Parenting
Books, DVDs, Tips and Advice
Parenting is perhaps the most important job you will ever do. That goes without saying, yet sometimes we don’t consider what the various aspects of parenting entail. The education of our children in all regards is our responsibility. To achieve it, we need to use imagination and creativity to make the learning process fun and interesting to the little ones.
Parenting skills can be learned as can any other skill. Using the tips and skills on 123kidsgames.com you can enhance your parenting skills and help your children not only learn, but want to learn by the use of books and items found on the website.
Using items such as the Dobson book "Seven Solutions for Burned out Parents" you can gain valuable insight into new methods to keep you from being impatient and unresponsive when you’ve had a rough day and so have your children.
If you find yourself in need of some new tips, or a revamping of old ideas for how to set limits and guidelines, 123kidsgames also proffers articles which can offer you a wealth of information on things such as discipline, home schooling, logical consequences, and even divorce and your children.
Both you and your child can benefit from the books available on the site such as Active Parenting, which teaches you the skills you need to act instead of react to your children’s behavior.
Adolescent Depression, on the other hand, will help you to learn the knack you will need to understand your child’s depression and help him or her to cope with the feelings and emotions they are going through. It will assist you to see the symptoms of depression for what they are rather than chalking them up to teenage moods and to intervene in a positive way to help your child.
For the younger child, you will find Grief and Grieving articles on site which will help you to guide your child through the loss of a friend or grandparent so that the natural process of grieving is carried through to a positive ending rather than seeing that grief expressed as in actions or misbehaving.
Our children are a window to the future. Guiding their steps is both a wonderful pleasure and a long term commitment. What we teach them, and how we help them to grow is a very important part of their childhood and a viable aspect of what they become tomorrow. Giving them the tools they need to become independent, self sufficient, and responsible young people is our responsibility as parents but more than this, what our children become and the way they live their lives is our tribute to tomorrow and to the world around us. Giving them the skills they need to be productive adults is our gift to tomorrow.
Parenting - Tips and Advice
Parenting, The World's Toughest Job
Parenting is the most difficult 'job' in the world. The process lasts longer than most modern careers. It requires a larger investment - in time and money - than just about any other activity. The complexity of choices is greater and the outcome more uncertain. Greater patience is needed and the roller coaster of emotions steeper than any other undertaking...
Single Parenthood, Pros and Cons
Since roughly 1970, approximately 20-30% of children live in single parent homes. The number varies from study to study and country to country. More of those are female than male, but again the numbers vary substantially from one study to the next. Whatever the sex of the parent, parenting alone raises some unique challenges...
Step-parenting and Sharing Authority
Being a step-parent is somewhat like being in middle management - you get the complaints from 'above' and 'below'. One way out of this dilemma is to step out from the middle and simply be part of 'senior management'. Successful employment of that strategy will require cooperation from the biological parent. But if you don't have that already, that may well be a major source of the difficulty to begin with...
Grandparents and Other Dilemmas
Sometimes being a parent is like being in middle management. You have not only a whole host of issues to deal with in relation to the kids, but grandparents can introduce another set. Grandparents in the parenting mix present all the issues of influence from others, but with the obvious added wrinkle that they have a special relationship to both the parents and the children...
Fathers and Children
Few things have changed so radically in the last 100 years as the view of a father's role in parenting. Once, it was the Victorian view of 'rarely-seen law-giver'. Then the Freudian influenced 'not a terribly important factor' became dominant. That was gradually replaced with the 1950s 'wise breadwinner'. Then came the social revolution of the 1960s, which taught that fathers were little more than sperm donors...
Divorce and Children
Few things in the life of a family are as traumatic as when it alters through divorce. Each individual involved is often confused, angry, feeling betrayed and uncertain about what comes next...
Adoption Challenges
Adopting a child may be both a long train of practical and emotional nightmares and the fulfillment of a dream. About 1% of all children in the U.S. were adopted. Thus, though the percentage may be small, the total number is considerable - in the millions. While, fortunately, many of the traditional stigmas have faded, adoption and raising adopted children remains a uniquely challenging process for millions of parents...
