Search Results for: blog giving and taking parenting advice

What Are the Five Tools of Attachment Parenting?

If you are interested in practicing attachment parenting with your baby, where do you start? Here are some basics. I think that a lot of attachment parenting is instinctual. It can naturally occur as part of normal mothering or fathering. After my first child was born, I hadn’t heard of attachment parenting. When I learned about it later, I found that I was already doing many of the things that would qualify me as an “attached” parent. Still, it is nice to get some information from the experts. Dr. and Mrs. William Sears wrote about attachment parenting in their book, … Continue reading →

Take Advice with a Grain of Salt

Advice, self-help, information, suggestions—every where you turn there are other people who want to offer up their advice. After all, as I write these blogs and articles here in the Parenting blog, I am participating in that very reality of American life. As a parent, however, you will get far more advice and suggestions that you could ever implement and in the end—it is up to you to make your own choices and decisions. Keep in mind that most of it is just opinion and it is coming from people with as many questions and confusions as you have! Whether … Continue reading →

3 Parenting Mistakes to Avoid with Your Toddler

Despite the moniker “terrible twos”, that period of testing and searching for independence can come as early as 15 months and last up until three years old. Navigating this period of development successfully requires, patience, patience, a little more patience and then just a little more patience. However, setting boundaries during this time will set you up for a life time of positive interaction with your child. This is the age where you’re setting the ground work for authority in your home. It’s not a now or never deal, but parents who are not consistent and firm with their toddlers, … Continue reading →

The Bean Dip Strategy for “Helpful” Baby Advice

We all have at least one in our lives. For some people it is the in-laws. For other people it is their own parents. It might be friends, other relatives. . .it doesn’t really matter who it is. We all have at least one person in our lives who loves to offer unsolicited advice for our baby. Some of us probably even offer unsolicited advice for other people’s babies. But that’s a topic for another blog. How do you deal with someone when they offer you advice that’s unhelpful? One situation that arose for us frequently was a dear friend … Continue reading →

Giving and Taking Parenting Advice

Despite the fact that it may appear that I am in the “parenting business,” I really do not feel particularly comfortable offering up specific and heavy-handed parenting advice. Partly because of my writings on parenting and family life, and partly because I tend to always have a house full of kids and as older teens, they appear to have survived most of their childhood relatively unscathed—I do get approached for advice regularly. I also try to find my own mentors to ask for advice. But, it always seems like a bit of a slippery slope… The thing is—every child and … Continue reading →

2006 in Review: Homeschooling Blog at a Glance

As a new homeschooling blogger at Families.com, I wanted to know everything that has been discussed to date. In response to my own curiosity, and in an effort to make perusing our articles easier for you, our readers, I have compiled all of the blogs for the year 2006. Deciding to Homeschool Why homeschool Am I qualified for this? Reasons that Homeschooling Works! My Most Important Advice for Homeschoolers. The Cost of Homeschooling Instead of standing up for their own kids, why not stand up for all kids? Disclaimer: I am hardly an expert in education. Did You Know? ‘Empirical … Continue reading →

Should You Pay for Chores?

Parenting experts disagree vehemently on the issue of whether or not children should be paid for chores. Each side strongly believes that they are right, quoting studies and analysis that support their position. With such a polarized debate on the issue, what should parents think? How can they determine whether or not to pay their children for chores or to offer an allowance outright that requires no work conditions on the child’s part? Let us take a look at both sides of the issue. On the one hand, paying a child for chores rather than giving a free and clear … Continue reading →

More Stocking Stuffers Ideas for Your Favorite Shutterbug

My family’s stocking stuffer rules are simple: All gifts must be less than $20 and they must fit into the stocking. These stipulations can be a pain sometimes, especially when your husband has his eye on an expensive Dremel (it meets the size requirement, but not the budget) or your wife desperately wants a Dyson for Christmas. However, if your loved one is an avid photographer, there are many compact-sized, budget-friendly items available that make wonderful stocking stuffers, including: CAMERA BAG Camera bags come in all shapes and sizes, but I prefer using the compact ones for everyday shooting. A … Continue reading →

Stocking Stuffers for Your Favorite Shutterbug

No, lottery tickets aren’t on the list. The following Christmas stocking stuffer ideas are sure to please your favorite photographers, regardless of their skill level. In addition, they will also please your bank account, given that they don’t include purchasing a new (see: expensive) camera. MEMORY CARDS I’m horrible at erasing shots taken on memory cards. As a result, I am constantly running out of space, and often end up frantically searching for a spare card at the most inopportune times. Digital camera owners can always use a few extra memory cards. Fortunately, they don’t cost nearly as much as … Continue reading →

They’re Crabby, You’re Crabby

If only we could all balance each other out in a family—only one person getting to be moody and crabby at a time! Unfortunately, what usually happens is that crabbiness and moodiness travels as fast as the stomach flu or a cold within a family household. One person barks at another and soon everyone is in a grumpy mood. As parents, we may have to work on how to detach or at least not let ourselves get swept up in the crabbiness of our kids. We are, after all, only human. When a person gets grumpy at us, it is … Continue reading →