Tag: children

Right after our son’s second birthday, my husband raised his voice to me, and our son, Garrett, walked into the room, planted himself firmly in front of his father and said in the sternest voice he could muster, “No Dada. Stop it. You no yell at Mommy!” while holding up his hand in a ‘stop sign’ fashion. Our jaws dropped. “I am stopping it Garrett,” was all my husband could stutter. I was speechless. While all relationships are mirrors for our inner discord, our unhealed wounds, none are more so than the relationships we have with our children. Our children are our greatest teachers; and they have the power to transform us into our most awakened selves if we let them.

Children often can’t wait until a parent fixes dinner, but getting the youngsters involved in helping to prepare those meals could do more than help mom and dad out. It also could lead to life-long healthy eating habits, nutrition experts say.  And that in turn could have a profound effect on their well-being, because childhood obesity in the U.S. is on the rise. The percentage of obese American children and teens has more than tripled since the 1970s, with nearly one in five categorized as obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Perhaps you and your husband have been married for a little over a year. You both want children but want to know when is the best time for us to start trying? Is there ever really a best time? Most of your friends already have children, and you’re starting to feel as if you should get started a little sooner than later. That, and both of your parents keep not-so-subtly hinting that they are ready to be grandparents. But are you ready to have kids?

Children can be reflective of you, but they are not you. Their choices will be different from those you would make, as it should be. The paths they are destined to walk are different from your own. As parents, we may instinctively want to shield them from making the mistakes we made. However, we might discover that in our attempts to do so, sometimes our children overreact to that guidance (no matter how well intentioned it may be) and end up doing something worse.

My husband and I just celebrated our 13-year wedding anniversary. We met when I was 19 and were married three years later. We have five children and still thoroughly enjoy each other’s company (most days), so I feel fairly confident that I have some good advice to offer.

However, as I sat here analyzing the last 13 years and trying to figure out how we’ve made it this far, it really came down to one thing. Once you’re married it’s time for an Us vs. Them mentality. The Us is always you and your partner but the Them changes moment by moment.

Every loving parent wants childhood to be a positive experience for their kids. When it comes to parenting however, only focusing on the positive is problematic because it derails children’s ability to develop resilience. Resilience, the ability to bounce back from adversity, is extremely important when teens move off to college and face problems independently.

Since many young people seem armed with a sense of self-importance and confidence, they present as able to conquer any challenge. Unfortunately, high rates of anxiety, depression and even suicide attempts in college-age students indicate that this is not the case.

When most people think of anxiety, they picture how it effects adults and possibly themselves. For a long time, anxiety was thought to only be an issue adults faced. Did you know children experience anxiety too?

Even if your child is not diagnosed with an anxiety-based disorder, it is extremely important to teach calming techniques to your child. Telling someone to just calm down is never effective, though I am sure we have all found ourselves asking our children to do just that at least once in our lives. The following calming techniques are easy for children to understand (and work for adults too!)