17 surprising Do’s and Don’ts of Parenting
/Following these Do’s and Don’ts of Parenting will work wonders for your relationship with your child and his or her emotional health.
Read MoreResolve behavior problems or reduce ADHD symptoms with the magic of Child-Centered Play Therapy!
Many parents experiencing problems with their children who are wondering “Am I a bad parent,” are feeling a lot of parenting guilt and tend to blame themselves for their child’s issues: “It must be my fault my child is misbehaving because I am a bad parent… there must be something wrong or bad about me…”
Many parents express great frustration regarding transitions for children. When a child is engaged in a fun activity, and it’s time to go or do something else, it seems like it’s almost impossible to get the child to stop playing and do what he needs to do!
17 Surprising parenting do’s and don’ts. It is amazing how much power we possess as parents to influence our children’s emotional health and well being by just tuning up the way we act with them a little bit.
The paths of teenage romance are littered with depression, disillusionment, abuse and mistreatment, lost innocence, unhealthy obsessions, distraction from school work and a healthy social life, horrible sexually transmitted disease, unwanted pregnancy, abortion, and worst of all heartbreak! Let’s examine the dangers of teenage sex and romance in detail.
Are you a parent struggling with your child’s anxiety? Have you noticed that your efforts to calm your child down, only make it worse? Are you at your wits’ end trying to help your child, and are really wondering, what causes anxiety disorders to develop in children in the first place?
A perfectionism disorder in the psychological sense occurs when an individual, because of certain childhood stressors, develops significant low self-esteem and a sense of shame regarding his very self.
There are a lot of people around nowadays who seem to have a great fear of being arrogant. Maybe they have been accused of being conceited or full of themselves. Maybe they are genuinely successful people, and they are concerned that their success will go to their heads and they will develop ugly, boastful character traits.
Many parents are extremely frustrated by what they feel is a lack of communication between themselves and their teen. With good reason, they are alarmed, because they intuitively know that if the teen keeps everything a secret from them, it will be quite difficult to effectively parent!
Many individuals seeking therapy report bitter jealousy regarding others. Sadly it prevents them from enjoying life and creates interpersonal conflict, and in some, it even causes great misery. They are left wondering, “Is jealousy damaging to your mental health?”
One amazing technique I have created is to be meticulous to cultivate a relaxed attitude in children that, “Everything is Ok just the way it is… I as a child am doing just fine… There is nothing wrong with me and nothing I need to improve or work on…Things are really no big deal!” What does this mean?
There are many individuals, both adults, teens and children, who struggle with perfectionistic tendencies, and they may wonder, “Is Perfectionism a mental disorder?” The answer is, sometimes no, but often yes!
Are you tired or those constant sibling squabbles? Does your parental intervention just make it worse? Do you feel your kids just crave unlimited attention? Are you running out of sibling rivalry solutions?
Many parents struggle with a child having anxiety about death. Maybe a grandparent has passed away, or maybe even a closer family member, and the child is worried it may happen to others he or she loves.
Many parents are extremely frustrated and exasperated by this issue, and are really struggling with what to do when your child lies. It is highly upsetting and demoralizing to never know when the youngster is telling the truth or not.
This is a case study of a real client who came to me in recent years. She has agreed to let me write about her case because she wants so much to help others so they should not suffer like she did! I am calling her Sarah and I have changed a few personal details to preserve her anonymity, but otherwise the story is 100 percent true to life.
There is a very popular concept going around the is pretty much universally accepted by most researchers, that when a child has a tantrum because he or she wants something, and you give in to the tantrum and give him what he wants, you behaviorally reinforce the tantrum, ensuring that he will have more tantrums in the future. The logic is that the child sees that having a tantrum gets him the reward he wants, so he is motivated to have more tantrums in the future as a way of getting what he wants. I actually agree that giving in can lead to more tantrums, at least in the short run and under certain conditions. But in discussing how to deal with temper tantrums, my point is you should still give in to them as best as you can anyway, and combined with some other strategies, you will in the long run actually eliminate tantrums! Let me explain…
Many parents today feel that their child’s academic success is the number one priority. They want their children to live happy, successful lives, and they feel that academic achievement is absolutely necessary to achieve that goal.
