Now look what you’ve done!!
Last week I had a question from a parent wondering  what to do about a five year old girl who ignored her mother’s requests to stop playing with a snow-globe in the home of someone they were visiting. Fearing a breakage, this Mum upped her requests to a clear (and no doubt reasonable) insistence that […]
Should we say sorry to our children?
I was recently asked what my position on saying sorry to children was. Personally, I say sorry to my children on a regular basis. I do this because like every parent, I make mistakes. I still say and do things I regret and wish to make amends for. Most recently, I did it yesterday at […]
When we think we’re bad parents…
A couple of weeks ago a mother of 3 teenage children was sharing with me how she had noticed that whenever she started being down on her kids, she would usually discover that behind all that impatience and irritation with the children, she was actually being down on herself. Her insight reminded me of a […]
What really matters?
 Ask yourself this question: “Will this matter a year from now?” Richard Carlson, American psychotherapist and author (1961 – 2006) This is such great, simple advice. How can we make it work for us in our daily lives as parents? So often, in the heat of the moment, when we’re dealing with children, everything can seem […]
Where does my responsibility end and my child’s begin?
I deleted this sentence from my blog yesterday about allowing children to experience the consequences of their actions: We’ve become confused about where my responsibility ends and yours begins; where individual responsibility ends and societal responsibility begins; where a child’s responsibility ends and parental responsibility begins. But that’s another blog. Then today I read this […]
