This is more of a rant than anything but was in the playground the other day and saw this little girl being just pure mean to another one. I was watching with sadness and fascination also as to where the parent was and was she going to do anything. I felt like I should intervene; don’t get me wrong, that’s the last thing I want to be doing as no one likes to be told how to raise their child. Continue reading
Category Archives: Motherhood
Blogger Recognition Award
Blogger Recognition Award is a positive and nice time to see the interaction of others and who are taking the time to read each other’s blogs and connecting. The internet world is such a vast place and is growing daily and therefore it is easy to get lost among it. I was truly honoured to have received an email from Magicmindz informing me that they have put my blog down as one of the nominations. This is a great blog I have been following for a while now as it covers a range of topics including parenting, relationships, creativity and I would recommend to pop over and see for yourself.
How did I get into blogging? Continue reading
Getting Your Child to Listen to You
Do you ever just get frustrated by the way you are ignored every time you have something important to say to your child? I feel like I’m talking to the wall at times. I think at one point, I actually did without realising the child had got bored listening to me and went to another room. There are so many reasons for this type of behavior from your child followed by as many solutions, too.
For starters, you need to make sure you use the right tone of voice – be positive and confident about what you are saying. Try to calm yourself down a little before venturing into an argument. Go over the words you want to use once, to make sure your words are kept simple yet firm. You also need to focus on building trust and speaking the truth. Don’t exaggerate outcomes for their behavior – children are not as dumb as we think and you will just end up teaching them how to lie and not trust you. Let’s face it, they know their teeth are not going to fall out overnight by having that extra sweet for e.g.
Making continuous eye contact with your child will also keep Continue reading
Sibling Rivalry
So I’m having another one of those days where I’m reflecting on one of my many parent roles, a referee between my two kids. ‘Have kids near the same age’ I hear. ‘They’ll be great pals’ I hear, but no one warned about the constant battles between young kids and how stressful it can be for a parent. Sometimes I picture what it could feel like to be in a war zone! Most times they do get on which can be great but when they fight it’s horrible!
Being a referee during sibling fights is a fatigue I’m sure most parents have to endure. Although sibling rivalry is considered a normal phenomenon in most of the families, it transforms into a bigger problem when one child dominates or bullies the other. Symptoms of sibling Continue reading
Yelling and its Effects on Parents and Children
I will never forget the day I decided to lock myself in the bathroom when I was having a shower, not thinking of the consequences it was going to have. This would be the first time I had locked a bathroom door since my kids were born. I was in the shower for two minutes when all hell broke loose. My two kids started kicking and banging the door and screaming their heads off. I ran out of the bathroom still covered in soap in such a temper with them. I yelled so loud at them to stop screaming at me and told them to go straight to bed because they were being bold.
They looked at me with such little sad scared faces. Later that night when I eventually calmed down after lots of tears and soul searching I thought to myself, Who am I to be yelling and making my kids feel scared? They are only little human beings that look up to me and I came across like the big bad wolf. They were not being bold, they panicked because they felt like i’d shut them out by locking the door. This is not a way of teaching discipline to my children.
Discipline is most commonly associated with punishment Continue reading
Teaching Values to Children
As parents, we all hope that our children will become successful adults. But most importantly we want to know that we are raising good them to be good people. We all hope that our children will grow up to have the courage to stand up for others who can’t, who always choose to do good and offer help to others. But these types of values are such that need to be taught when they are young. When children are taught at an early age good values, they learn to lead better lives and have a better moral compass. Here are some ways that you can teach your young ones good values:
- Be a good example.
We are our children’s first teachers. We are who they model their behaviors after first. When your child sees how you interact with people, your own generosity and your own personal values -they will mimic those. In other words, you must practice what you preach. When they find themselves in a situation where they are not sure what path to follow, they will think about what path you would choose. Help make sure they choose the right one.
- Hold them accountable.
This is very important. When your child Continue reading
Nurturing Your Child Through Creative Expression
What is creative expression and why practice it?
Creative expression is widely regarded as a way for people, especially children, to express their inner thoughts, opinions and even identities through forms of art such as painting, writing as well as music. A large part of one’s personal experience and knowledge greatly forms the basis of their expression, and can mirror or help them process their emotions or thoughts.
How does it benefit your kids?
The practice of creative expression has numerous benefits of your child. It first of all can help build and develop the fine Continue reading
Children’s Top 10 Books for 2015
This list is from my 5 and 7 year old of the most favourite books we read this year. They are in no particular order.
Charlie and the cheesemonster by Justin CH Birch
Reading With Your Children
I’ve very fond memories of my mother reading and telling stories to me at night when I was a child. She had the ‘gift of the gab’ as we say in Ireland. Now that I have my own children I can see the importance of reading to them. For me in the early stages, I found the little picture touch feel novelty books were great for helping my children with their sounds and senses. Reading to them was another way of them hearing your voice and sharing an experience together, and that for me created a nice little bond. Even if you have to point and say apple a 100 times it’s important. You’re the first voice they know and it’s a great way of communicating with them and teaching them to speak and express themselves.
As they got older the Continue reading
What I’ve learned since becoming a parent
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I know nearly every nursery rhyme song and I now compare my life to Peppa Pig and that’s ok.
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Sleep was once a luxury I took for granted
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Kids always time Continue reading