Babies can be affected by the toxic fumes in dry cleaning. Take plastic bags off clothes, and allow them to vaporize before wearing.
Dried, spilled chemicals on cupboard floors can be reactivated by a saliva-soaked hand and ingested when Baby’s hand goes into his mouth. Scrub your cabinets after you empty them of hazards.
By pretending, children are able to:
• act out real life or imaginary roles playing alone or with other children without the accompanying stress of responsibility
• stimulate and express their thinking, creativity, and imagination by manipulating and rearranging their environments and experiences
• escape from the limits of being little, weak, or naive
• experiment, explore, and extend their boundaries of experience, size, strength, time, space and logic
• build self-confidence with opportunities to feel important, to support or repair their self-esteem, feel less helpless, more in power
• challenge their own thinking and resourcefulness
• focus on new concepts and ideas and integrate them into their lives
• see what it feels like to temporarily be someone else by acting out what another person might say and do
• enhance their communication skills: vocabulary; comprehension; speaking; attention span; listening to and following directions
• clarify their feelings, and vent their problems by putting them into words
• express their ideas, needs, feelings, fears and fantasies safely
• neutralize negative, aggressive, destructive feelings by releasing unacceptable impulses
• prepare for grown-up roles by imitating many different adults
• learn about different situations, people, animals, and places
• work out their fears, problems, resolve issues, experiment with solutions, make sense of confusion
• test limits, take risks, reverse usual roles, act out anti-social behavior (try bad behavior)
• develop a sense of morality and pro-social behavior
• gain knowledge about social relationships and understand themselves better
• enhance cooperation, and take turns as they plan and work together
• discriminate between reality and fantasy by bringing them together in play
• experience similarity, diversity, and inclusion
• cultivate senses of belonging, joint purpose, and cooperation
“I like those colors.”
“You must have worked hard on that.”
“Tell me about your picture.”
A non-judgmental yet enthusiastic attitude promotes creativity as well as a positive self-image.
Say “do” instead of “don’t.” “Do” sentences (or those in the positive form) give your child a better idea of what behavior you expect.
Example: “Don’t run” gives child no alternative, but “We walk in the house, running is for outside” will let your child know what to do instead.
“Don’t jump on the bed” becomes “Off the bed.” Tell them what you really want in the positive.
Try it for a week with the whole family. It works!
DON’T SAY “DON’T” SAY “(DO)…..”!
….unstructured, unplanned, unorganized alone time…to relax, to daydream, to just plain think….
Too often we overschedule kids into activities without thinking about the added stresses this may create.
Somehow we got the notion that WE are responsible for our kids’ happiness. So we give kids videos, babysitters, classes, sports, i-gadgets, computers, field trips or some stimulating activity to keep them busy all the time. We don’t need to–they don’t need it!
Kids, even babies, need alone time to solve their own problems, cope with separation, and be responsible for their own happiness.
Make sure your children each have adequate alone time…..please!
We have a habit of asking, “okay?” at the end of a direction.
Do you say any of these?
“Wash your hands now, okay?”
“We’re going in the car, okay?”
“Finish your dinner now, okay?”
“It’s time to take your bath, okay?”
“Time for bed, okay?”
“Mommy’s going to work now, okay?”
If you are guilty of asking questions like these, are you asking permission of the child? I don’t think so. Each of these questions gives your child the chance to say “NO, it’s not okay. I refuse. I’ll do the opposite.”
Why express this as a choice when there really isn’t a choice?
You leave yourself wide open for defiance!
What would yo do if your child said, “No, it’s not okay.”
It’s just a bad habit!
Drop the okay and make a statement:
“Wash your hands now.”
“We’re going in the car.”
“Finish your dinner now.”
“It’s time to take your bath.”
“Time for bed.”
“Mommy’s going to work now.”
Give your child a clear, concise message. Tell your child what you expect…before you expect it.
It’s a lot easier for children to follow directions when there isn’t a “get-out-of-doing-it clause.” No “…okay?” when it isn’t a choice.
Fear. Fear is the basis of all stress. Parents’ stress is basically being afraid of not knowing what to do, how to handle (read: control) their kids.
Fear manifests as frustration, concern, worry, guilt, tension, anxiety, anger and more.
Parents are frustrated over their kids’ misbehavior, concerned about their kids’ learning and worried about their grades. They feel guilty about not spending time with their kids and not being able to give them what they want. They are tense about their children being liked and accepted by others, they are anxious about where their kids are and with whom. They are angry about their kids’ bad manners.
These stressors can cause parents to lose sleep which causes lack of patience, which causes negative reactions to children’s naturally immature behaviors.
Stress comes from fear and fear comes from feeling out of control.
What stresses you? What can you do about it?
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