Chronicles of a “Mr. Mom”

Here’s a news item that just shocked me in more ways than one.

1. Where does a little child learn to throw a tantrum so violent?

2. In any other country, this child would’ve gotten a big beating either by her teacher, or her parents, or both. Is arresting this child a better way to “teach a lesson” to a 6 year old? By sending her to jail and by her having a police record for the rest of her life? Or would the child have been better off just getting a spanking? Sometimes I wonder what this world’s coming to, when I see terrorists and rapists and criminals going scott-free, and the police charging a 6-yr old who was scared of the intimidating police officers and hid under a table, with “attempt to resist arrest”!

Here’s the full story: Kindergartner Charged With Felony Tantrum

“Q: My son is 2 and his big sister is 6. He’s her little shadow, and in some ways that’s good: His vocabulary and other skills are great. But when they’re together he wants to do only what she does, and I wonder if he should be more independent.

A: We think your son is lucky to have his big sister to help him develop important experience and skills.”

Full story: Toddler gains by shadowing big sister

“TWO parenting experts divulged their secrets to an audience of Harrow mums and dads last week.

A seminar was arranged by Rachel Gardner, of BBC2 programme No Sex Please We’re Teenagers, and Rosemary Lamaison, a parent mentor for Pinner voluntary organisation Hope, to mentor local parents.

Members of Children First - mothers and fathers of children from 13 of the borough’s schools - were taught the importance of increasing self esteem in young people and enhancing their communication skills.”

Full story: Sharing secrets of parenting

“You may have your doubts as to whether investing your heart and soul into parenting someone else’s child is worth it, especially when you may be asked to help that same youngster return home to his or her parents.

Every child deserves to feel safe and loved, to be nurtured and cared for. Foster parenting is an opportunity to give of yourself and to make your home a temporary haven for a young person who has had little stability, suffered much hurt, and is in need of the reassurance that he or she is worth a commitment.

Foster parenting is a gift that lasts a lifetime. So what’s in it for you? Knowing that you did the best you could to give a child a better chance in life.”

Full story: Foster parenting is its own reward

“Everyone cries, whether they are adults, children, male or female. People cry when they are happy, sad, angry, hurt, scared, proud or embarrassed. Children also cry when they are tired, dissatisfied, sick, hungry or just plain bored.

Sometimes children use crying as a means of getting their own way. Coddling children when they are old enough to know how to manipulate a situation by crying sends the message that turning on the tears is an affective way to get what they want.

The best way to get children to stop crying is by distracting them. If they forget why they are crying in the first place, they have no reason to continue crying. You might compare this to adults by thinking of something that makes you upset or worried. If you keep thinking about it, your mood will not improve; but by distracting yourself and thinking about or doing something else, you will forget that you are worried and be able to move on.”

Full story: Stop Crying - The art of re-framing

“As far as I remember, as soon as I was old enough to start thinking about it, I wanted to have two kids, preferably twins so that I would do the hard work only once. I also allowed myself to imagine it would be one boy and one girl so that I could experience the best of both worlds.

Well, that’s beside the point. What I want to document here are the dilemmas and tough decisions you take when you are bringing up twins. A mom of more than one kid also goes through similar dilemmas but when the kids are twins (or more?) things are different in many respects. Before the Moms of multiple singletons begin to protest - ladies, I just said different, I did not say more difficult or less difficult! And that goes for the Dads too, I hate to leave them out of this.

So here goes.”

Full story: Parenting: Double Trouble or Double the Fun

“I like classical music. Not as much as I like Rod Stewart classics, mind you, but well enough.

But I never bought into the notion, prevalent throughout my four children’s babyhood, that there was a small window of time to really shape a baby’s brain. And that flooding that brain with Mozart or other classical music during those years was one key way to make a baby smarter. That understanding was based on “research” in the 1990s that just always seemed … a little too easy to me.”

….

Mead writes that “there’s a problem … with the new conventional wisdom about building brighter babies: it’s based on misinterpretations and misapplications of brain research.”

Full story: A little parenting magic

“THE PRACTICAL purpose of foster parenting is to provide hurting children — anywhere from birth up to age 19 — a welcoming but temporary family environment. The goal, whenever possible, is to reunite them with their parents once authorities believe it is safe to do so.

But for many foster parents, what began as a relationship that was expected to last maybe just a few months or a year at most can become life-long, even without the children being formally adopted.

“I have kids that come back Christmas, Easter, their birthdays, my birthday,” says Burnaby, BC foster parent Jan Chapman. “I do have some [to whom] I really became a parent. . . . They’re grown up, they have children, but they still need that sounding board.”

Full story: The Challenges And Rewards Of Foster Parenting

“I still remember standing in front of my third grade teacher’s desk and looking at my parents apprehensively. It was my report day, my older sister had come first in her class and I had barely passed, by the skin of my teeth, as it were.

My knees trembled, knowing a beating was in store for me once we reached home and for once I wanted to stay put in school and hide my head in my teacher’s lap but it wasn’t going to be so, it never happened that way.

1) Hitting a child never works. The child merely becomes more stubborn and rebellious.
2) Time out works better to calm a child down and make him/her think about the naughty deed done.
3) Threats rarely work, kids get used to threatening parents.
4) Never compare kids with other siblings that causes low self esteem and festers sibling rivalry”

Full story: Parenting Tips From Childhood: No Two Fingers Are Alike

“So, you’re a single parent. Take heart: You are not alone.

It is ever more common for a parent—father or mother—to end up facing the challenges of life without a mate but with children. In the United States, single-parent households more than tripled between 1990 and 2002. Now, almost 3 in 10 American children under age 18 live with only one parent. Fully 10 million women lead their households alone; 2.3 million men face the same challenge. The trend is similar in other Western nations.

Raising a family is a tough job even for two parents. Being a single parent—acting as both dad and mom—is daunting and demanding. Yours is not an easy task.”

Full story: Successful Single Parenting