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10 Positive Discipline Tips I Learned from my Counselor
“How are you doing today?” my counselor asked as I entered her office. I wondered if she noticed the smudged mascara on my face and assumed, correctly, that I had been crying. “I’m stressed,” I said, skipping the niceties and and plopping on the floral couch. “My kids are making me insane lately, and I am especially struggling with my son. He’s just so strong willed and independent and emotional and we’re having trouble getting him listen to us and I’m running out of ideas of what to do.” Just this morning, I went on, I had to navigate the meltdown that happens every time I ask him to…
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Be Present, Pursue, and Practice Empathy – Parenting Skills for Weathering Your Child’s Inevitable Emotional Episodes
When we take the time and energy to be present with our children, pursue them, and practice empathy during their emotional episodes, not only do we help teach them how to work through their emotions, we reap a relational reward. I was reminded of this last week. Let me tell you the story, and what I took away from it.Â
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Beauty from Ashes
This morning was rough. I screamed at my toddler. I screamed so loudly that my head hurt afterward. I screamed so loudly that I was afraid that my neighbors, the very same neighbors that a few weeks ago sent me a text stating that Kevin and I were “THE BEST parents”, would hear it and be alarmed. I’m not proud of it. I’m downright ashamed of it. Running on Fumes Here was the scenario: I was running on six hours of sleep and was having an unproductive morning. I wanted to run to the grocery store. I already was frustrated with how long it was taking to get everything in order.…
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On Obedience and Grace
It had been a beautiful evening. We had taken a family walk on the beach, watched the kids play in the sand, and stared in awe at the ocean. Dusk was settling in gently, and we were going to prepare for bed when Levi asked if he could swim before we put on his jammies. The pool was particularly alluring in the waning light, and we smiled and agreed and stripped the children down, allowing them to wade in the baby pool, an eighteen-inch deep section separated from the main pool by a small wall. Since we were only going to let them in a few minutes, we didn’t insist…
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God loved Noah. Period.
“Are you kidding me?” My two year old turned and looked at me, wondering why I had stopped my usual story-telling cadence. “Read, Mommy,” he said. I couldn’t. The colors were bright. The illustrations cute. The story, an ancient one, and entirely familiar. I still am not sure why so many Christians are devoted to telling young ones the record of the annihilation of the earth as a happy story about animals, though I’d come to accept it, for better or for worse. But this, I could not accept. At the bottom of the page in a book about Noah read these words: “God loved Noah because he was good.” Maybe…
