Just watch young children. They are born with natural kindness. This is the main reason it’s so wonderful to be around children. They constantly give and engage in a way that makes you want to give in return.

Research has found that kindness is contagious. If you want to see it in action, try smiling at people as you pass them on the street. Smiling is an act of kindness! And when you smile, people smile back.

When babies see a puppet show with kind and affectionate characters, followed by rude and mean ones, they prefer the kind puppets. Yes, they were just babies. But they have an innate ability to mirror their surroundings. They can notice the tone of the voice and actions.

Read How to Inspire Your Kids’ Natural Kindness »

Amazing Natural Treatment for Hyperactive Attention Deficit Disorder

Boy looking out of train window

Children with learning difficulties are very close to my heart. I’ve written about kids with Hyperactive Attention Deficit Disorder (ADHD) before and shared tips and strategies to help them live a happy, fulfilling life. It makes me very happy when readers share their stories and tell me how they’ve used my tips to improve their ADHD child’s life for the better.

Claire is the mother of a boy with ADD/ADHD. She came to this blog and read some of the posts about ways to manage Hyperactive Attention Deficit Disorder. After just one month of trying some of the techniques, her son became a happier child, and she became a happier mom.

When she felt she was on the right track, she sent me a very happy and positive update on her son’s progress and how she’d used my tips. So I asked if I could share her emails with other moms.

Read Amazing Natural Treatment for Hyperactive Attention Deficit Disorder »

The Truth about Why We Send Our Kids to School

Girl looking up from school work

There is a point in every parent’s journey where you ask yourself, “Why do I send my kids to school?” Over the last 33 years, I’ve worked with many parents. And I can tell you that most of them didn’t have a good answer to this question.

Have you ever reached this point in your parenting?

What was your answer?

Read The Truth about Why We Send Our Kids to School »

Practice Fearless Parenting Under Pressure: Do It Your Way

Mother and daughter in nature

Parenting is one of the most important and difficult things we’ll ever do in life. And it becomes even harder when we doubt ourselves and stop trusting our own judgment. When others try to impose their methods of parenting on us, and we let it affect us, we have an even greater challenge.

I was lucky to start my parenting journey when our close friends didn’t have children and our family was too far away. Until our daughter Eden was 14 months old, Gal and I relied solely on our own judgment. We had no Internet and no people telling us what to do.

Eden was born after I finished most of my education studies. Although my course didn’t cover things like the best time to feed babies, or when to start giving solid food, it did help me build the confidence to raise her.

Read Practice Fearless Parenting Under Pressure: Do It Your Way »

How to Motivate Your Stepchildren: A Stepparent’s Guide

Woman and little boy blowing bubbles

Being a parent is one of the biggest challenges a person ever experiences. Being a stepparent is even harder. If every family needs goals, blended families need them even more.

Think of a family like a ship. Parents are the captains of the ship, and as captains, we need to make sure our family arrives at its destination safely. In every sea, there are storms and calm waters, and we need to prepare ourselves for every ride.

What do ships need in order to move? They need two coordinates. They need to know where they are and where they are going. Without them, we don’t know how much supplies to take, what direction to take, what to avoid and where to stop on the way to have some fun.

Read How to Motivate Your Stepchildren: A Stepparent’s Guide »

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