No-Cry Discipline

What to Do When Siblings Fight

When our children fight, it not only grates on our nerves, it tugs on our hearts. We want them to love each other, and we want them to build life-long friendships. When they quarrel it seems this will never happen. In reality, most siblings fight with each other, and it is not a measure of their love or their friendship. It’s the normal development of social and relationship skills. The majority of sibling battles are not destructive to the relationship between the children. All this considered, there are ways to reduce the number of fights, and the severity of them, as well.

3 Steps to Stop Kids from Fighting & Whining

When your kids are fighting, or your little one is whining it can be so easy to lose your temper and just shout, “Stop!” but that rarely (if ever) helps. Try this technique instead.

Should Older Kids Babysit for their Siblings?

What happens when an older sibling babysits for a younger one? Is it a good idea? If there is a wide age span between your children, you may be wondering if your older child would make a good babysitter. The decision to have one sibling babysit for another should never be based purely on the age of the children, or what is convenient for the parents. Rather, the decision should be based on how responsible the older child is, and on the relationship between the children. If the older child displays trustworthiness for homework, chores and personal responsibilities, and if the two children have a usually peaceful relationship, it’s safe to try out a babysitting situation.

Using the Magic Word when Parenting

Day in and day out, parents are teaching their children to use their manners; but all too often, parents forget to use those same manners themselves. Parents make the mistake of modeling the exact opposite of what they’ve been teaching, which makes their parenting lessons much less effective. Or they take the opposite approach and are not direct enough.

Handling Unwanted Advice

Are you getting frustrated with the endless stream of unwanted advice you get from other people about how to raise your child? You may love your friends and family, but how do you get them to stop dispensing all this unwanted advice?

The important place to start is to understand that just as your baby is an important part of your life, he is also important to others. People who care about your baby are bonded to you and your child in a special way that invites their counsel. Knowing this may give you a reason to handle the interference gently, in a way that leaves everyone’s feelings intact.

When Your Toddler Pushes Your Buttons

After giving a parenting lecture one day, a mother approached me complaining that her two-year-old was constantly whining, getting into everything and making her very frustrated.