It wasn’t pretty.
In fact, it was downright ugly.
I’m talking about my tantrum. I had a mommy melt-down. I was tired, cranky, overwhelmed. Did I mention stressed? My reasons were many, and overall, I was just on overload. I had too many things I needed AND wanted to do, and not enough time to do them. And I wanted to do them without any interruptions. Without my kids arguing. Without the dogs needing to be let out every 5 minutes. Without anyone needing anything from me. Was this realistic? Of course not. I’m just venting here, …

“C’mon, Mom—let’s GO! I want to GO somewhere!” I hear this phrase every day from my youngest child who’s seven. As an extrovert, she gets her energy from being around people, and the people in her house don’t always cut it it! She’s been wired this way from birth. I could see her try to meet others’ eyes, even as a tiny baby. She smiled and laughed in an effort to engage others around her. You could just see her searching for ways to connect with others.
My other daughter, who’s …

As promised, I’m back with the next post in the “How To Thrive (Not Just Survive) Summer” series. Having your kids home during the summer doesn’t have to mean chaos and stress, but it DOES mean you have to plan ahead. In the previous post, I asked you to get clear on where you are with this summertime issue. Do you dread hearing, “I’m bored?” Are you worried that your kids will argue and ask you to referee? If you work from home as I do, do you wonder how you’ll …

Welcome to a series of blog posts that will be dealing with a topic that strikes fear into the hearts of mothers everywhere:  how you as a mom can set up the summer so that your sanity is intact, you actually enjoy your children, and you even make some good memories together. Is this possible, you ask? Absolutely. But it requires creativity, flexibility, and…..are you ready for the “secret ingredient?”
A willingness to rethink what summer means to you and your family.
In fact, let’s start with willingness, shall we? When you think of spending …

I’m a big fan of anything that makes parenting easier (well, almost anything–it has to be within my integrity!). That’s why I’m so excited about Barbara Probst’s book, When The Labels Don’t Fit: A New Approach To Raising A Challenging Child.  Blessedly this is NOT  just another book on how to discipline your child. Instead, it outlines a postive, more energizing way of looking at your child’s temperament, and a refreshing one at that.
While the idea of temperament has been around for a long time, it hasn’t always been used …

Many power struggles, temper tantrums, and other discipline issues could be avoided if parents knew one thing: how their child gets energy.   This has to do with your child’s inner world. While the idea of temperament is not new, there are new ways of looking at it that make parenting easier, more fun, and focus on kids’ strengths. Barbara Probst, author of When The Labels Don’t Fit: A New Approach To Raising A Challenging Child (Three Rivers Press), and I share the same strength-based philosophy. Here are her tips (for …

Are you old enough to remember the “Just Say NO” campaign from the Reagan era?  Whether or not it was successful in reducing drug abuse is debatable. That said, I think it’s like the ”Just Do It” slogan from Nike in its assertiveness. It implies action. Now.
 In the spirit of helping you to take action that will make your job as a parent easier, I am going to point out three parenting behaviors that, if you stop doing them, you will get better results. So, here are my three enemies of successfully parenting parenting your difficult …

Let’s be real for a minute: parenting is hard work. Whether your child is strong-willed or mild-mannered (I have one of each!), you have to work at intentionally instilling your values and teaching right from wrong. But you can work smarter, not harder, by avoiding these discipline mistakes:
1. Talking Too Much. Lecturing. Explaining. Nagging. If you’re clear about your expectations and rules up front, you shouldn’t need to explain yourself endlessly. In fact, doing so gives your child time, attention and relationship at the wrong time, AND takes away their opportunity …

There is a secret to preventing tantrums and power struggles that is right under your nose. You see and hear evidence of it every day. Sometimes, the expression of it might cause you to want to scream. Know what it is yet?
Temperament. Every child comes into the world with a certain set of traits. Knowing your child’s natural, inborn style of behavior–how they come biologically “wired”–can help you know what limits to set and how to set them, before there is a problem. In the ’50s, researchers Stella and Chess followed people …