In order to learn how to prevent emotional and behavioral disorders in children, we need to understand that, contrary to popular belief, disorders such as anxiety, depression, ADHD, Oppositional Defiant Disorder and almost all others, are in my opinion and my clinical experience, NOT caused by genetics and biology! As has been demonstrated to me countless times, they occur when a child is born with a particularly sensitive temperament, and then experiences certain adverse childhood stressors, which because of his sensitive nature, are experienced as a trauma. The emotional disorder is the body and mind’s maladaptive attempt to cope with that trauma.
If I were to tell you that stuttering is genetic, or a hard-wired brain or speech defect, there would be nothing you could do to prevent it and little you could do to cure it, as you can’t change a child’s genetics or biology very much. But since I’m telling you that it is fueled by stressors in the environment, by changing the child’s environment through stuttering therapy for children including Play Therapy and Parenting Interventions, you can defuse what’s fueling the stuttering, and even allow it to be replaced with healthy speech habits which develop from the child’s newly earned emotional health!
We as parents possess tremendous power to influence our children for the good; by improving the way we relate to them, we can literally fashion and shape their very emotional health, which is the critical foundation upon which a life of success will be built.
Following these Do’s and Don’ts of Parenting will work wonders for your relationship with your child and his or her emotional health.
Read MoreIt takes both a mother and a father to make a child and ideally these two should work together in harmony to raise the child to be healthy. However as we know, conflict often arises between parents and everyone knows that it's seriously affects children.
Read MoreAn emotionally healthy person loves, approves of and respects himself unconditionally. That means that he recognizes his intrinsic value as a person, and he does not allow his mistakes to take away from his own self-estimation of that value. Furthermore, he does not make that approval or respect dependent on superior achievement or especially good deeds, rather on the authenticity of his feelings and his faith that overall, he is a decent, worthwhile person. His default setting, so to speak, is “I’m Ok just the way I am.”
Read MoreMy opinion in general is that using medications for your child’s ADHD and other issues, including psychotropic meds such as Ritalin, Prozac, etc., should be reserved for more serious situations. For example, if a child diagnosed with ADHD is getting B’s and C’s it is probably overdoing it to put him on meds.
Read MoreA perfectionist is someone with extremely low self-esteem who feels that the only way to redeem himself from those horrible feelings of low self-worth is to get things perfect, to have truly amazing accomplishments.
Read MoreAre you frustrated by your child’s frequent tantrums? Is he or she defiant, and often refuses to listen? Are you overwhelmed as a parent and have given up hope that anything will help? Did you ever wonder how to reduce tantrums using Play Therapy?
Read MoreI feel I must absolutely give my readers the benefit of finding out about the how to stop bullying solution in my blog. I also have many of my own ideas about how to resolve bullying, so I have synthesized them with Izzy Kalman's and added elucidation.
Read MoreIt is remarkable how well Play Therapy interventions for ADHD work! I have seen wonderful results with many children, and abundant research supports its effectiveness.
Play therapy operates with three main mechanisms: 1) Helping the child process distracting emotions, 2) Improving the power of decision and executive functioning, and 3) reducing impulsivity. Together with Parenting Counseling, it is doubly effective.
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Although I generally advise in my blog a more gentle, flexible parenting approach, in considering how to have authority over your child, obviously sometimes exercising a bit of parental authority it is necessary and best for everyone. The question is when and how much?
Read MoreWhile we do not allow all behaviors in children, we should allow and accept all feelings. Feelings are automatic and natural and not a product of conscious choice, so letting them flow is necessary for a child’s emotional development. However, when children express strong or negative feelings and desires, they are often met with disapproval by their parents or other adults. If he or she says, “I hate my brother!” the parent may respond, “Don’t say that! You really love him.”
Read MoreAs I have said elsewhere, a generous amount of happiness for children is not a frivolous desire, a privilege or even a right, it is a deep and fundamental need. Growing up without enough happiness, joy and pleasure actually generates emotional illness. It is our job as parents to provide that happiness daily, in doses wisely administered at specific intervals when needed.
