There are children who naturally make to-do lists, who choose their own reasonable bedtime and stick to it, who get upset when they can’t do their homework right when they get home from school, and who keep their rooms clean—even inside their closets and drawers. If you were one of these children, parenting offspring who show no signs of your natural gifts of organization is as frustrating as roller-skating in a buffalo herd (the title of a really old song…).

Read more on Tuesdays with Jane: What if you’re an organized parent with a disorganized child?…

Last week, I introduced five different kinds of procrastinators. Once you’ve found your own style, a second big step toward sane household schedules is sitting down as a family to talk about what might work. While the examples will deal with mornings, the basic ideas apply to bedtimes, leaving for evening events, etc.

Read more on The “Operation Success” Family Meeting…

Bullying is a very real, very grave issue in the United States. According to the article “What Parents Can Do About Teen Bullying”, an estimated 11% to 25% of teenagers are bullied in the U.S.  Additionally, approximately 160,000 students miss school every day to avoid being bullied.  Bullying can cause very serious physical and emotional pain, and, in some cases, is a prominent reason for suicide attempts.  Oftentimes the child who is being bullied feels embarrassed and humiliated, and they may not have the confidence to confide in their parents or to seek help.  These teens are suffering in silence.  So what can parents do to help their child develop the skill set needed to strengthen confidence and the parent-child bond?  The authors of this article suggest “building a home court advantage,” and propose doing so by following the following four steps:

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In developing family routines, all personality types can fall into the Procrastination Trap—we just do it in different ways! While there’s comfort in knowing that you aren’t the only one who would rather hit the snooze alarm again than bolt from bed to get the family routine underway, the variety of ways to procrastinate means that what works for one family just may not work for another!

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Finding a discipline strategy that resonates with your own personal values and that is effective is oftentimes difficult enough, but if both parents can’t agree on a discipline philosophy, nobody in the family wins.  In the article “When Parents Disagree on Discipline,”  author Amy McCready discusses five strategies that can help bring both parents closer together on the discipline spectrum.  McCready’s suggestions are as follows:

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If getting your children out the door to school and yourselves out the door to work results in everyone’s day starting on a sour note, structure may be your answer. One of the clearest universal truths in the psychology of parenting is that children thrive when expectations are clear. And mornings are a good place to begin.

Read more on Tuesdays with Jane: Avoiding those Morning Battles!…

My husband and I have very different learning styles.  My husband doesn’t enjoy or glean much from written material, but easily absorbs information from books on tape.  Depending on the type of work he is doing, he is able to work with background noise or music.  He is also fully immersed in doing everything electronically, such as scheduling meetings and keeping up his contact list.  I, on the other hand, read books every chance I get.  If I am concentrating on meeting a deadline or finishing a project, it is very detrimental to me (and my project) if I am disturbed.  I also need to physically write down to-do lists and appointments with a good old-fashioned pen and paper, and can most often remember what I wrote by calling up the visual of it in my mind.  As our two young boys grow, it will be interesting to see which learning styles or combinations of styles will be their strengths.

Read more on How it has effected my life and identifying your child’s learning style…

According to Laurence Stienberg, PhD, distinguished professor of psychology at Temple University, “parenting is one of the most researched areas in the entire field of social science” – and with good reason!  Good parenting helps foster qualities like honesty, motivation, intellectual curiosity, and empathy.  It helps to protect children from developing abusive behaviors, as well as depression and anxiety.  The relationship between a parent and a child is reflected in the child’s actions – both good and bad aspects.  Additionally, parents oftentimes base their parenting actions on gut reactions, or on the same tactics and belief systems their own parents used.  Sometimes this type of instinctual parenting may serve both the child and the parent well; however, some parents naturally have better instincts than others and some may have had a harsher upbringing than they’d like to give to their own children.

Read more on From a Mothers Perspective A “Good Parenting” Handbook…