Managing the behaviour of older children can be more of a challenge than when they were younger. Older children tend to have more attitude for a start and may sometimes answer back. My tips for behaviour management ( of younger kids) here can be adapted to be more suited to older children. My tips for…
Managing their child’s behaviour can be one of the biggest challenges for many parents, after all; the “terrible two’s” do start at around 18 months and finish at 18 years, don’t they? The solution to this is simple – reward good behaviour and, wherever possible ignore the bad. The best example I can give of…
Regular readers will know that I am an advocate for rewarding good behaviour and ignoring the unwanted in children. Positive parenting goes one step further; instead of telling children “no, don’t do that” have a more positive approach to behaviour management by saying things like “never mind” if you child accidentally drops something on the…
This is a request from a Facebook friend who has a ‘terrible 2’ to deal with. I have always advised parents to reward any good wanted behaviour and ignore the unwanted. I used a reward chart for my son for both managing his behaviour and for helping with potty training. Potty training tips here. There…
I have recently joined a new mother and baby walking group and several of the mothers have said that they have issues with making their children sit in a buggy. Let’s look at this from the Childs point of view; they have just learned to walk after lots of praise and encouragement from their parents…
I saw a question on Facebook this week were a registered child minder was asking how caring for ‘a looked after child’ worked. When I was working as a child minder I went on a training day that qualified me to work with Social services and other agencies. There was a designated social worker (…
Samantha, a registered child minder reached out on social media for help with this issue that she was having with one of the children she cared for who was pulling the hair of other children in the setting. I have always kept my hair short, but anyone who has long hair and holds a baby…
Discipling a baby may seem harsh; but babies can sometimes show behaviour that needs discipling. Obviously, managing the behaviour of babies has to be different from the way an older child would be dealt with: However, the same principles of ignoring unwanted behaviour and rewarding good, wanted behaviour are the same. Babies love to pull…
Kim Kardashian has recently said that she is a soft parent; giving their children everything they want. This got me thinking: Is it better to be a soft or strict parent? In my experience, the majority of familuies usually have one of each. Mainly, but not in every situation the mother tends to be the…
My experiences as a parent, grandparent and resisted child minder have taught me that some children don’t deal with not winning very well:- These are my tips for dealing with this issue: Start from a young age; getting children to play board games with siblings and other family members is a good way of introducing…
“You must share your toys!” is something that I often hear parents tell their children. But how does a child learn to share? The key is to encourage children to share from as early an age as possible; by sharing with siblings, having children over for play dates, or taking children along to groups such…
A recent television programme shows Jo-Rosie Haffenden who believes that we should train our babies like dogs. Although I would never suggest putting a collar and lead on your baby:I have been saying for years that animals, children (and husbands!) can be ‘trained’ in a similar way: which is to reward any good wanted behaviour…
Bullying is horrible and there is no excuse for it in my opinion. Thankfully I have never been bullied and neither have any of my children. A friend once told me that she was picked on at school by another girl ( it was over a boy which my friend said she didn’t even like…
In my experience as both a parent and a registered child minder from time to time children will swear, cuss and use unpleasant language. The best way to manage this is to ignore it. if children don’t get a response the chances are they won’t repeat this behaviour. I recall my youngest coming in…
Most of the tantrums that a 2 year old has can be dealt with quite simply: Basically don’t give in to bad behaviour. Unwanted behaviour is often a form of attention seeking, ignore unwanted behaviour wherever possible and reward the good, wanted behaviour. A reward can be as simple as verbal praise, don’t get into…
As many people seem to be in favour of smacking children as those who are against it. I would be lying if I said that I had never given my children a smack when they were growing up and I was smacked as a child by my parents. It most likely didn’t do me any…
Being a step parent to my second husbands son is one of the hardest things I have done, but it has also been very rewarding. I already had 2 sons when we moved in with my now husband and his 8 year old son. We had another son together a few years later…
Kat has suggested the topic of today’s post, thanks Kat. Co-parenting is a legal term were by two parents who are separated or divorced parent a child together (often in separate homes). Usually the child will be resident with one parent ,often the mother (although I do know of a few fathers who had custody…
It can be extremely daunting for a parent to visit a potential child minder, for their child for the first time. It may be helpful to have a few questions to ask the child minder written down beforehand. Usually a parent makes first contact with a child minder over the phone when checking on availability….
For anyone who doesn’t know about this, the elf on the shelf is a relatively new concept which has come from America. Parents tell their children that Santa has sent a special elf from the north pole to watch them and report back to him as to whether they have been good, or not. Commercial…
Samantha has asked me for some tips to make food shopping with her children a bit easier. Food shopping at the supermarket can be quite stressful if you have young children with you. When my 2 sons had to accompany me every week to the supermarket, my youngest who was almost 2 years old would…
Anyone caring for a child under the age of 8 years who is not related to them and for any kind of reward, must become registered by Ofsted Early Years. Many people will think that by becoming a child minder their own children will suffer, however because child minders are self employed they can…
I am hearing of more and more parents complaining that their children are addicted to electronic devices such as tablets such as iPads, MobilePhones and games consoles and that the children get stroppy when told to switch them off. I had a similar problem when my eldest son became obsessed with his play station and although…
Most children will tell tails or make things up from time to time, but what can you do when the lies become a regular assonance or more than that? Start by having conversations with your children about telling the truth and lying: Stories, such as the boy who cried wolf could help with this. If…
I recently saw a parent asking about this on social media. I, like most parents, I suspect,would encourage my children to say “Ta” when I gave them something as babies, as they grew older and their vocabulary improved the “Ta” became “Thank you” When I was a child minder I liked the children to say…
A recent programme on television showed parents who have 3 children and believe that their children don’t need any rules: they do what they want, when they want. The mother sleeps with the youngest child in her bed. The children don’t have set bedtimes; they go to bed when they feel that they are tired…
After watching a child have a major temper tantrum in a supermarket, a customer ( who was not the parent) told him to “Shut up!” Is it okay to discipline someone else’s child? I used to work as a registered child minder and therefore I had to manage the behaviour of the children in my…