General
Step 1: Establish Safety
My first job, when I work with a new family, is to assess whether the home is a safe place for all family members. Before you follow the advice in any blog, in any book, or from any friend your, home needs to be safe for everyone in the family. If your home is not...
The Most Important New Year’s Resolution for Parents
It’s year end, the time when many of us make resolutions for the New Year. Here’s the one resolution that belongs at the top of every parent’s list. Take time to care for yourself. Being a parent in 2012 was stressful. In a down economy supporting a family can be...
How do kids spell love? Suggestions for great ways for fathers and sons to spend time together.
I was driving past a church one evening and I noticed that the church sign read, “How do kids spell love? T‐I‐M‐E.” I was struck enough by this that I stopped to snap a photo of it. I thought “Yes, that is how kids spell love!” As I drove on, and reflected more about...
Dealing with a Defiant Child: Lessons Learned from Steve Jobs
Since my last post, Steve Jobs: Innovator, Entrepreneur, and Challenging Boy, we have all heard the sad news of Steve Jobs’s passing. Guy Kawasaki, who worked with Jobs at Apple, posted on his blog in memory of Steve: “What I Learned from Steve Jobs.” Here’s a post on...
Steve Jobs: Innovator, Entrepeneur, and Challenging Boy
On August 24, 2011 Steve Jobs submitted his letter of resignation to Apple’s board of directors. When people think Steve Jobs, they think incredibly influential innovator and entrepreneur. As a child, however, Jobs describes himself as having been a “little tyrant.”...
How to Talk to Children about Divorce
How to Talk to Children about Divorce Recently, I was interviewed for an article about helping children cope with divorce. The interviewer specifically wanted to know my recommendations for how parents’ should tell children about their plans for divorce. Below is a...
Why the Good Advice in Parenting Books is Often so Hard to Follow, Part III
From time to time, all parents encounter resistance or even tantrums when they say no to a treat, a purchase, or an activity that a child really wants. And even families with easy, compliant kids and serene, Zen-like parents have fights that occasionally escalate in...
Why the Good Advice in Parenting Books is Often so Hard to Follow, Part II
We weren’t raised this way. Although positive parenting ideas have been around for decades, most of our parents did not believe that respecting, understanding and empathizing with a child’s feelings lay at the heart of parenting; neither did they believe in...
Why the Good Advice in Parenting Books is Often so Hard to Follow, Part I
Why the Good Advice in Parenting Books is Often so Hard to Follow, Part I By now you’ve probably read two, three, four or even more parenting books and you are reading this blog now because you are still searching for answers to the problems that you are having with...
Finding Calm in the Storm of Parenting: Parenting Tips Taken from Yoga
Finding Calm in the Storm of Parenting: Parenting Tips Taken from Yoga Parenting young children, especially challenging boys, can be physically demanding and emotionally stressful. If we do not take care of our bodies and our stress we can’t be at our best with our...