PARENTING ISSUES

Spanking is one of those hot button parenting topics and most people have a strong belief on one side or the other.  When considering discipline methods, I always talk to parents about 1) what are you teaching your child 2) are you modeling the behavior you want your child to emulate and 3) what is the long term impact/consequence of the discipline method you are employing.

Do you find yourself fighting the urge to say to your teen, "Been there, done that. Let me show you how it's done"? I do, too... although looking back to my younger days, I can honestly say that I learned the most when I had to solve things myself. (On a personal note, my children were amazed to hear that when I studied abroad during my junior year of college, I was only able to call home three times. There were no cell phones, no computers or email, and it cost $40 for a 20-minute phone call, which I had to make from the post office.

Ours was a typical anorexic story. My child could not control the outrageous, tedious and irrelevant abundance of homework she was being given in her teaching program. Nor could she control the fact that the district threw her into a classroom with no supervision, no help and no preparation, as if she had already completed her student teaching. Mine was a good child and she wanted to do her best, but between teaching three classes and taking a full load of classes herself, it was nearly impossible to control anything in her life.

School success Depends on Developing your Child's Self-Control Muscle More than any other factor, having self-control helps your child succeed in school and future work. Their self-control helps them keep distractions to a minimum, get tasks done on time, and use study time effectively.

7 Ways To Parent Better Teamwork What responsibilities do you and your spouse take on as parents? It’s important to find your style of parenting with teamwork. How do you help each other? Do you have to ask or is it just expected? It’s important to communicate with one another what your strengths are as parents because it will be easier to divide up tasks.

I often work with parents who report that they are struggling with gaining their childs cooperation and that their child doesn't "listen".  Usually, when I ask for a specific example what I find out is that it is the parent who was not listening to the child, but not intentionally.  Children, particularly younger ones, communicate through their behavior which is often misunderstood by their parents.  Let me explain with an example.  One weekend our family was out furniture shopping and my then 3 year old daughter needed to go to the restroom.

One of the most damaging things you can do to your child is to use them as an object of your anger. Here is a list of dos and don'ts that can assist you in parenting in a way that best protects your children while you are going through your divorce.

It was a typical Sunday morning in our house. My husband woke up at 8 a.m., made coffee and went outside to cut the grass. The kids were sleeping and I was sitting in bed reading a magazine. My son, Jacob, woke about ten minutes later, just as I was getting into the good part of an article — typical when you have a 5-year-old. Two minutes later, my 3-year-old daughter, Lindsay, found her way into our bed, as well. I tickled their stomachs. We had a pillow fight and we laughed and laughed. It became what we call in our house a "cuddle fest." It was the best moment of my week. Little did I know that three hours later, I would experience the worst moment of my life.

By Susan Stone Belton, Family Coach & Motivational Speaker, for GalTime learning how to parent calmly  

As a parent of a teen or tween, what could be better than more moments when your child wants to be close enough for a hug and to sit and talk to you? You’ve been told to expect the eye-rolling and attitude and pulling away when they hit the teen years. Yes, it’s normal for this to happen; however, it doesn’t mean it has to be this way, and that you have to suffer through it. 

This just in. According to a new survey by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) more teens are using condoms these days. The new survey,which was just released, reports that 60% of sexually active teens report using a condom. Although, we would prefer this number to be much higher, it reflects a 14% increase compared to statistics collected over a 20 year period. The bad news is that the number is lower than the high of 63% of sexually active teens who used condoms in 2003.

According to a study by psychologists Christy Starr and Gail Ferguson at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, which was published in the journal Sex Roles, young girls value the concept of "sexiness." Specifically, 60 girls were each shown two dolls — one of which was dressed in sexy clothing while the other doll was dressed in a loose yet trendy outfit. The girls were then asked to select the doll that they wanted to look like, the doll that they already looked like, the doll that they wanted to play with and the doll that looked like she would be popular in school.

  ©JudyHWright http://www.judyhwright.com   We all have weaknesses that are hard to accept. Parents, teachers and caring adults see areas that need improvement in children and want to help them build confidence. The trick is to build confidence and acceptance without criticism and breaking the spirit. As I have mentioned in previous articles and books, “Soar with Your Strengths.”

My son is 15 years old and during the past month I have walked in to my home while he was masturbating in the living room. Just yesterday, he fell asleep after doing it on his bed with the door open. I am also noticing lotion or spray on his shirts. I do not know how to handle this. Should I confront him about it?

Oh yes, I am going to add even more material to the working outside of the home versus the stay at home mothers' debate.. I never intended to add to this already vitriolic debate but a very interesting question was posed to me. And, as always I can't resist an interesting question,so here goes.

They are extremely stressed out - One of the biggest issues facing teens is not necessarily grades, peer pressure,parents, or drugs/alcohol, its stress. They wake up with stress, live with stress, then go to sleep with stress. Teens stress about everything that goes on each day. They stress about college, they stress about how they look, they stress about failing, they stress about their friends, the list goes on. Furthermore, stress directly impacts their level of confidence.