How to Help your Crying Baby
Babies cry – a lot! And we do pretty much everything we can to get them to stop. Rocking, shushing, patting, singing, white noise, dummies – ANYTHING that will get them to just stop crying. Because we hate the thought of our innocent little baby being upset. We hate not knowing why they’re crying. We…
Time Outs
Do you use Time Out when your child is repeatedly being challenging? I know it’s a popular method and it’s certainly better than smacking (which is probably what your parents did to you), but is it ultimately helpful & could there be a better strategy to use instead? That’s the topic of this video where…
My #1 Parenting Tip
How are you? Like, really – how are you? Are you tired? Cranky? Loving life? Irritated? Wishing you had a housekeeper / cook / live-in nanny? Excited? Feeling like a rubbish mum? We ALL have times of shouting, being cranky with our kids & then berating ourselves afterwards. We ALL think that we’re failing at…
Helping Your Child Adjust to School
When your child starts or returns to school, it can bring up some BIG feelings! For them, and for us! If they’ve just started, they are probably in overwhelm, and if they are really happy to be back, there can still be an adjustment period of being back in that environment with teachers, lessons & friendship…
How to Stop Your Child Name Calling
Name Calling – it’s frustrating, it’s rude, it’s embarrassing & it’s infuriating! When our kids latch onto a rude or inappropriate word, it’s sooooooo hard to get them to stop. Rational explanations don’t work. Shouting makes it worse. And ignoring it doesn’t make the words go away. So what else can you do? It will…
Why Our Kids Become Aggressive
My beautiful little boy has become aggressive & annoying. He’s roaring like a lion at everyone, hitting out at his friends and threw a train at another child’s head at playgroup this week. Marvellous…… How are yours? Are any of them acting up & lashing out? It’s bloody irritating isn’t it?! SIGN UP TODAY FOR…
What About YOU?!
Now that the new school term has started, have you booked your kids in for various after-school activities? Tennis? Piano? Soccer? Swimming? Ballet? Gymnastics? Drama? Rugby? Etc, etc, etc When I was booking my daughter into her aerial silks and gymnastics glasses, I started to think WHAT ABOUT ME?! I’m happy to pay for Emily…
Bedtime Soothing Techniques – Are They Helpful?
Do you find yourself endlessly stroking, singing or patting your child to sleep? Or hunting for the best soothing music? Or creating very specific routines which turns into a disaster at the slightest deviation? If bedtime has become this drawn-out, ever-so-stressful-but-I’m-trying-to-radiate-calm-energy-so-you-will-go-to-sleep-before-I-scream experience(!), then it’s helpful to look at whether these soothing tactics & routines are…
Parenting When Your Parents Are Around
Do you notice how your kids play up when you are stressed? How when you’re on edge that they’re going to do something inappropriate or awful, then that’s pretty much exactly what happens?! Particularly when family members are around who could be critical of what you’re doing?! My mum is currently staying with me for…
Does your child hate you saying No?
Do you ever despair at your child’s over-the-top reaction when you dare to say no to them? Even when you’re being perfectly reasonable in your request? If so, this week’s video can help! A mum recently posted in our Really Useful Parenting Facebook Club about the struggle she is having with her 3 year old…
Stop Waiting For The Hard Times To Pass
Do you ever find yourself hearing or saying “This too shall pass” when everything feels so unbelievably hard or out of control? When the baby won’t sleep, the toddler is hurling food & cutlery across the room, the child is refusing to get ready for school and the partner is wondering why you’re stressed? But…
SPECIAL CONSULTATION PACKAGE
How are you? How are your kids? How’s your parenting going….?! Do you want some extra support? Some tailored advice for your specific challenges with your kids? Sometimes reading articles & watching videos is perfect, but sometimes you just need something a bit more specific. Someone you can ask all of your questions to and, together, work out…
‘Spoiled Outing’ Phenomenon
Have you ever taken your child out for a really lovely trip, or planned something gorgeous for them, only for them to turn around and be rude, uncooperative, ungrateful or generally awful?! Or you’ve created a fabulous birthday party and they have a meltdown at the end of it, saying it was “the worst day…
Time-In Discipline: Effective Alternatives to Time Out
Practical ways to maintain connection, build emotional intelligence and helpfully discipline your child without being punitive. Do you currently use Time Out and are now looking for an alternative? Or do you in theory not want to use Time Out but are struggling to know in practice how to deal with your child when they are being…
Do You Celebrate Your Birthday? (& Why You Should!)
Do you properly celebrate your own birthday? I ask, because we’re often really great at creating a beautiful celebration for our child/ren, but can feel it’s a bit self-indulgent to make a fuss over ours. Or we don’t want to be reminded of how old we’re getting…..! But it’s SO important to celebrate ourselves! And…
When Rational Explanations Aren’t What’s Needed
You know those times when you explain things again & again (& again!) but your child isn’t taking it in? When your child becomes fixated on doing or having something that you just can’t do or give right then. And you get exasperated because you’re trying to be reasonable and find other ways to help…
Helping Your Child After An Injury Or Medical Procedure
Recently I’ve been dealing with a very accident prone little toddler (poor thing!). So this week’s video is about how a simple thing such as a carseat can help your child deal with painful accidents and medical procedures such as vaccinations, blood tests, etc. I know – it seems strange, but this is about how a seemingly…
Webinar: 10 Tips To Reduce Arguing with your Partner About Parenting
Does your partner refuse to read any of the amazing articles or books that have inspired your parenting choices? Does he roll his eyes when you ask him to change his approach? Are you feeling frustrated that he’s not doing what you’d ideally want him to do? This is such a common complaint! Particularly by mums. We…
Old & New Parenting Paradigms & Why We Find Parenting Hard
Do you ever wonder why being a parent can be so hard? Or why you’ve got no idea what to do, or why you completely lose it and end up sounding just like your mum?!
One of the reasons why is that we’re often doing things differently to how we were parented. So here’s a simplified review of different parenting paradigms throughout the past century.
Helping with Separation Anxiety – at Bedtime & School
My 6 year old daughter, Emily, had never been great separating from me. Once I’d gone, she was fine, but the point of separation was always very hard for her, and increasingly frustrating for me. For over a year, leaving her in at school was frequently difficult, plus separation at bedtime could be challenging too….
Strive to Thrive with a ‘Pack-a-Punch’ Lunch
by Amanda Kane & Tanya Fleming from Pinkfarm When packing our children’s lunch boxes we prioritise quality over quantity. The modest quantity of lunch given to our children is intensified by the nutrient dense, quality food choices we provide them with. What is nutrient density? Nutrient dense foods are unrefined, unprocessed and made from whole…
Why A Tantrum Is Not Always What It Seems
Sometimes our children have the biggest cries over the smallest of things. We can be completely baffled why they are so upset over something so minor as the wrong colour plate, the wrong t-shirt or event a biscuit being slightly broken. It can lead to us becoming infuriated, bewildered or upset ourselves. Sometimes we can…
Being With Your Angry Child
Anger is such a strong emotion that it can be very confronting to see it in our child, particularly when they are so young. The display of anger can sometimes be such a massive, out of control response that we frequently don’t know what to do. Parenting is no longer this lovely, wonderful experience. It’s…
Why Your Child Can’t Think Straight During A Tantrum
Have you ever tried to reason with your child when they are having a tantrum? Or have you ever wondered why on earth they are making such a massive fuss over something seemingly so unimportant? The reason is not that your child is wilfully ignoring you, or manipulating you or making a fuss over nothing….
