by Susie Windle | Apr 9, 2014 | Discipline and Trying Times, Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Importance of Emotions
If parents want to have an impact on an unacceptable behavior exhibited by a child, it is important to prevent it from happening or interrupt it when it does. Reacting afterward is ineffective, which is why punishment doesn’t work well. If you have a child who has a...
by Susie Windle | Apr 2, 2014 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, Your Child's Brain
The amount of time you spend face to face with your child matters. When you spend time face to face, you are sending the message that you delight in just being together. For your child, there is magic in your eye contact, smile, and voice. You are sending the...
by Susie Windle | Mar 5, 2014 | Discipline and Trying Times, Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills
As our children become more independent, it is easy to stop paying close attention to them—but then we can miss their cues about what they need. It is important for children to develop a sense of independence, and at the same time it is still important for parents to...
by Susie Windle | Feb 26, 2014 | Discipline and Trying Times, Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, Your Child's Brain
We all have to wait from time to time—in supermarket lines and traffic, at restaurants and doctors’ offices—and sometimes we must wait with our children. Successfully managing waiting time with a young child starts with adjusting everyone’s expectations—yours and your...
by Susie Windle | Oct 16, 2013 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, Sensory Information, Your Child's Brain
By the time your toddler is twenty-four to thirty months old, he or she will be able to create mental symbols and ideas. These multisensory pictures allow your toddler to form a mental image of his or her wants and desires, and your toddler can label it with words....
by Susie Windle | Oct 9, 2013 | Discipline and Trying Times, Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Importance of Emotions, Your Child's Brain
Whining, that fussy tone of voice between talking and crying, is commonly heard from toddlers, but it doesn’t necessarily mean you have a spoiled child. Often, children whine when they can’t truly express their feelings. You are most likely to hear whining when...
by Susie Windle | Aug 28, 2013 | Discipline and Trying Times, Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Importance of Emotions, The Power of Play
Every child, even an only child, has the feelings, thoughts, and behaviors that are commonly associated with the catchphrase “sibling rivalry.” If you look underneath the conflicts that go along with sibling rivalry, you will usually find questions: Am I truly and...
by Susie Windle | Jul 10, 2013 | Discipline and Trying Times, Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills
Parents do need to set limits, and the hard part about doing this is deciding which lines to draw. Your personal values and attitudes will guide you, and it will also be helpful to remember to set your boundaries wide and then enforce them while keeping your child’s...
by Susie Windle | Jan 9, 2013 | Discipline and Trying Times, Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills
Falling into the feeling that there just isn’t enough time in twenty-four hours is easy, and this attitude may be particularly true for parents who are managing multiple schedules. Whether we feel pressed for time or driven by a lack of time, we can find ourselves...
by Susie Windle | Dec 26, 2012 | Discipline and Trying Times, Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Importance of Emotions
Most parents tell their children, “Talk to us if you are upset or have a problem.” Yet sometimes that statement can be more accurately translated as, “Talk to us if you are upset or have a problem, when it is convenient for us.” A child can find it hard to believe...
