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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Keeping Children Safe: Building Community

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If there’s one sure thing in the life of a parent, it’s that you can’t be with your child every minute of every day. Even if that were possible, it wouldn’t be healthy for either of you. Parents and children need time apart and space to grow.

But it’s impossible to listen to the news each day and not worry about the safety of your children. So what can you do to keep them safe when you’re not around?

With suburban life, job transfers, the reality of both parents working outside the home, not to mention single parenting, families have become increasingly isolated. Reducing that isolation by creating webs of support for your family can decrease stress and help keep kids safe. Here’s how to start:

Get to know your neighbors. Develop reciprocal agreements with one or two trusted people so that your children always have adults to turn to when you are not at home.
When choosing a neighborhood partner, ask yourself, “Would I give my key to this person?” If the answer is no, then choose someone else to be a resource for your child.
Take turns dropping in on each other’s kids during those after-school hours when kids need support to make good decisions.
Have an agreement to fill in for each other if you’re going to be late getting home from work.
Consider building a neighborhood network where parents meet on a regular basis to discuss issues that arise. Start with a “Family Fun Day” where neighborhood families get together at an amusement park or the zoo and have a chance to get to know one another. Follow up with other activities – a game night or picnic – with an underlying commitment to developing supportive relationships that will make for a safer neighborhood for your children.

Perhaps the values of self sufficiency and not imposing on others have had the negative side effect of causing families to exist in isolation, without support. That just might not be the best thing for children. Perhaps the ideal is to build a community of trusted people around your children who can be there when you cannot.