What to Do if Your Kid Leaves Dirty Dishes Laying Around
Poised, charming 23-year old Annie sat on the couch in my counseling office today and told me a brilliant parenting strategy that her dad pulled on her when she was a young teen.
Shout out today to great fathers!
There are so many of you. You are great in such diverse ways. Some of you are no longer with us but your good fathering lives on in your children. Today, I celebrate dads and the positive impact you have on the young people you are parenting … along with the other young people whose […]
How Do We Parent in Ways We Weren’t Parented?
Make lasting changes in behavior that last a lifetime and span multiple generations. In some ways, it’s easy to parent our children in ways we weren’t parented, right? I was a latch-key kid with a working mom who was gone a lot. When it came time for me to be a mom, I was fiercely […]
Jude Keeps the Church Offering
Jude (6) confessed to keeping part of his offering out of the offering basket at church. Dad was initially mad. But then he decided to make this a learning opportunity and help his son develop conscience rather than create a pattern where he simply feared his father’s anger. Ask him how he felt when he did […]
Discipline that Makes Cents
Tax Unwanted Behavior At a parent coaching session recently, a single dad talked about a real world solution to his parenting dilemma. He charged a tax to his children when they displayed unwanted behavior and paid them a bonus when they displayed positive behavior. What appeared to be a simple solution proved to be a […]
Ask Your Misbehaving Son: “What Kind of Man Do You Want to Grow Up to Be?”
While on vacation recently at the beach, a family of five found themselves having a less than ideal time together. Lying on the beach and doing absolutely NOTHING sounded perfect for the over-worked parents, but the two older boys, James and Liam, wanted ACTION and their little sister Mattie wanted to join in the fun. […]
A Teenage Storm Today Makes Way for a Sunny Tomorrow
There are many versions of a “Teenage Storm” – surly, annoyed, resentful, hurtful – perhaps it includes silence or is filled with an angry outburst claiming that you don’t understand. It could be your teen manipulating your emotions in the storm – looking for an opportunity to take advantage of your weakness. Whatever your particular […]
Compassion is the Key to 5-year Old Bed Wetting
We all have expectations as parents. One thing we don’t usually expect is for our school age child to still be wetting the bed on a regular basis. So when it happens over and over again, we can forget that they are little people trying hard to learn and we can end up being negative […]
One, Two, Boom! Connecting with Your Shared-Custody Child
Do you share custody of your children with their other parent and feel excluded from the other half of their lives? A single dad told me how he didn’t like that he doesn’t know about a full half of his kids’ lives because they are at their mom’s house 50% of the time. This innovative […]
Rowdy at Dinner
I frequently receive letters and emails from my readers sharing their successes and failures as parents. While I prefer reading the success stories, I also find value in parenting failures because it gives me an opportunity to reach out and offer advice on a topic that I’m passionate about, Love and Logic® parenting. I look […]