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Finding a Peaceful Way to Prepare Dinner
Having dinner on the table in time to ward off the hunger grizzles at about 5:30pm is something I usually find quite stressful. Normally, I try to get as much done at midday when my youngest sleeps and...
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Learning to be a Respectful Parent
It took 18 months of parenting before I realised I was on a dangerously downward spiralling path with my children, pushing them further away and slowly undermining their sense of confidence in...
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Could NOT Forcing a Toddler to Share Help With Sharing Conflicts? – Part Two
A while back I posted an article about the sharing issues between my two young toddlers (then 24 months and 11 months). I explained how my eldest daughter, Lucy, was struggling with allowing her...
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Acting With The Eyes of Compassion – A Toddler CAN Do This!
To act with the eyes of compassion is an expression I came across in my past work at a Catholic school. Something about these words struck a chord with me and I think about them often as I go about my...
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Separating Our Children is Bringing Them Closer
I recently posted about the troubles we have been having with the rivalry between our children. This has been a long-winded, drawn out affair between my two girls aged nearly three and nearly two....
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7 Things I Should Know About Helping my Children to Share (From my Toddler...
My youngest daughter, Penny, who is two months shy of turning two, has just begun to show a little possessive streak coupled with some testing behaviour. Just when I was thinking we were getting out...
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A Respectful Parenting Resource
I have been learning about and implementing the RIE (pronounced Rye and short for Resources for Infant Educarers) for about 16 months now. Over that time, I have experimented with different parenting...
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Slowing Down Care Giving Moments to Encourage Independence in Toddlers
Days with my children are so hectic, so full on. Life with a three year old and a two year old can seem chaotic from the moment the first sounds of little pitter pattering feet make their way to our...
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I can’t Always Protect my Children From Hurt and Why I Don’t Always Want to
I think it is a natural instinct for parents to want to protect their children from pain. Not just physical pain, but emotional pain. For me, I find my Mama Bear instinct particularly strong when I see...
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Easing the Stress of Day Care Pick Ups
Balancing work with family life is a challenge many families deal with at some stage or another. We have been juggling this reality in our house for just over a year now and it hasn’t been easy....
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I Shouldn’t Have Yelled Over Spilt Milk
This morning I was tidying up the kitchen area, getting ready to leave the house when my three year old, Lucy, came in and grabbed a box of crackers from the pantry exclaiming that she was hungry. It...
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Testing Toddlers Crave Limits
Over the past couple of weeks my usually placid, youngest toddler has become more assertive, more demanding and generally more testing. Coincidently we celebrated her second birthday last week. Does...
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Dummy Weaning With Respect and Empathy
When we introduced a dummy to our youngest daughter when she was an infant, we knew that one day she would need to be weaned from it. We were advised to complete the weaning process by the age of six...
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Toddler Tantrum Therapy
Tantrums in shopping centres are never good but much good can come of them. When a toddler tests limits it can be a sure sign they are in need of an emotional release. Time for some healing therapy. We...
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5 Steps to a Peaceful Day Care Drop Off
A few weeks back my little girl, Lucy, started objecting to being left at day care. She has been attending regularly for well over a year and apart from some occasional, explainable upset drop offs,...
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Making it Through Witching Hour… Without Losing It!
I often wonder what our neighbours think we are doing to our children as their screams echo around the walls of our house during the afternoon witching or arsenic hour as it is commonly known. As much...
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The Hard Truth About Parenting
Parenting is not for everyone but all parents are doing it. Doing it does not always mean getting it right. Getting it right does not mean life is easy and life being easy does not always mean we are...
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Why I Yelled and Why I’m Sorry!
TODAY, I YELLED! I had had an emotional morning for a variety of (non-kid related) reasons. I found myself spiralling out of control as I was dealing with soiled pants, a child who was objecting to...
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Creating Bonds: Accepting A Child’s Emotions
When my children were born I was overwhelmed with love. I was full of emotion which could turn on a dime. One minute, huge feelings of gratitude and happiness, the next, anxiety and apprehension about...
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Sibling Rivalry: When Losing is Not an Option
Sibling Rivalry has taken on a new meaning in our household over the past couple of months. Our children have both nominated themselves to compete in the Russell Household Olympics, competing in events...
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