On a scale of 1 to 10. How much patience do you typically have? One means you’re completely depleted and wake up annoyed at your kids even though they actually haven’t done anything that day. Ten means you’re a saint. I started off as a pretty patient mom. With each additional child we added to...
What’s one thing that you’re a stickler for…a hill you die on in parenting? When I first became a parent, I set the bar pretty high. I made home-cooked meals from scratch as often as possible. I even went through a phase where the only breads we ate were homemade from sourdough. Limits on sugar...
I know I’m probably in the minority, but I love parenting and hanging out with teens and young adults. I guess that’s a good thing since we have six kids between the ages of 14 and 23. But parenting teens especially teens who are one age chronologically and entirely different ages social-emotionally, academically, etc can...
You probably know that your child’s nutrition is important, but you also are tired of fighting food battles with picky eaters. I’ve heard countless parents say, “I refuse to be a short-order cook.” Currently, with eight or nine mouths to feed, I don’t have the time to be a short-order cook either. It’s also almost...
One of the only five reasons kids misbehave is physical needs. When our kids are tired, dehydrated, or not getting the nutrition they need, their brains won’t have the fuel they need to make good decisions. [bctt tweet=”When our kids are tired, dehydrated, or not getting the nutrition they need, their brains won’t have the...
Does your child play well independently? Do you ever want to scream, “Why won’t you just. go. play !?!?” I talk a lot about assuming a CAN’T instead of a WON’T with our kids. So let’s apply this to independent play. Just like there are physical developmental stages that need to happen in a certain...
Are you naturally the bad guy or the pushover? One of my favorite quotes from the late Dr. Karyn Purvis, author of The Connected Child* and The Connected Parent*, is, “If we give our children nurture when they need structure, we inhibit their growth. And if we give them structure when they need nurture, we...
I love my kids, but I would rather do chores than the pretend play where you get out the farm animals or dolls and make them talk to each other. And y’all know how much I hate cleaning! I want you to know that you’re not a bad mom if you don’t get down on...