The Brilliance of “I can’t”
Who thought I’d ever have anything good to say about my life-long complaint: “I can’t.” C’mon. Even the parenting approach I designed has CAN DOs. But I’m starting to see it’s brilliance: it’s my get-out-of trouble card. I’m currently in Carolyn Scarborough’s Backyard Pearls Writing Telecourse. I signed up because I always wanted to...
Read MoreBully-proofing with STRENGTHs
Even big kids get picked on. A 10-year old boy recently told me about his embarrassment when a smaller boy threw something and hit him. At first he said, “Stop that! It hurts!” But when another boy said, “That shouldn’t hurt you. He’s smaller than you!” he didn’t know what to do except walk away. As expected, they laughed. What can you tell a child that...
Read MoreSeeing Kids With “New Eyes”
A first-grader gets overwrought at a school party and starts to have a melt-down. Instead of telling her to settle down, the teacher says, “Seems like you’ve had enough. If you’d like, you can hide under the table with me for a little while.” According to the parent who shared this with me, it only took a couple of minutes of hiding before the child was ready to rejoin the...
Read MoreBecoming Multidimensional
One year ago I got my body back. I realized my long-standing denial statement was actually right: I’m not my body, I simply have one. Since I wrote that post I’ve been Jazzercising for fun and continuing to dance when I hear music, dress my body up, use makeup, style my hair, and best of all, smile when I look in the mirror! I’m jumping into this year with a whole new level of...
Read MoreNPR – What’s Behind A Temper Tantrum?
In an NPR interview this week, researchers James A. Green and Michael Potegal revealed their findings about the patterns of children’s temper tantrums. By studying audio recordings of over 100 toddler tantrums, Green, Potegal and Pamela Whitney found that the old idea that tantrums have two distinct stages, anger then sadness, was incorrect. Instead they found the two overlap: sadness continues...
Read MoreWhy Kids Wail
Stress can build up in a child’s life, especially during the holidays. Could wailing actually help? I was volunteering in a preschool room last week when a reluctant three-year old was dropped off. She’d fallen asleep in the car, and the next thing she knew she was ushered into her classroom, and Mommy was saying goodbye. I got down beside the child and put my arm around her waist. As...
Read MoreSay What You See Book