When Parents Disagree
Sometimes it's surprising that the divorce rate isn't actually higher than it is (about 46% in the U.S.). Assuming it isn't just inertia on the part of the 54%, it's a tribute to the willingness of so many couples to work out their differences...
Sibling Rivalry
Sibling rivalry - conflict between and among brothers and sisters - can take all the forms that occur among adults: loud arguments, sports competition, physical fights, property destruction, etc. As the list suggests, some forms will require parental intervention, while others may be safely left to the kids to work out for themselves...
Active Listening
A major part of good communication between parent and child is active listening. But, what is ACTIVE listening? It means not merely staring at the child while he or she talks, but actively taking in what is said and exploring its meaning.
Temperament and Personality
Most child development professionals, following a study by Thomas and Chess in the 1950s, hold that temperament is inborn. Personality, by contrast, is influenced by environment and self-development. The characteristics of temperament - nine categories, including Activity Level, Sensitivity, Adaptability, and others - are sometimes regarded by parents as a source of frustration, since they are inborn and therefore not subject to much change...
Responsibility
Teaching responsibility is one of the most difficult aspects of parenting. It is here that parents most often worry about the dilemma of stifling individual choice versus inculcating values and habits that lead to appropriate behavior.
Discipline and Individual Choice
The word 'discipline' often brings to mind images of harsh punishment, unreasonable restrictions and an approach to parenting that is cold and insensitive. As a result, many parents will accept the false alternative of being excessively permissive. Much of that dilemma has been addressed in recent decades by recognizing that there is, in fact, a third alternative...
Punishment and Objectivity
In parenting circles, the word 'punishment' often brings to mind 'corporeal punishment' - spanking, slapping or other forms of physical action. One can agree that such behavior is counter-productive in rearing a healthy child, while at the same time avoiding the false alternative of excessive permissiveness...
Communication
Few subjects in parenting are as fundamental, or as important, as communication. Humans function so much by language, whether implicit or explicit, that learning how to communicate effectively affects virtually every other sphere of family relations. But developing good strategies for good communication, based on sound ideas, is extremely complicated...
Grief and Children
All parents wish they could shelter their child from grief. No one wants a child, with limited experience and understanding, to have to suffer through the loss of a beloved dog or the death of a treasured parent or grandparent.
Teaching About Strangers
Parents understandably want to do everything possible to protect their children from harm. Today, that often includes - some would say is first and foremost - teaching them to be wary of others. Parents will often instill a (healthy, they would argue) fear of others, along with providing practical tips on staying safe...
Preschool, The Big Day
Preschool. The big day has arrived. Your child is about to spend his or her first day at preschool. Is your child nervous? Here are some suggestions about how to make that first time less worrisome...
Beginning School
For children who have attended preschool, beginning school will involve less of a transition than for those who have not. But in either case, school is typically quite different from preschool. Added to that is the unfortunate fact that many public schools are often - whether through lack of funding, bureaucratic bungling, bad philosophy or factors outside their control - far less than ideal places to educate children...
Home vs Public vs Private School
Few issues have such a long-term effect on the welfare of a child as the choice of the type of school to attend. The average child will spend about 13 years in school prior to college, often attending one type the entire time...
Natural and Logical Consequences
Knowing when to require a child to obey and when to let them take the consequences of an independent choice is always a tough dilemma for parents. One pair of ideas that can help them are the twins: natural consequences and logical consequences...
Nurturing Independence
A fundamental fact for almost all children is that eventually they grow older. But, sadly, not all grow up. If an individual is to have a hope of a happy life, a large amount of independence is essential...
Parenting Difficult Children
Sometimes a child labeled 'difficult' is just expressing a healthy need for independence. But in other cases, the label is actually too mild. Adults can be violent, irresponsible, indifferent to the harm they do others and typically that behavior begins in childhood...
Traditional vs Non-Traditional Parenting
In the past 40 years, roughly since the 1960s, parenting (along with dozens of other life issues) has undergone a revolution in thinking. Traditional methods were questioned, in many cases rejected, and a spirit of experimentation resulted in the adoption of many alternatives...
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