MyParentingSource Articles

Have you ever wondered when your crying baby will rest peacefully? Tried every game and disciplinary action in the book to get your child to eat peas?

At My Parenting Source, we have expert Parent Coaches on hand to help parents with these and other parenting challenges. Just as a star basketball player needs direction at times, we know parents can sometimes use a little guidance.

Feel free to ask a parent coach a question. You'll get a personalized response. And, its free!

Teach your child to manage his anger by giving your child words for his feelings.

Anger often escalates when a child feels misunderstood. Simply enabling your child to communicate by giving names to his feelings can help him feel more calm and be understood.

Is it safe to say that all of us as parents at one point or another have asked our children to apologize? Apologies are transparent when you think about it. The ‘I just want to get out of trouble and get this over with’ apologies are really obvious. With these types of apologies there is li
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Build Kids’ Ability to Stand Up for Their Beliefs

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Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you knew that something was terribly wrong, but everyone around you insisted that all was well?

Perhaps you were belittled for asserting the opposite. In the face of that kind of pressure, it’s very hard to stay in touch with the facts of the situation as you know them.

Kids are faced with these dilemmas, too. Whether it's a classmate lobbying for “help” to cheat on a test, or a peer group demanding they experiment with drugs and get in the car with friends who are high, kids need strength to hold on to values and perceptions, especially when taking a stand shunned by peers.

How do you raise children who, like the lone juror in the classic movie, “12 Angry Men,” can stand up for what they know or believe in the face of opposition from everyone around them?

Here’s how to build your children’s ability to remain assertive under pressure:

Teach kids about common errors in thinking. It’s human nature to believe that “If everyone disagrees with me, I must be wrong – or crazy.” It’s self-protective to believe that the “winner” in an argument must be correct. We all have a need to believe that those in power, who hold our well-being in their hands, are correct and have our best interests at heart.

But if Juror No. 8 had fallen prey to these erroneous beliefs, an innocent defendant would have been convicted of murder. Because one person had the strength to dissent, a life was saved.

Teach by example. For instance, don’t give in to your children’s desire for that must-have $300 toy just because every other parent has. If you don’t believe it’s a healthy decision, then say “No,” and say why.

Be willing to be wrong. Children’s first experience with standing up to authority is likely to be with you. If they confront you in a mistake, respectfully acknowledge that they are correct and set things to rights.

Honor early steps. The third-grader who stops friends from taunting another child becomes the adult who has the psychological stamina to confront safety issues at work, even when politically motivated superiors smoothly deny their existence.