Nail Biting–Do You Battle or Cope?

I know for a fact that not every child is a nail biter because of my three kids; one of them has never bitten his nails. This is an incredibly common “bad habit,” however, and one that some parents fight hard to combat. But, can you as a parent actually stop a child from biting his or her nails or is it just something they will need to outgrow? There have been times when I haven’t wondered that nail biting is some sort of natural human/mammal behavior that just hasn’t been bred out of us yet with evolution. I’m sure … Continue reading

How I Stopped Biting My Nails (a work in progress)

I’ve been a nail biter for longer than I can remember. When I was younger, my grandfather used to try to bribe me to stop — at first, he offered me twenty dollars if I could stop biting my nails for just a month. Before he gave up, the bribe was up to two hundred dollars for just a month of not biting my nails. And still… I couldn’t do it. I’ve tried to stop on many occasions. But nail nibbling is a long-ingrained habit. Just wanting to stop isn’t enough for me. As soon as I stop paying attention, … Continue reading