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A confused parent to 3 kids, 2 dogs, 1 cat.
We’ve all done it. You say “no” about ten times and then, you give in to your child; you don’t want to have to continue the discussion, it’s really not a big deal that you let your child win “this time” or you caved because you have an incredible difficulty saying the word “no” (especially when your child tilts his/her head and looks at you with those gorgeous eyes and innocent smile).
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Dona Matthews, PhD, has been working with children, adolescents, families, and schools since 1990, and has written dozens of articles and several books about children and adolescents. She writes a twice-weekly advice column for Parents Space, 'Ask Dr Dona.' Please send your questions to her at the e-address below. She'll do her best to answer your question as quickly as possible.
Review of The Fear Fix: Solutions for Every Child’s Moments of Worry, Panic and Fear by Sarah Chana Radcliffe. Published October 2013 by Harper Collins.
I highly recommend The Fear Fix. It is a thoughtfully well-written book for parents by Sarah Chana Radcliffe, a counselor who works with kids and families. Radcliffe starts the book by laying a solid foundation for understanding and practicing emotional coaching, a method of welcoming, naming, and accepting a child’s feelings. It’s done by attuning to the difficult feelings a child expresses, and calmly reflecting the feelings back: ‘I know you’re scared,’ ‘You seem concerned,’ ‘Are you afraid?’
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I am the mom of 11, grandmother to 3, including a grandson with autism, mother-in-law to 3 and have been married to an amazingly patient man for 36 years.
Our family is an adoptive family where mom and dad are white, but also includes a Latino son, a Korean-American daughter and four African-American children many of whom also have a variety of disabilities. We celebrate diversity in our family.
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A confused parent to 3 kids, 2 dogs, 1 cat.
One of the most valuable lessons that Active Kiddies, believe in, is that kids learn the importance and significance of charity in any community at an early age.
By setting an example and practicing the habit as a family early on, it will be a practice that kids can carry on as adults to contribute to those less fortunate for a lifetime.
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Mom of five ranging from 18-7. I am a wife, a mother, a teacher, and a sister in Christ.
Positive attitudes in parenting can go a l-o-n-g way. First off is the obvious, if you are happy your children are more than likely happy too. We all feed off of each other, whether it is your children, your spouse or a stranger on the street. We take it all with us. Sometimes we recognize it for what it is, sometimes not. I, personally, find that there is a certain time of the month that because of me…. no one in my house is in a good mood- especially me. That is what has led me to write this particular article.
Thinking about how your mood will be is something that we can try to control. It, of course, doesn’t always work. But if you approach each day as a new day and take a moment in the morning for yourself, you may find that everything goes a bit smoother.
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As I’m sure many other mothers did, I found preparing for the birth of my first child quite a stressful time; not just the morning sickness and general effects it was having on my body, but also planning for the birth itself. Like most of my friends, I’d spent a good amount of time looking into the best foods to eat, what I should and shouldn’t be doing to help the baby… as I said stressful.
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Dona Matthews, PhD, has been working with children, adolescents, families, and schools since 1990, and has written dozens of articles and several books about children and adolescents. She writes a twice-weekly advice column for Parents Space, 'Ask Dr Dona.' Please send your questions to her at the e-address below. She'll do her best to answer your question as quickly as possible.
Nicholas Wilkinson’s Child Abuse: The Ripple Effect is raw and compelling. It’s a first-person account of an adult’s attempt to grapple with the crippling aftershocks of physical child abuse.
Wilkinson opens the book with a brief description of his earliest memory: at five years old, he recalls being beaten viciously by his mother for no reason he could see, and no reason that she specified. This was followed by eight years of repeated experiences of child abuse and abandonment at the hands of his mother, as well as the various men in her life. He found respite finally when he ran away at thirteen, and was taken in by a kind aunt in a distant city.
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Kristen currently lives in Toronto, Ontario with her partner and 2 cats. She has a Bachelor of Social Work from Ryerson University and engages in anti-oppressive work.
I have anger issues. I have tried for many years to find a way to focus my anger and not give into the chaos which can cause physical and emotional damage. I knew from research that Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) was extremely beneficial for individuals diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder but my quest into finding the therapy was coming up with nothing (unless I wanted to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars). What was I going to do?
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Allison is a full-time, full-on mom of three little girls, including a set of twins, born in the summer of 2012.
Pamela Druckerman’s Bringing up Bebe: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting (Penguin, 2012) is a humorous, helpful and worldly look at parenting, without the ‘do’s and don’ts’ of most parenting books. First of all, it’s really a chronicling of her own journey as an American new parent in Paris. It turns out that the parenting philosophy I’ve been following most closely all these years is the French parenting philosophy (though they would never call it a philosophy—mon deiu!)
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I am the mom of 11, grandmother to 3, including a grandson with autism, mother-in-law to 3 and have been married to an amazingly patient man for 36 years.
I’m certainly no expert on pets, but our family has had their fair share of creatures in our family. This summer we added three more kids to our family, of the goat variety. Pets can be a great tool to teach responsibility to kids, provide companionship as well as be a comfort during difficult times.
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Dona Matthews, PhD, has been working with children, adolescents, families, and schools since 1990, and has written dozens of articles and several books about children and adolescents. She writes a twice-weekly advice column for Parents Space, 'Ask Dr Dona.' Please send your questions to her at the e-address below. She'll do her best to answer your question as quickly as possible.
Question: School is out and I can’t afford a summer nanny or camp. I work from home and am already at my wit’s end with my 7-year-old, Piper. Do you have any boredom busters for me, things to do when she tells me she’s bored? I don’t want her to spend the summer becoming addicted to TV, videogames, or some other electronic activity.
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Nick Wilkinson has spent the last 15 years working in the behavioral health field working with at risk teens and youth.
Death and loss are a part of life. It’s almost inevitable that you’re going to have to deal with the loss of a loved one, parent, sibling or even peer, in the course of you’re teens young life. How it’s dealt with and how your teen reacts to death and loss can either help or hurt the grieving process.
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A confused parent to 3 kids, 2 dogs, 1 cat.
Sometimes I find myself thinking of how I met Allison.
It was one of those days, when I felt like the only thing I want to do is disappear.
My dad was hospitalized for an emergency heart surgery, a boy I knew took his life, my daughter was having a difficult teen day, and I found myself crying endlessly, unable to stop.
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Allison is a full-time, full-on mom of three little girls, including a set of twins, born in the summer of 2012.
Real Food for Mother and Baby: The Fertility Diet, Eating for Two, and Baby’s First Foods, by Nina Planck is equal parts research, memoir and eating manual. Planck, a mother of three (including a set of fraternal twins—no wonder I like her!) examines the modern American diet and compares it with maternal diets all over the world. She works hard to debunk the myth of iron-fortified-cereal-as-baby’s-first-food, and does enough examination of the health benefits of breastmilk to reinvigorate the wet-nursing practice worldwide.
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Kristen currently lives in Toronto, Ontario with her partner and 2 cats. She has a Bachelor of Social Work from Ryerson University and engages in anti-oppressive work.
I have been self harming for about 11 years. Despite the large role it has played in my life I have never really focused on my self harm. Rarely was I asked by professionals why I self harmed, what it did for me and how I felt about it. It was assumed that if I was less depressed then I would stop the behaviour. The self harm was seen as a symptom. The depression was gone 6 years ago but the self harm has stayed. It’s less but it’s still there.
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