At Home
Ice Creams & Same Teams
I told my kid that they could have an ice cream alongside their lunch. While lunch was cooking, they said something rude to me. My impulsive reaction was to want to tell them that they […]
Social/Emotional
At Home
Juice & Manipulation
My kids got new water bottles and were at the table having a rare treat of red juice. While they can normally carry their water bottles freely around the house, I told them while they […]
At Home
Capable, Connected, Interested
Pretty much the entire public school system in Western society (which is the only school system I have personal experience with, hence my qualifier) is rooted in: Adults decide when kids need to know stuff. […]
Child Development
Four Year Old Moral Development
Last year, when I was writing my book, I was trying to find a source and got sidetracked reading a bunch of stuff about moral development in children (as one does) and I was just […]
Child Development
Wishes, Limits, & Boundaries
Do you understand the difference between wishes, limits, and boundaries? If you find yourself saying the word “want” or “need”, a lot of times you are expressing a value, a wish, or a feeling. Same […]
At Home
Co-Regulation in Action
One of my absolute favorite things about our new life in Australia is that we’ve made best friends with the neighbours, who have several kids close in age to both of my children. All of […]
At Home
Behavior Is Communication…On Purpose!
A year ago, my children, who were 5 and 6 at the time, had similar-aged friends come over to the house. The four of them all played together, running around the house and roughhousing. One […]
At Home
Dysregulation at Home
During one of the recent snow days home, my kids were getting really sick of being cooped up inside and struggling to be able to play with one another successfully. They both needed more space […]
At Home
Rage For No Reason
We came back from the usual 2-week holiday break, and then had school cancelled for an entire week due to snow and road conditions. So, when my kids went back to school yesterday (with a […]
At School
Push Them To Breaking…
(All I’m doing in this post is describing adult/child interactions that I observed, but I want to give you a heads up that it’s kind of infuriating. I think that’s important to share and to […]