Parents With Confidence

Raising emotionally healthy children that will change the world.

5 Insider Secrets That Help you Understand Your Toddler’s Frustrating Behaviors

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Inside: Toddler and preschool years are chock-full of social and emotional development. Knowing our child’s brain is ‘under construction’ allows us to put frustrating behaviors into context and to respond effectively. 

How to Handle your Frustrating Toddler

 

“Mama, can we get some fwuut snacks? Pweeeeeeese?”

Last week, while at the grocery store, my 3-year-old and I ran into a close family friend we hadn’t seen in a long time. It was a dear friend so I ran over to greet her enthusiastically with a hug.

As soon as we finished exchanging hello’s, I knew exactly what would happen next.

Being the warm and kind person she is, she turned to my 3-year-old son (currently power slamming a granola bar) and offered him a warm greeting as well, “hey there buddy, how are you doing?”.

Then, just as I predicted, he unabashedly flashed the ‘death scowl’ at her, complete with bared teeth and a growl for good measure.

Raising a toddler is fun sometimes, right?

[Read more…]

20 Epic Life Skills Your Child Learns Through Play

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Play is an underestimated but vastly powerful force on your child’s development, read more about the areas of development that are positively impacted by play. 

I was driving my 7-year-old daughter to summer camp, like real camp. The kind where you don’t get to talk to them on the phone at all and they sleep over night for the whole week (gasp!).

This is the stuff a mother’s nightmares are made of, but truth be told my girl was eager and ready for the adventure so I was feeling surprisingly calm. [Read more…]

4 Ways to be an Amazing Parent to your Teen (and even enjoy it!)

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Inside: Learn four essential ways to be the best parent to your teenager while also enjoying this stage of their growth and development.

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For decades the teenage years have been foreshadowed by fear and negativity. My oldest daughter just lost her second tooth and I am already breaking out into a sweat thinking about the hormonal years that lie ahead.

[Read more…]

6 Signs Your Child has Officially Entered the Pre-teen Years

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Inside: Learn 6 common behaviors that signal pre-adolescence in a child and how to handle them with confidence.
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While parents are told to ‘buckle up’ for the teenage years, we don’t talk much about the turbulence of the years leading up to adolescence, the pre-teen years.

We should, though. The pre-adolescent years (between the ages of nine and 12) are chock full of amazing developmental changes for your child; cognitive, physical, and emotional. The volume and velocity of these changes can leave us wondering, who took our sweet child and replaced them with a villain from ‘The Descendants’?

It can be an unsettling and confusing time, for both you and your child, but have no fear, there is much hope for the both of you. [Read more…]

What You Need To Know To Be A Good Parent To Your Preschooler

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Inside: Knowing the massive amount of development and growth your preschooler is undergoing will help you not to personalize their behaviors, allowing you to be the calm, steady leader they need. 

The preschool years can be tricky business. Our tiny toddlers are beginning to resemble actual grown people. They’re starting to sound more like them, too. [Read more…]

The Real Reason Your Toddler is Acting Like a Maniac

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Inside: Find out the underlying developmental and brain-based causes of mystifying and maddening toddler behaviors, as well as how to deal with them effectively.

I froze in shock as the slap landed smack on my nose.

It wasn’t the first time I’d been hit in the face by a two-foot-tall tyrant, but it still hurt. I’ve been to the toddler rodeo before. This time though, I resolved to do things differently: I paused and took notice of my internal reaction. Did it hurt? Yes. Did it seriously tick me off? Yes. Did my child intend to hurt me? Certainly not. [Read more…]

3 Surefire Signs That You’re Raising a Right-Brained Kid

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Raising a sensitive spirited child is both exhausting and rewarding, if you identify with these ideas your child is likely right-brain dominant.

It is 7:30 am and my head is spinning.

I’ve already fielded at least 50 questions from my daughter in reference to the breakfast options in the house and why she can’t consume popsicles or ice cream for breakfast (despite the fact we literally just talked about this yesterday). [Read more…]

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  • Parent.co
  • Psych Central
  • Scary Mommy
  • The Mighty