From the category archives:

Respond with Sensitivity

Motherhood’s Magic Mirror

August 17, 2010

My daughters had a hard time using the word “please.” I noticed this several years ago, when I was constantly correcting their demands, making them insert the word before I would honor their request. They always said, “Thank you,” just not the “p” word. I remember the moment when I discovered why this phenomenon was [...]

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Chip, Chip, Chip

July 2, 2010

Last night, I put the kids to bed, poured some wine, popped in a movie and picked up my knitting. Then I heard it: the awful sound of something, or someone, falling down the stairs. All of them. THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP! Sure enough, it was my 3 year old, who had gotten up to [...]

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Sibling Cooperation

June 30, 2010

My kids are eight years old and five years old, and for the most part, I like to stay out of the their arguments.  Personally, I think there is greater skill to be gained by learning to work out disagreements and learn to cooperate than by me stepping in to solve everything. That being said, [...]

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Healthy boundaries

June 21, 2010

At our home there is a continual rotation of people. We have interns in and out pretty much all year round. Most of these people are temporary, staying anywhere from 2 weeks to 6 months with us. Just recently we had a young man, the brother of my brother in law, stay with us for [...]

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Baby Top Ten List: What your baby is really trying to tell you

June 17, 2010

Falling in love with your baby is easy, taking care of a fussy baby… not so easy. All that crying really is your baby’s way of communicating. Now, what on earth is he or she trying to say? And why didn’t anyone warn you about this before you had children? Don’t be tempted to call [...]

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Should We Wait to Cut the Umbilical Cord?

June 16, 2010

I came across a very interesting article via Science Daily that delves into whether or not one should wait to cut the umbilical cord immediately after birth. According to the article’s research ”In pre-term infants, delaying clamping the cord for at least 30 seconds reduced incidences of intraventricular hemorrhage, late on-set sepsis, anemia, and decreased the [...]

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Spring Mini Series Installment #3 – De-moralizing mom

May 31, 2010

I will start with a direct quote from Babywise because when I read it I actually had to re-read it several times to make sure that I had read it correctly. I quote from page 150 of Babywise “Mother’s decision without assessment can be dangerous… They should not be driven by their emotions.” It isn’t [...]

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Riders on the Tantrum Storm (Part 2)

May 27, 2010

In Part 1 of this two part series on tantrums, I talked about the reasons you might want to sometimes “ride out” your child’s tantrums. While it is sometimes therapeutic for kids to simply vent their feelings, more often parents need to work to find the source of the frustration and put a label on [...]

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