Posts filed under 'Parenting Advice'
Make weight loss a family affair! Preventing and treating childhood obesity requires the entire family.
Children can’t change their exercise and eating habits by themselves. They need the help from their families and other caregivers. This is why successful prevention and treatment of childhood obesity starts at home.
Childhood obesity is usually caused by kids eating too much and exercising too little. So creating new family habits around healthy eating and increased physical activity can help a child lose weight and can also improve the health of other members of the family.
For more on Childhood Obesity check out our parenting resources on BrownEyedBabyBoutique.
(sc)
October 19th, 2006
Ask any mom what her most pressing daily problem is and many of them will reply, “Skyrocketing prices.”
Inflation is a household word and no end is in sight.
I’m sure that, like me, you take down from the shelf an item that has been there for a few weeks and find the price mark significantly lower than the cost of replacing the can or packaged item. Many people are having to face up to the fact that they can no longer afford certain things they had taken for granted. We’re all having to decide what we can get along without.
Belt-tightening and more belt-tightening.
So what can we as mother’s do? Determine your ”needs” and for a while, eliminate your “wants”.
(sc) contributing editor for Browneyedbabyboutique
October 9th, 2006
Surveys would suggest that many parents feel disadvantaged when in public. When kids start acting out, they dread dealing with the whining, complaining, demanding and negotiating that goes on when shopping, eating out or traveling.
Let us look at just one. Shopping!!! It’s time to go shopping and you can’t find a babysitter. You dread the thought of taking the kids along, as they start to whine and complain by the time you pull out of the drive way.
You start to threaten them and run out of threats. You then try to bribe them and you spend all your money on the bribe to try and stop the whining and complaining.
There is shopping insanity, and there is shopping sanity. You can go from craziness and dread to moments of enjoyable shopping with your kids.
There are three keys points to help you have an enjoyable experience with your children.
1. Clarify your expectations
2. Stop investing in the negative behavior
3. Establish limits with consequences, not words and threats.
(sc)
October 3rd, 2006
Parenting presents you with many challenges. Most parents handle the unexpected questions or the awkward moments with relative grace.
The more strong-willed your child ….the more demand upon you to be a more skilled parent. The more such kids pull us into their oppositional tendencies….the more clarity we need to get out of this unhealthy pattern.
It’s as if the more challenging are here to require that we enhance our parenting skills.
What do I model as a parent? If I allow myself the excuse that it’s ok to lose my temper when I’m not getting what i want….then, of course, my kids must understand that its okay for them to lose their temper when they don’t get what they want.
So remember it all starts with how we as parents lead!
(sc)
October 2nd, 2006
“I’d love to, but I just don’t have the time.”
Wouldn’t it be interesting to keep track of how often we hear that or say it ourselves?
Frequently it is a plain statement of fact; at other times it can be an excuse. When “I don’t have the time” is the truth, then acting on it is simply being a good steward of a precious, nonrecoverable commodity. So we do well to question our use of abuse of time.
Especially in the home and with our children it’s essential that we shun the excuse route. That doesn’t mean we have to give account of our every minute. We do, however, need to be completely honest with a child. If, indeed, we do not at the moment have time to give attention to what the child wants us to do, there’s nothing wrong with saying it. It’s good to add, “But I’ll make time a little later.” a child can live with that without feeling Mom or Dad doesn’t care about him. It’s vital, though, to follow through and keep that promise.
Because we cannot “make” time, in order to keep faith with the child, we just have to let something else go.
Actually, it’s been my observation that the boy and girl who can trust their parents to give them some time, are generally far less demanding. They tend to feel secure in their parents’ love; they think, “I’m important. Mom and Dad like to spend time with me.” Contrast the often-let-down youngster who continually hounds his parents with his whining, “You promised. You promised.”
Keeping a promise is its own reward in good relationships.
(sc)
September 28th, 2006
No matter what the ages of your children, chances are pretty good you’ll be in a position where you need to tote them from point A to point B. And when they’re hungry, this toting gets tougher. Use a snack to fill the gap. Keep in mind snacks are a good way to work in nutritious foods your children need for healthy growth. Here’s some suggestions of snack ideas when your family is on the go.
