Principles

Toddler Chaos Clean-up

February 19, 2013

I’ve swept up the Art Room. This room is my writing room and has also become my son’s chaos room. He paints here, plays here, and learns here. It is a womb of flashcards, water color trays, brushes, paper, stuffed animals, clothes,  crayons, play kitchen items, toy trains, race cars, and other toddler toys. Ten [...]

Read the full article →

Meeting Parents Where They’re At

February 15, 2013

I’m hard core when it comes to attachment-minded parenting practices in my home. I’m full-on natural birthing, breastfeeding, bedsharing, holding baby all the time, stay-at-home mommying or bringing baby to work with me, and loving guidance—which is why it surprises people that I don’t automatically condemn other parenting styles. For example, in another post, I [...]

Read the full article →

Mommy’s meditating!

February 6, 2013

By the time my daughter was 2 years old, I had completed treatment for cancer. Still very ill, I was on a quest to find health. I understood cancer to be an environmental disease, and while I could not say I knew what had caused the disease, I thought if I made enough changes, I [...]

Read the full article →

Why Kids Don’t Need Praise (And What They Need Instead)

February 1, 2013

Recently, I was chatting with a mom at the playground about kids’ behavior, and she commented to me that kids need praise and approval from their parents, as there are too many dysfunctional adults in the world to indicate otherwise. To this, my response was, “I think what they need more than praise and approval [...]

Read the full article →

Build the Castle

January 25, 2013

I’m sitting on my bed, knees angled in a V, my back against the Robin’s Egg blue wall. My son is building a castle out of over-sized Legos on the table next to the bed. I’m hopelessly sad. My mother passed away on Christmas Eve. She had a long illness and every Christmas was the “last” Christmas [...]

Read the full article →

Creating space to “hold” your child’s emotion

January 23, 2013

As any parent knows, the size of a person’s emotions has nothing to do with the size of his body. Babies and toddlers stretch us emotionally by confronting us with feelings that we’ve been taught to dismiss, ignore, or stuff down to get by in Western societies. After all, it wouldn’t be cool for an [...]

Read the full article →

When ‘No’ Doesn’t Mean ‘No’

January 9, 2013

The word “No” can make a terrible first impression. Sometimes it just doesn’t convey everything it intends. Especially if it comes from a young child: it’s not quite as literal as it seems. Upon first impression, “No!” sounds like: I refuse. I won’t listen. I’m defying you. I don’t respect you. Those are usually our first thoughts [...]

Read the full article →

Weaning Early

January 4, 2013

I didn’t think much about parenting before I became a mom, but when it came to breastfeeding, there was never a question in my mind that we would nurse. From the moment she latched on, I knew we would be doing this for a long, long time. And so, on the week of her first [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →