Kids misbehave for a wide variety of different reasons, and some children are inherently easier to parent than others. Finding the right methods of guidance can therefore feel confusing and overwhelming, especially if techniques that worked with one of your children don’t work with his or her siblings. However, while it’s true that parenting is an adaptive and ...
We all want our children to treat others with kindness, empathy, and compassion. Many of the rules and boundaries we set are designed to teach our kids what is (and isn’t) socially appropriate, and we constantly strive to inform our children about the ways their actions can affect others. However, the manner in which we discipline our children has ...
Modern parenting methods typically revolve around a rigid system of enforcing accountability: If a child behaves well, he (or she) is rewarded. If a child behaves badly, he is punished. In theory, this approach is logical enough; we expect our children to learn that their actions have consequences. Furthermore, we expect this knowledge to help them form a natural aversion ...
At some point, every parent has to deal with disrespectful behaviour from his or her child. Whether it’s something as minor as ignoring your requests or as upsetting as a string of curses and insults, your child will sometimes express himself in unproductive ways. When this happens, first and foremost you must understand that you’re not alone and ...
Sometimes classroom behavior problems signal giftedness. Brad and Karen were at their wits end. Their grade school children once again ...
As a psychologist living and working in Toronto, where 51% of residents were born outside Canada, I deal with immigration related ...
For the parents of overweight children, every day is a balancing act; on one hand, there is the natural desire ...
As parents, we’ve all experienced our children using less-than-constructive methods of persuasion. Whether it’s picking fights to cause a distraction or faking sick to avoid schoolwork or chores, children are endlessly inventive when it comes to getting their own way. Unfortunately, this tenacity can lead to parents feeling frustrated, exhausted, and helpless. As a result, many start giving ...
Parenting would almost certainly be a simpler job if it came with a standardized book of child-appropriate rules and boundaries. If this were the case, parents would no longer have to hear the familiar outcry of “It's not fair! Everyone else is allowed to...” whenever they tried to establish a curfew, set limits for acceptable media, etc. After all, though ...
Though much attention has been paid to the harmful effects of physically disciplining children, until recently relatively little research had been done into the psychological impact of yelling. Many people - experts and parents alike - were therefore surprised when a recent study conducted by the University of Pittsburgh and published in the Journal of Child Psychology revealed that harsh ...
The word “spoiled” has been used so extensively that its meaning seems, for many parents, hopelessly vague and indefinite. The concept is blurred both by generational differences and by the fact that the term “spoiled” can also have positive connotations—it's often associated with being indulged at Christmas and on birthdays, for instance, or with the attention of doting relatives. ...
