Clarity, Connection and Consistency: Three Parenting Pillars

Effective Parenting pillars: Clarity, Connection and Consistency. Master these three parenting pillars and all the other parenting challenges will be easier as you will have the strong bond that you need to get your kids’ cooperation.

Stepping Stones to Laying the Ground Work for Healthy Relationships with Your Kids

As parents approach the teen years, they get fearful about all the pitfalls their sweet baby can fall into. Yes, it is scary. Between social media and new addictions like vaping, there is a lot that can pull a kid off track. There is no silver bullet for protecting our kids. Even companies like Apple that are trying to provide parental controls on their devices are failing to truly protect our kids. So what does buffer our kids? Well in studies of measures that support kids in thriving, a strong connection to family remains one of the best tools.

Get 4 Tips for Building a Healthy Relationship with Your Kids

I find it hard to be consistent when I’m in a hurry, tired or out in public

Isn’t that the truth! Parenting gets so exponentially harder when we are in a hurry or are tired. That’s why I’m such a big believer in creating systems and routines for as much of the day as we can. When we have good systems and routines to fall back on, we can let habit lead us.

Help, Elisabeth! I still really don't know what effective logical consequences are!"

People often ask me, what consequence should I give my child for situation X.

There is no one right answer for that because each family is different, but here are some guidelines:

Logical consequences should

•be related to the problem

•be age appropriate

•allow a child his/her dignity

And most importantly, you HAVE to be able to follow through with them or you are back at square one, so it has to work for your family and for that particular child (fair is not equal).

TAMING TEMPER TANTRUMS

Tantrums are a natural stage in every child's development. While some parents with easy going children may have fewer of them to deal with, no parent avoids tantrums altogether. However, there are steps we can take to avoid and/or mitigate tantrums.

When It Is Time for Consequences

So far, everything you have done to build your consistency muscle has focused on the positive--you have modeled correct behavior, praised correct behavior and trained for correct behavior. But still your child is using disrespectful behavior! Now is when it get's real, when you are going to set an expectation and then hold the limit. This will probably mean that you need to have a consequence ready--one that you can absolutely follow through on.

Building the Consistency Muscle: Tip 3A: Model and Train

Build Connections, Communication, Consistency, Effective Consequences, Kindness, Parent as teacher, ParentingElisabeth StittJanuary 30, 2017consistency, communication, modeling, rules, expectationsComment

CONSISTENCY 101

With New Year’s here, I imagine that you are setting resolutions around your parenting. Among your resolutions, perhaps you have a goal of being more consistent. Great. I’d like to help with that. However, becoming a consistent parent is almost impossible if you leave to will power alone. It is much easier if you build for success step by step. I have a plan for doing exactly that.