When to Explain the Facts of Life

June 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment

At some point in a child’s life the dreaded questions will come in regards to babies, sex and where did I come from? Depending on the age of the child and what is going on in his or her life will depend on the questions. If you or a family member is expecting soon then a question of, “Where do babies come from?” will probably be asked.

Information is abundant these days. Look online and you can find answers to just about anything you want to know about. Kids will also hear things from school and older children. Kids are also nosey by nature and will hear and see things that you might not think that have heard or seen. Wouldn’t you rather their information comes from you, the parent? That any question that your child might have is asked of you? Of course, that is what all parents want.

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The best thing for you to do when questions come up is to answer them as soon as they are asked. Don’t delay or the child will only become more curious and seek the answer elsewhere and possibly getting wrong information. Questions are perfectly natural all kids ask them. The trick is to make your answer as simplistic as possible according to the age of the child. The younger the child the more simple the answer should be. There is no need to elaborate or go into detail unless there are more questions. Usually younger children will only ask one question at a time and are generally satisfied with a simple answer. Don’t be embarrassed to answer the questions.

 

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Teaching Your Children the Value of Money

May 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Teaching your child the value of money is one of the most important lessons you, as parents, can impart to them. Budgeting is a skill that many children, and their parents, lack. In today’s world of ‘must have,’ it is more important that learning the value of the dollar is part of every parenting plan. Taking the time to educate your child on how much it costs to live and how hard it is to make that money is the most effective way to help them learn about money.

Whether you have a young girl who wants to save their money for doll clothes or a teenager who is interested in a new iPad, you have the perfect opportunity to teach him or her the value of money.

You may want to start with something simple. Keep the lessons on the child’s level. Start by not giving in and buying your children every toy they ask for. Instead, pick one with a relatively high price tag and help your child earn the money to purchase it for themselves. Develop a list of chores, outside of their normal responsibilities, and attach a dollar amount to each task. Ensure the child performs the task adequately and help them understand the concept of a payday. You may consider ‘matching’ the funds for more expensive purchases.

Learning the value of money is hard, but with help and patience from parents, most children can grasp the concept readily. Keep the lines of communication open and discuss each stage to make the biggest impact.

 

 

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Keeping Your Children Close While Learning to Love Again

February 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Sitting down with your children to tell them the news that you’re getting remarried is a situation that can be easy or difficult. The choice is essentially up to you. To make it difficult, merely exclude your children from all but the most cursory of interactions. Don’t inquire about their daily lives, and definitely don’t make much effort to include your new lover into your children’s existence. By isolating your new significant other from your kids, you’ll create a defensive wall which might well always remain in existence. That doesn’t sound too good, does it?

Fortunately, a better solution exists. It involves doing the complete opposite. To ease your children’s transition into having a new parental figure in their homes, take a few proactive steps. Don’t just introduce your new sweetheart once and leave the kids hanging in the wind. By spending too much time alone with your lover, with very little time spent with your children and your lover simultaneously, you create a void that is hard to overcome. It easily creates a sense in a child’s mind that they are not as important to you as your new squeeze. To counter this occurrence, try to arrange group activities that involve your kids as well as your romantic partner beginning soon after you start dating.

The first few dates should be solitary, intimate events of course so that you and your partner can get to know one another well. But after things start to gel and you find yourself thinking more and more about wedding rings, it’s time to integrate kids and their potential new step-parent. Plan more than just movie nights, because there’s little interaction that goes on there. Dinners, walks, and games provide good opportunities for people to get to learn about one another. And they will ease the transition when you want to announce that wedding rings are in the works!

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Tips for Disciplining Your Toddler

February 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

When you’re a parent of a toddler, you are going to have to be careful when you are disciplining them if you want them to listen. Here are some tips that you can use to effectively discipline a toddler.

  • Make your requests short and easy for them to understand.
  • If at all possible, let your child make a choice. For example, for a child that doesn’t want to get dressed, offer him or her two choices of what to wear.
  • Explain why you are saying what you say. For example, if they are banging on the fish tank, explain that they’re scaring the fish.
  • Make use of the two letter word we.  This is going to show that you have expectations and it seems less like a demand.
  • Try to redirect. If the child’s going somewhere that they shouldn’t go, try to entice him or her with a toy and that will make the child forget.
  • Don’t use negative words.  When faced with a negative, most children and adults as well are going to disobey.  Say the same thing that you would say but turn it into something positive.
  • For children who have trouble transitioning, let them know in advance that you will be leaving in a minute and that it’s time to stop playing.
  • Be reasonable in expectations with regards to what your child can do.  A year old child won’t sit quietly for an hour while adults talk but they will play quietly with a bit of involvement from adults.
  • Treat the child the way that you expect him or her to treat other children. You’re his or her role model, so he’s learning from you.  Don’t scream and yell – it will teach the child to scream and yell.

These are nine things that you should remember it comes to your toddler. When you remember these nine rules you will find that things are a lot better for the two of you and there will be fewer tears. You have to treat toddlers different than older kids and adults.

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The Addicted Child: How to Help

January 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

If you have a child who is suffering from addiction, your first reaction may be to keep it quiet. You may feel that it is a private issue that should be handled “in-house” to avoid others hearing about it.This is not advisable. Attempting to handle a child’s addiction on your own will only result in frustration, for both you and the child. No matter how hard you try to hide it, your frustration will eventually become evident, which will only make the situation worse.

For this reason, as soon as you are aware that an addiction problem exists, you should seek immediate help. The sooner you do so, the sooner the underlying issues that may have caused the addiction—depression, being bullied, having low self-esteem, or even succumbing to peer pressure—will come to light, and the faster treatment can begin.

When looking for drug addiction treatment for the addicted child, consider drug treatment centers that specialize in treating addiction in children and adolescents. These facilities have counselors who are trained to communicate with young residents in ways that will help them see that they have a problem, but that it is one that can be overcome.

If you aren’t sure where to look, you can go online and enter “child addiction treatment in…” and fill in your state’s name. This way you will receive information on treatment facilities in your area. In California, you’ll find information about top rehabilitation centers. For more specific results, visit MichaelsHouse.com for more information.

From there, you can contact these facilities and inquire about the different programs that are offered, how long the programs last, and whether or not they are in-patient (the child remains at the facility 24/7 for a specific period of time) out-patient (the child goes to the facility for a certain number of hours each day, but returns home each night) or a combination of both. You can then decide which program will be best for your addicted child.

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