Search Results for: blog how is your patience

Putting Your Preschooler to Work

Nothing makes preschoolers happier than helping their parents.  Studies show that young children are wired to get pleasure from pleasing their mom or dad.  So, instead of ignoring your four-year-old when he offers to help you make the beds, fold laundry or put away groceries, allow him to exercise his independence by lending a hand. In some cases, a preschooler’s attempt at helping is more of a hindrance to parents; however, with a little patience you can turn these heartfelt efforts into teachable moments. When my now 8-year-old daughter was a preschooler nothing delighted her more than being able to … Continue reading →

Modeling Patience

Patience is a virtue… or so I’ve heard. Delayed gratification has been a huge topic in my family’s home, especially since we flipped the calendar to 2013. Three words: New Year’s resolutions.  Make that six:  Failing to keep New Year’s resolutions… especially the ones that challenge you to delay a reward. That’s us. And by us, I mean me.  Well, me and my 8-year-old.  But, she didn’t resolve to be more patient in 2013.  That was my Christmas wish that she didn’t deliver. Of course, if I listened to the experts, I would have known that resolving to lose weight … Continue reading →

Does Your Toddler Drink Too Much Juice?

I have yet to meet a toddler who does not like juice. Juice tastes sweet and it is refreshing when one is thirsty from playing hard. Toddlers often ask for juice, and many parents are happy to provide it. After all it’s juice, and juice comes from fruit, right? It turns out that juice is not as great of a beverage option for your toddler as many of us thought. Many drinks that are labeled as juice contain added sugar and artificial coloring, and those are not good things for toddlers to be consuming. While a cup of diluted, 100 … Continue reading →

Does Your Toddler Test Your Patience?

Today was a particularly trying day for me. It seemed as if each time I asked Dylan not to do something, he look right at me and did it anyways. Also, he had a couple of tantrums over things that I could do nothing about. For example, he wanted to play with Play Doh and I could not find any in the house. For about forty five minutes he let me know how upset he was that I did not have the Play Doh that he needed. The whole day seemed to flow from one limit testing scenario to another … Continue reading →

Navigating Your New Role as a Step-Parent

Managing the dynamics of a blended family can be rather challenging. This is new territory for everyone involved. For the first little while everyone may feel as if they are on an emotional rollercoaster. Some days may work out better than others; the important thing is that you keep at it and communicate often with your partner throughout the process. In the meantime, here are some important things to remember as you are embarking on this new journey as a step-parent. In the beginning it is best to let the child’s biological parent be the primary parent in charge of … Continue reading →

Special Needs Blog Week in Review – June 24 – 30, 2012

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Every week, the Special Needs Blog Week in Review brings you a quick summary of each of the blogs that were posted here in the past seven days. It makes it easier for you to find out about the ones that you might have missed. The Special Needs Podcast Roundup went up on June 25, 2012. This week, I’d like to point out an episode of NPR’s “Weekend Edition Sunday”. The episode was called “Planes, Patience, and Slightly Kid-Friendlier Security”. This is a good one to listen to for parents who will be traveling by plane with their children this … Continue reading →

Does Your Toddler Stall At Bed Time?

Sometimes it can be difficult to discern whether your toddler’s bed time requests for things like a drink or a trip to the potty are legitimate or whether they are attempts to push bed time later into the evening. If the requests are for real, of course you do not want your child to go thirsty and of course you want to support him in the process of learning how to use the potty. On the other hand, if he is stalling, you want to send a clear message that such behavior is not appropriate. If you are anything like … Continue reading →

How to Help Your Pet Lose Weight

Are you not sure if your pet is overweight? Have you had trouble getting your pet to lose weight, or do those last few pounds refuse to come off? If you have any of these problems, today’s article is for you. Dr. John Lupo from the Malibu Vet Clinic posted some advice about maintaining a healthy weight for your pets on his local patch.com, and we’re going to examine it today. The first thing is to determine whether or not your pet is overweight. Obviously a veterinarian can do this, but why wait to see the vet? There are ways … Continue reading →

Your Time Is Valuable Too

I struggle with saying no to people. I am so fortunate to be surrounded by people who are willing to help Hailey and I at the drop of a hat, and usually those are not the people who put me in a place where I feel guilty about saying no. Being a single mother means you have to rely on other people, people who are not your spouse or your child’s other parent. You have to swallow your pride often and ask for help when things get overwhelming. I have trouble asking for help, I don’t ever want to be … Continue reading →

Patience is Key

Who knew you could become more virtuous by scrapbooking? I’ve learned a lot about exercising patience since becoming a scrapbooker. In fact, I would go as far as to say that crafting memory books has taught me how to stress less and focus on having fun. Also: If at first you don’t succeed try, try again. Clearly, some scrapbooking techniques yield more opportunities to exercise patience than others. After all, you don’t really need much patience to flock or add glitter to an item. However, when it comes to paper piercing or stacking foam stickers to create your own 3D … Continue reading →