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Why Parenting Kids Age 4 And Under Is A Kind Of Madness – But Here’s 7 Glimpses Of Hope To Keep You Sane.

I am writing this post because I don’t want to be a fake. For months now I have been studying and reflecting on how to love my kids unconditionally. I have been getting ready to write, hopefully, a kickass blog series that will take us to the noble heights of parenting. But if I post…

Tag: parenting-is-hard

Two dads walk in their wife’s shoes and discover the awesomeness that is a mom

Mother’s Day is upon us. And I can think of no better way for us dads to honour moms than to try walk in their shoes, and living to tell the tale. This year my wife was recovering from an operation. For 3 weeks, I tried to fill the mom-void which included reading and skillfully…

Tag: humour, mothers

3 Remarkable Research-based Tools to Shape Your Kids’ Behaviour

Depending on the age of your child, each child needs about 50 directives a day just so that your family can function. If the child doesn’t comply with say 30 of those, and you have 3 kids, that’s close on 100 moments of frustration a day. The result for us parents? Rapid aging, moments of…

Tag: reward-charts

4 Tools That Can Spectacularly Improve Your Kids’ Cooperation (And Your Sanity)

Not just dads, but moms too, need plenty of tools in their parenting toolbox. With the right tools, things click more easily into place. Coercion is not needed. Nothing can drive us parents more insane than when, hour after hour, our kids don’t do the things we’re telling them to do or not do. For…

Tag: enlisting-co-operation, patience, pep-talks, role-plays

Why Are Siblings So Different?

The other day my friend told me, ‘I’m convinced my mom had an affair when I was a child.’ I was shocked. Had he uncovered some correspondence or pictures? ‘No, it’s just that there’s nothing in common between me and my younger sister.’ I laughed. ‘There are other possible explanations,’ I re-assured him. I have…

Tag: sibling-differences

20 Ways To Enlist Your Child’s Co-operation

Directing small kids is like herding cats. It’s enough to make you pull your hair out. I have five kids so I feel this acutely, but even my 2-kid friends seem to endure endless frustration when it comes to enlisting their children’s daily co-operation. ‘Come to dinner.’ ‘Stop that’. ‘Climb in the car.’ ‘Get your…

Move your but: What you say becomes your child’s inner voice (pt 4)

Parent, move your but. ‘I love you, but…’ How many times I’ve uttered this, mistakenly thinking it will anchor my child before providing some constructive criticism… Eli, I love you, but you need to listen the first time my boy! Fynn, I love you, but never take something without asking. Ivy, I love you, but…

Tag: power-of-words, unconditional-love

5 Questions to help you speak life-giving words to your child: What you say becomes their inner voice (pt 3)

I find it terrifying, but also dignifying, that I can shape who my child becomes – etching my influence and values into their deepest psyche. In my last two posts (click here and here), I’ve shown that this is especially done through the words I speak or for that matter fail to speak. My words…

Tag: power-of-words

The all-important voice of parents: What you say to your kids becomes their inner voice (pt 2)

‘The voice of parents is as the voice of gods.’ So says Shakespeare. I didn’t take him for much of a parenting expert, but on this aspect of raising kids, I have to agree with the old guy. Our words carry a kind of divine weight during our children’s early years… impressing something that will…

Tag: inner-voice, power-of-words

Words work both ways: What you say to your kids becomes their inner voice (pt 1)

What you say to your kids becomes their inner voice. Perhaps, the most under-estimated dimension of my parenting is the words I speak, or don’t speak, to my children. Recently, back from his first day back at school, Fynn (5) proudly told Julie and I something that inspired this post… ‘Today, me and my fwiends…

Tag: inner-voice, power-of-words

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