Fruits, dried fruits, vegetables, ready to-eat-cereals, nuts and seeds. Some of them come in their own packages such as bananas, while some of them may need advance preparation.
There are times when your best efforts to plan ahead just don’t work out. All is not lost, convenience stores actually do have wholesome snacks and you can save the day. Some of these are string cheese, yogurt, pretzels, ready to eat cereals in a bowl, pumpkin or sunflower seads, individual servings of milk or juice, popcorn and granola bars.
[sc] contributing editor for Brown eyed baby boutique
September 21st, 2006
Being new in the neighborhood, the children were experiencing some feelings of being “left out,” especially our two and four year old boys, who could not go to school with the others.
One morning as I prepared ahead of time for the new day, I packed each of them a special sack lunch and tucked in extra goodies–marshmellows. They were most pleased. By 9:00 a.m. they were outdoors with sack in hand, but were immediately confronted by two neighborhood children who zipped by on their bicycles saying, “We can’t play with you. We’re bicycling today.”
I heard my four year old try to entice their attention with marshmallows. But their response was, “We have gum.” Immediately I was confronted with two pitiful broken spirits saying, “They won’t play with us. Can’t we have gum, too?”
Knowing that gum would not really solve the problem, I wondered what I could do. I went to the closet and produced a large old quilt, took the children out on the front lawn, and spread it out for a picnic. This drew the immediate attention of the two neighborhood children. I called for them to come share a special picnic with marshmallows. They were there in a minute. A very rejecting experience was healed, and friendships had begun.
{sc} contributing editor for Brown Eyed Baby Boutique
September 14th, 2006
Most children occasionally take things that don’t belong to them. I had already handled this problem successfully with our first child, so I pursued the same solution with Timmy, our second. One day he came home eating a candy bar he had not paid for. I explained that things must be paid for, and we made a trip back to the store. I escorted the child in with money in his hand. We explained that the money was for the candy bar already consumed.
With Timmy my fail-safe plan didn’t work! Things got worse. He would take money from my purse to buy toys from neighborhood children. I had to leave him in the car when I went in stores. Finally, I lost control and did what all the books say not to do. I likened him to Al Capone and predicted a future in Sing Sing. My poor, trembling six year old!
After calming down, but still being desperate for a solution, I suggested he and I look in one of Mommy’s many child-rearing books. Since he didn’t know why he stole, and I didn’t know, maybe a book would. We opened a book and the first sentence was, “Some children steal beacuse they don’t feel loved.”
I turned to Timmy in shock and with tears in my eyes said, “Why, Tim, you know Mommy loves you, don’t you?” He began to cry and we hugged and kissed and comforted each other.
He never took anything again. Later he told his second grade teacher, “I used to take things when I was little, but I don’t anymore!”
{sc}
September 13th, 2006
Our two-year old granddaughter was at the potty-training age, and everything had become quite confusing. One day I hit on the idea of setting the stove timer for every two hours. I thought perhaps this would help her set the habit of becoming conscious that she might have to go to the bathroom. She thought this was very special! She began to listen for the timer to go off. Then she would run to her potty chair. She soon found there were no more uncomfortable diapers, and the reward was the privilege of wearing training panties. Needless to say, pressure for both the child and the parents was off.
{sc}
September 12th, 2006
Every mother is familiar with the never-give-up wants and wishes of her children. Mary expresses her longing for a particular doll. Tommy daily hounds both his mother and dad for a bike. Later it will be for a car or a special trip. Whatever the thing desired, a child apprears to believe there’s merit in persisting. Sometimes we’re driven to exclaim, “I heard you. I know what you want.” and our tone says “Now that’s enough; I don’t want to hear it one more time.”
We can’t always give our children what they ask. And it would not be best for them if we could. However, we can listen to their requests, and share why we might not be able to meet them. Our children are gifts to us and we need to tenderly care for each of their needs whether it be spiritually, emotionally or financially.
Be sure to let them know that you have heard them and will consider their requests and give them according to what you feel is best for them.
{sc}
September 11th, 2006
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