Read MoreThere seems to be a lot of complaints going around that we are raising a generation of spoiled children, that ending up parenting a spoiled child is a very real danger.
Read MoreAre you a woman who is feeling frustrated and disappointed in the quality of your relationships? Do you feel that men don’t appreciate you for your truly wonderful value, and they don’t respect and cherish you enough? How you found a decent man that you like, but you can’t get him to commit to you?
Read MoreMan’s quest for how to have a healthy relationship with a member of the opposite sex is fraught with difficulty nowadays. Even Einstein, with all his genius, admitted that he was a total failure at maintaining a successful relationship with a woman. If he wasn’t smart enough to do it, how easy will it be for us? A large percentage of men in our society are extremely frustrated in this area and never find a satisfying mate. Another huge portion find and marry but end up in devastating divorces.
Read MoreWe as parents all want to teach our child how to become a kind person, to be generous to others and to not be selfish. How do we accomplish this?
Read MoreChildren often hit when they don't get what they "Want" but more often it's because they didn't get what they need. Let’s say the child gets an hour of TV, and when you tell her you have to turn it off, she gets angry and aggressive and starts hitting. The truth is an hour of TV is a somewhat arbitrary amount. She's telling you at this time, “I have a desperate need for the kind of pleasure and happiness that another 15 minutes of TV provides! Not getting it is intolerable to me and makes me feel extremely deprived and angry!” Again, don't feel you're spoiling your child by giving them that extra 15 minutes. You may be fulfilling an important need.
Read MoreI can’t stress enough how careful we as parents need to be with our children’s physical safety! There are unfortunately many accidents that might have been prevented. Therefore, we should never take any unnecessary risks with children. Yet, while guarding our children’s physical safety, we need avoid turning an excess of caution into a danger to their emotional health and safety!
Read MoreIn considering what to do when a child makes a mistake, we need to remember that when a child makes a mistake and is reprimanded or criticized, it prevents him from learning from the mistake. He feel so ashamed and put down by the reprimand that he wants to put the whole event out of his memory and so he tries to forget about it, and so the next time when the same situation arises he's more likely to make the same mistake again. The point of a reprimand is supposedly that the child will think, “Last time I did this I got an unpleasant reprimand, so I'll be careful not to do it again so I don't get a another reprimand.”
Read MoreSo if not through praise, how do we get a child to himself conclude that he is good and worthy and create true self-esteem? The answer is through celebrating and describing. Take celebrating.
Let’s say a child finishes a puzzle by himself and he's praised, “Good boy, what a great job you did!” The child will think the good thing about finishing puzzles is that I will get pleasant praise after I'm done. That is extrinsic motivation and causes the child to think the enjoyment and satisfaction I get out of doing the puzzle itself is not so important.
Almost all misbehavior is caused by unhappiness over the child’s needs being unfulfilled. The purpose of the child’s attachment with his parents is to fulfill those emotional and physical needs, so the lack of happiness he feels at the time of misbehavior is usually the result of his feeling not as attached as he needs to be
Read MoreThere are a lot of people around nowadays who seem to have a great fear of being arrogant. Maybe they have been accused of being conceited or full of themselves. Maybe they are genuinely successful people, and they are concerned that their success will go to their heads and they will develop ugly, boastful character traits.
Many individuals seeking therapy report bitter jealousy regarding others. Sadly it prevents them from enjoying life and creates interpersonal conflict, and in some, it even causes great misery. They are left wondering, “Is jealousy damaging to your mental health?”
There are many individuals, both adults, teens and children, who struggle with perfectionistic tendencies, and they may wonder, “Is Perfectionism a mental disorder?” The answer is, sometimes no, but often yes!
This is a case study of a real client who came to me in recent years. She has agreed to let me write about her case because she wants so much to help others so they should not suffer like she did! I am calling her Sarah and I have changed a few personal details to preserve her anonymity, but otherwise the story is 100 percent true to life.
Are you a woman who is feeling frustrated and disappointed in the quality of your relationships? Do you feel that men don’t appreciate you for your truly wonderful value, and they don’t respect and cherish you enough? How you found a decent man that you like, but you can’t get him to commit to you?
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