Is it just me or does anyone else ever feel that parenting is more like driving uncharted territory and your GPS keeps saying “recalculating, recalculating? Yesterday was one of those days for me. I had battled back pain all week and I am not ashamed to confess, I don’t do well with pain: I get…
Category Archives: back talk
Some things never change.. or do they?
“Children today are tyrants. They contradict their parents, gobble their food, and tyrannize their teachers.” – Socrates (470-399 B.C.) It’s official. Children have always been thankless, greedy creatures. The next time your child says or does something that more resembles the spawn of Satan than the angelic infant you brought home, remember these words of…
Tween Years: Moving into Uncharted Territory
Today’s precocious preteens or “tweens” often shock parents when they begin to act like full- fledged teenagers. Don’t be fooled, they’re still children. They’ll astonish you with their ability to conceptualize, to argue brilliantly, and then to do foolish things! When I looked up the definition of “Tweens” I was fascinated by the variety of…
5 ideas to tame back talk
In the previous articles I shared some thoughts about what constitutes back talk and how we as parents have a decisive influence on how our children learn respect for themselves and for the world around them. Children imitate behaviors from peers and from family members and sometimes enjoy using that as a tool to get…
Back talk first aid
Determining what constitutes back talk is just as challenging as diagnosing when it occurs. I know sometimes when our daughter is simply getting frustrated because I am not listening or I am trying to do the proverbial “multitasking”, I can interpret her attempts to communicate as back talk. How do I assess the difference when…
Do you have what it takes to turn off that TV???
8 year-old: But moooom.. I proooomised you that I will give away 3 stuff animals if you just get me this really cute one! Me: Sweetheart, you already have at least 10 different puppies and you don’t even play with them! 8 year-old: But this one is soooo much cuter than the other ones! Pleeeease!…
When your 8-year-old is going on 15 !!
It is always ironic to me, how my own experience raising my child always prepares me for my sessions with the parents I coach. Many of these parents have come to me lately for help when they are engaged in power struggles with their children. It has been a topic that has brought many a…
