(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 talk about, but I wanted to put this heads-up here because I know that some readers have been more intensely … Read more
We have been through some wild things as a family in our lives, but none of them have strained us as thoroughly as these past few weeks. They’ve been the hardest for our family’s well-being, the most difficult to parent, and the worst my mental health has been in a long time. I’ve been struggling … Read more
Bedtime has been rough for… Well, let me back up. Bedtime has been out of whack in general for like, six weeks now. But bedtime has been especially bad and full of tears and yelling and dysregulation this whole week. I’ve been so tapped out myself by the end of the day that I can … Read more
We have been watching a lot of hotel TV these past couple of weeks. At home, we really only watch stuff on streaming services; the kids have never had live TV before, so there have been some new enthralling things to watch and some old favorites. I remain convinced that Bluey is genuinely in a … Read more
This is a Spanish language translation of this post, which is in English. Post traducido del original en Ingles. Veo peques en mi escuela que tienen tres, cuatro, cinco y seis años. Se comportan de todo tipo de maneras molestas para la educación tradicional. Tocan cosas cuando pasan por los pasillos. Se levantan de las … Read more
When you were a child, if you had said, “I’m so mad right now,” would you have been safe? If you had said, “I’m furious—I need a break, get away from me!” If you had screamed, “No!” Would you have been safe? Physically? Emotionally? At home? At school? I hope the answer is yes. I … Read more
Imagine that you sit down to watch a movie. You pop yourself a bowl of popcorn to go with it…maybe your favorite toppings, whether salt and butter or marshmallow or Parmesan cheese or something else…you pick up the remote, hit play, and get ready to watch the movie while eating your popcorn. Then somebody takes … Read more
I’ve written before on here about my own strategy of enjoying yelling along to music, as a means of preemptively self-regulating. Because when I’m stressed out, I have a tendency to want to yell (at my kids), so I take that need, recognise it, and preemptively meet it in a non harmful way, when I’m … Read more
One thing went wrong. And it led to another. And it was too many things. And he was MAD. I carried him into his room so that we would have a safe space to melt down. He screamed at me, “JUST GO AWAY FROM ME!” I have talked about this before (I’ll link that post … Read more
This is a Spanish language translation of this post, which is in English. Post traducido del original en Ingles. Durante estas temporadas hay muchos más adornos de lo normal; también puede suceder que van a casa de familiares o lugares llenos de cosas tentadoras. ¿No quieres que jueguen con adornos porque se rompen? Si tienes … Read more