Parenting Blog
A Lesson in Boundaries
This Father’s Day, we’re reflecting on the life lessons that fathers can pass on to their children — particularly boundaries. Father’s Day is just around the corner. There are so many essential life lessons that dads pass on to their children. Father’s Day is a reminder of how much dads impact their kids’ lives. One of the most important things that we think dads can teach their kids is how to set boundaries. Why Are Boundaries So Important for Kids? It’s easy to picture boundaries as being imaginary lines that we draw that we don’t want someone to cross, similar to boundaries on a sports field. Our personal boundaries tell others [...]
Mom & Kindness
Mother’s Day offers a natural opportunity for kids to learn the elements of love and kindness. Mother’s Day really is about mom. Moms should not feel like they need to turn their day into a necessary learning experience for their children. However, it’s impossible to ignore the fantastic opportunity for emotional awareness created by this highly interpersonal holiday. Mother’s Day provides an excellent opportunity for kids to learn the elements of love and kindness: ● Empathy ● Graciousness ● Anticipating the needs of others ● Gratitude ● Creativity ● Acceptance This Mother’s Day encourage your children to express their love and experience love and kindness with your family. Mother’s Day holds many of [...]
Mindfulness Through Kindness
Embodying kindness can offer children many benefits for themselves and others. Is the word kindness overused? The truth is that it is easy to dismiss kindness as a catchphrase in this busy world we live in. However, kindness can never be an overdone idea! The best way to ensure that kindness does not get evaporated down to a catchphrase with our kids is to show them how to live kindness. This means understanding that kindness is: • Connection • Empathy in motion • Recognition of the dignity of others • A counterbalance to the hate in the world • A way to reveal our truest self to another • A way to remind ourselves [...]
Brain Fitness
Help your kids develop a mindful brain with some exercise. Are you wondering how to help your child flex their mental-health muscles? The brain is the ultimate mindfulness muscle! Play is the default brain workout for children. Most children effortlessly fall into play that allows them to explore thoughts, express feelings, and process the world around them. However, some gentle guidance from parents can help them optimize their brainpower by using some simple elements of “brain fitness.” Specific movements can help keep the brain sharp while providing tools for self-regulation. These exercises are great ways to help your child calm down when upset. What Is Brain Fitness? We all understand the [...]
Practical Mindfulness
Learn how to create a mindful household for your child for parenting in unprecedented times. Is mindfulness possible in the chaos? It’s the question that every parent asks. Life comes at us fast when we’re helping our kids navigate the stress of school, socializing, family dynamics, and the world at large while juggling our own professional and personal battles daily. Our ideal of living in a calm, emotionally connected house is often sacrificed to the realities of just how much we have on our plates. There’s a secret that so many parents miss. Mindfulness happens best in small bites. The goal isn’t to create a house that’s so serene it feels [...]
Passion Project
Learn ways to support your children in building upon their passions. Have your children been stuck with their heads in their computers, tablets, and phones for the last 18 months? Children have had limited opportunities to build upon and explore their passions outside of the classroom or virtual walls. I like to use the word passion interchangeably with words like determination, pride, and love. Passion is a strong desire that can enable children to do amazing things. Passion is an emotion that needs to be acted upon. Without action, passion yields no worthwhile results. In turn, passion fuels action. When a person has a passion for something, they love it even [...]
Mindful Merriness
Fun activities to do with your kids for mindful holidays. It’s easy to fall into the trap of rushing around, getting fixated on gifts, and clinging to picture-perfect expectations during the holiday season. There’s nothing wrong with embracing the tinsel and glow of December. However, the busyness of the season can make it tough to maintain balance. Many parents worry that the flurry of activity that occurs is overwhelming for their kids. It is possible to have a mindful holiday season. What’s more, mindfulness can feel fun and merry. Practicing mindfulness is one of the best things to do for the holidays. Take a look at these three mindfulness activities you [...]
Understanding 7 Challenging Child Behaviors
Raising a child is exciting. They are filled with excitement and curiosity as they learn new things and discover the world around them. This is also the stage when they realize that they are separate from their caregivers (like their parents) and feel a sense of independence. As a result, they are more assertive and are able to communicate their likes and dislikes. Some parents find themselves in a conundrum: my child is driving me crazy. Children tend to exhibit a lot of challenging behaviors that all parents struggle with at one time or another. If this is something that you’ve experienced, you have come to the right place. Defining Challenging Behaviors [...]
Mindfulness for Childhood Anxiety
How mindfulness can become a useful part of your child’s mental-health toolkit. Parents shouldn’t be intimidated by conversations about how to manage childhood anxiety. It’s very easy to fall into the trap of thinking that anxiety is a problem that needs to be fixed. In reality, anxiety is an expected, everyday part of the human experience that can be managed. All of us will experience anxiety at some point. While we never want to downplay or dismiss the debilitating impact that anxiety can have when it’s left unchecked, we also want to avoid the extreme of thinking that a child is somehow flawed or damaged just because they experience anxiety. Anxiety [...]
10 Ways to Connect With Your Child Every Day
Have you ever seen your child trip and hurt their knee at the park? What’s the first thing that they do before they start crying? Yep, they search for you – their protector. It is instinctive for a child to connect to their parents for safety and security in moments like this. As a parent, moments like this give you a great learning opportunity on how to connect with your child. Humans are biologically wired to seek connection. A child who is just learning how the world works express fear of abandonment or longing for more of their caregivers by seeking attention and connection. Sadly most parents today tend to dwell on [...]
How to Raise a Resilient Kid
Why is it that some kids flourish even in the face of adversity? It’s resilience. This is an important trait to cultivate in your child at a young age so they are able to overcome major stumbling blocks later on in life. Raising resilient children is something that you need to focus on so that your child can thrive despite facing major hurdles in life. What Does it Take to Be Resilient? Resiliency is when you face a seemingly insurmountable challenge, yet you push on instead of simply giving up. This is one of the traits you need to develop in your child as they grow up. It is also a great [...]
How to Stop Your Toddler from Throwing Things
The next thing toddlers do after learning how to open their fingers and use their hands to pick things up, is to throw anything they can get their hands on. Toddlers throwing things is pretty common; it is actually a crucial part of their fine-motor skills development. For parents however, it can be one of the more frustrating stages to deal with. So how do you exactly stop your toddler from throwing things? Why toddlers throw things Before you can teach your child how NOT to throw things up, you need to understand why they do this behavior in the first place. Most children between 18 months and 3 years old find [...]