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Tag problem-solving
Power Struggles: Why We Get Stuck In Them & How to Move Toward Problem Solving
You don’t want to get stuck in yet another power struggle with your child, so why is it so hard to avoid power struggles? I can remember angrily looking at my determined, strong-willed child, thinking, “Oh, no, you don’t! You’re…
Practical Tips To Turn Uncontrolled Emotional Outbursts Into Big Wins
Your child is struggling. Again. They are frustrated and unload their stress on everyone around them in an uncontrolled emotional outburst. It might be a classic toddler tantrum or an older child stuck in explosive patterns. How can you turn…
Want Kids to Value Your Advice? Try This.
Caroline was thoughtful as I described how our young adult kids call from time to time and ask us to help them think through a situation. “After they describe their dilemma, we usually ask them thoughtful questions to guide…
Whose Problem Is It?
Deep inside most parents is a strong urge to control their children. It may seem beneficial or even “work” for a few years, but there are diminishing returns if the goal of control is not given up significantly by…
An Unconventional Solution to a Child’s Resistance
We often see a common parenting cycle when kids are prone to anxiety. In short, it goes like this: Child feels anxious Worried, but well-meaning parent “encourages” the child toward to overcome the anxiety by pushing the child The…
Are You a Charlie Brown Grown-Up?
We’ve all been there. A child sasses, lies, whacks a sibling or shirks a responsibility, and we feel compelled to tell them what they did wrong and why it’s wrong. It’s good to tell kids what’s right and what’s wrong,…
Beat the Monday Blues with Sunday Lavender
In a coaching session, Karen shared that their family’s weekly schedule seemed to take them captive every Sunday night. Lilly, their third-grader, unofficially declared it “Moan and groan about Monday morning” time. The whole family would get drawn into her…