How to Avoid Abusive Relationships

Young man with tattoos and skill rings (may or may not be abusive)

As your daughter grows older and develops a relationship with a steady partner, the feeling of losing control grows too. Being the mother of a young woman (OMG, she is 20!), I see a lot of value in teaching teenage girls the difference between healthy and unhealthy relationships.

I am sometimes surprised to meet new clients who cannot understand how they got themselves into an abusive relationship. As you can imagine, getting a women out of an abusive relationship is much harder than not getting into such relationship in the first place.

If you are the parent of a young daughter, you are probably asking yourself, “How can I make sure my daughter never gets herself into an abusive relationship?” The good news is you can! And if you do it before the relationship starts, you have a better chance of succeeding.

Read How to Avoid Abusive Relationships »

Motivating Kids (1)

Many times, I hear the question “How do you motivate kids to do things?” Most parents in the world would like to know the “magic tricks” of motivating their kids to succeed, to be friendly, to be healthy and happy. I guess it is part of having kids, that desire for them to be “in the zone”, where everything is easy and gives a good feeling. In this sense, kids and their parents are exactly the same. Motivation has no age.

In my parenting classes, 100% of the participants want their kids to have love, success, friendships, confidence and happiness. All of the parents look for the formula they can use to help their kids get these things.

In the coming weeks, I will be posting about motivating kids, covering all aspects of motivations and how you, as a parent, can use each and every one of them to give your kids what you have always wanted to. With each post, I will also include tips, exercises and/or printable resources to help you on this exciting mission.

Read Motivating Kids (1) »

Dumb Parents?

If you have ever wondered how dumb parents can be, wonder no more. I believe the parents in the story “Parents Fight over Which Gang Toddler Should Join” take the lead for more than one reason. If there is ever a parenting qualification exam, they would fail miserably. This may be how it seems, but is it the whole story?

Read Dumb Parents? »

Parent, Child, Adult

Years ago, someone showed me this book called “I’m OK, You’re OK”. In the book, the author describes 4 psychological positions and their effect on communication and relationships. What I read in that book has helped me a lot over the years and is a handy way of explaining relationships to clients, especially parents.

Read Parent, Child, Adult »

How to Make Your Kids Smarter

If you want your kids to study well and succeed in everything they do, first you need to make sure they have the right fuel to make their body function. Many people think that success at school is totally connected to how smart kids are but unfortunately, kids’ “smartness” is highly effected by the way they manage their body.

Read How to Make Your Kids Smarter »

Welcome to Teenhood

It is days before your 13th birthday and you are approaching the line. 12 sleeps from now, you will enter the scary age of being a teenager. For years, you have been a kid, a child. You have liked most of it and thought there would be magic when you celebrated your first teen birthday.

Read Welcome to Teenhood »

8 Best Ways to Treat Your Teens

Last week, I talked about the 8 worst ways to treat your teens. These were nagging, telling them what to do, punishing them, lecturing, screaming/shouting/yelling, using guilt, begging and bribing.

As I promised, I will dedicate this post to the best ways to treat teens. I do hope you get lots of inspiration and understanding from it and establish a better communication with your teens.

Read 8 Best Ways to Treat Your Teens »

Pushing Your Teens to Find a Job

Only 3% of teens going into higher education straight after high school actually finish their choice of study and work in that profession for about 5 years after finishing studying.

Read Pushing Your Teens to Find a Job »

Assume Coaching Position

Without being taught parenting skills, many parents miss clues that their kids are having a problem. They just move along, expecting their kids to behave “normally”, which the kids can do for a while, but then the burden becomes too heavy for them to carry and they lash out, withdraw or show other signs of distress. The parents are then surprised and get upset at the “unacceptable behavior”. Sounds familiar?

Read Assume Coaching Position »

Nagging Singles into Marriage

Being single is no fun when people around you nag. Many times, family members believe that all people should get married and that nagging will “encourage” singles to find a partner. In fact, this is the same whatever you nag your kids to do.

Read Nagging Singles into Marriage »