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.

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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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“But Mom, It’s Summer Vacation!”

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If you leave for work in the morning feeling a little irritated with the sleeping teens you’ve left behind, pay attention to your gut.

When you’re working hard to meet the needs of your family – both “bringing home the bacon” and “frying it up in a pan,” it’s natural to feel that things are off-balance if the able-bodied young adults in your house are living lives of leisure.

It’s liable to feel frankly unfair if your reminders about getting a job are met with an annoyed response of “But Mom! This is my vacation!” or “Why do I have to get a job? Meghan’s parents don’t make her pay for anything!”

Parents who feel responsible to fulfill all the needs and desires of their kids face a dilemma. It’s no longer about providing a bicycle when they’re little and sharing the car when they’re teens. It’s about cell phones, video games, Internet connection – a host of electronic toys that cost big bucks. Add to that the price of insurance and gas for teen drivers and sky-rocketing educational expenses, and it’s increasingly hard for the average parent to provide what many teens feel is their due.

Trying to do it anyway is a recipe for resentment on your part and guilt on the part of your teen.

Even if money’s not an issue, teens benefit from working to pay for some of the things they want. Certainly, there’s nothing like footing the bill to give teens a true picture of the cost of what they want and what it takes to earn it. And that’s important – unless you’re planning to subsidize them indefinitely.

But beyond that, holding a job is liberating. Experiencing that they can put their skills to work to earn the money for things they want increases their confidence about moving into adult responsibility. It decreases the resentment and guilt that result from being dependent and having to ask their parents for everything they need.

And it’ll make things feel more equitable to you, too. So, instead of automatically providing, communicate to your teens, “We will get you what you need – until what you need is to be able to get it for yourself.”