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compassionate parenting
What Matters In The End
"If it's not my idea, I don't want to do it."
This seems to be my seven-year-old son's motto these days, which is kind of annoying because we're spending the summer in a city with a wealth of world-class museums that I want him to experience. I know he'll enjoy them once we're there, but transitions have never been his strong suit.
After some trial and error (and many arguments) trying to motivate him to leave the house, I've found a two-part formula that seems to work. It both gets him excited...
This seems to be my seven-year-old son's motto these days, which is kind of annoying because we're spending the summer in a city with a wealth of world-class museums that I want him to experience. I know he'll enjoy them once we're there, but transitions have never been his strong suit.
After some trial and error (and many arguments) trying to motivate him to leave the house, I've found a two-part formula that seems to work. It both gets him excited...
The Entitlement Myth
A few weeks into his first-grade year, my formerly sweet and relatively cooperative son began acting sassy, cocky, and entitled. Requests for help were met with groans and eye-rolls. Limits were countered with sighs and "whatever"s.
We gave him the benefit of a doubt: Surely he was just imitating his older classmates' rude behaviors. Or maybe this was a misguided attempt at being more independent. All my friends' children were acting the same way, so it was probably a developmental phase....
We gave him the benefit of a doubt: Surely he was just imitating his older classmates' rude behaviors. Or maybe this was a misguided attempt at being more independent. All my friends' children were acting the same way, so it was probably a developmental phase....
The Good Struggle
This morning, let's talk about compassion (identifying our common struggles) and empathy (letting others know they're not alone).
Raise your hand if you want your child to show compassion and empathy for others. OK, that's pretty much everyone in the audience. Put your hands down.
Now, raise your hand if you want your child to suffer. Anyone? Anyone? *crickets*
Most of us agree that it's painful to watch our child get hurt (physically or emotionally). So painful, in fact, that it triggers the...
Raise your hand if you want your child to show compassion and empathy for others. OK, that's pretty much everyone in the audience. Put your hands down.
Now, raise your hand if you want your child to suffer. Anyone? Anyone? *crickets*
Most of us agree that it's painful to watch our child get hurt (physically or emotionally). So painful, in fact, that it triggers the...
Communication for Peace
So many struggles with our children stem from conflicting goals: you need to go grocery shopping and they want to stay home; you need them to sit down for dinnerand they want to keep playing. Imagine if there could be a way of communicating with your child that allowed you to achieve your goals while respecting their priorities. Well, there is.
The practice of Nonviolent Communication recently came into my life. NVC is a way of expressing"what we are observing, what emotions we are feeling,...
The practice of Nonviolent Communication recently came into my life. NVC is a way of expressing"what we are observing, what emotions we are feeling,...
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