The Reality Of Parenting With Depression
A Missouri mom has seen immense support online after she opened up about her battle with anxiety and depression and how it’s affected her as a mother.
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A Missouri mom has seen immense support online after she opened up about her battle with anxiety and depression and how it’s affected her as a mother.
"I got to sit down to dinner and hear all the stories from the day with the kids. I got to give them a bath and hear their squeals and giggles. I got to snuggle and love on them for 3 hours more than he did. He is the one sacrificing, not me.”
Parents are their children’s first teachers and therefore have incredibly important roles in their development. Whether you’re a stay at home parent or work many hours outside the home, the interactions you have with your children are vital as their first and primary teacher. So often, however, many focus on the role a mother has in their child’s development.
We all know how difficult it is to be consistent with parenting. The area of discipline is even fraught with a lot of hand-wringing, usually out of guilt on our part. We've lost count at how often we've given the kids a pass from an infraction that would have meant automatic suspension of iPad privileges if it happened on a day when we're not distracted (read: bone tired).
Parenting, in a nutshell, is giving your children the tools to succeed in life. Here are ten parenting tips that I have tried to teach our children and have used in my medical practice during the past 40 years.
Teaching Children It’s OK to Fail
Here are tips by Randy Dean, the author of bestselling book at Amazon, for making sure the robots work for you and not the other way around:
A few weeks ago, my 5-year-old stubbed his toe for the billionth time, then began to cry inconsolably. While he bawled for a full half-hour—not exaggerating—I alternated between reassuring him, second-guessing whether I was over-reassuring him, and wondering whether he actually broke his toe.
This minimal dollhouse is a great way for kids to learn about sustainability and how to recycle everyday materials into a fun and creative toy. As you make this project with your kids, it’s the perfect opportunity to discuss how self-sufficient homes operate relying on the sun, wind, earth, and water.
She knows that each family and each child are beautiful and special in their own way — but sometimes, people can’t see how special a child really is if that child happens to be born with a disability,
Recently, Fatherly.com, and online info source for all things dad, released a list of what it believes to be the modern leaders in providing things that small children and their parents want, need and can benefit from. “We’re focused on highlighting and celebrating those companies, big and small, which are adapting to the needs of millennial parents,” says Fatherly cofounder Simon Isaacs.
Logic: Temporary boredom enhances the child's creativity and let them explore the world around them. If children wouldn't be given a planned routine even for just a day in a week, they would be able to come up with something that triggers their cognitive and analytical skills.
It's October! The air is crisp, the trees are starting to turn, and there's candy everywhere! Yay!
Head people placed a greater importance on autonomy, and heart people valued belonging to social groups. Not to over-simplify, but apparently the world is made up of two types of people, and you’re only going to want to hang out with one of them.
Bose is releasing a step-by-step build kit that breaks down the science of sound and is designed to empower kids through discovery and education.
Your kid is part of a whole generation that can swipe right before they can write. And because of that fact, you’ve become a little paranoid with how they interact with technology. It’s one thing to curb screentime, cut off the Wi-Fi, or investigate the feasibility of becoming Amish. But instead of taking their tech away (or just running away), why not just teach them how to use all of it responsibly and for their benefit?
Being a mother in Singapore isn't easy, so it's no wonder that recent surveys have revealed how woefully unprepared Singaporean mothers are for retirement. A 2015 survey showed that 75 per cent of the mothers surveyed had not even thought about retirement, let alone started planning for it.
This Adventure in Learning activity is for when the adventure gets to be too much. It’s an exercise for slowing down and tuning into our own bodies and awareness. Today, we’re going to learn about Diaphragmatic breathing, also known as belly breathing. It’s a great calming breathing exercise for kids.
One question we’ve always struggled with is what time we should get our little ones to bed. Go to bed too early, and they goof off, get hyper and never get to sleep. Go to bed too late, and we’ve got grumpy tired kids who can barely make it through the day...
Make sure to know what to look out for when it comes to spotting a good nanny from a bad nanny. They're the ones taking care of your child after all!
Here is a free printable watermelon themed math game that will get kids counting and learning their numbers - perfect for any day!
Good work-life balance - what does it really look like?
Its contours are vague, definitions different.
"What constitutes a healthy work-life balance will vary substantially between individuals and families. Some people may be able to tolerate more demanding working conditions than others," says Dr Jonathan Ramsay, a lecturer at the Human Resource Management Programme at SIM University.
He offers a working definition.
"For most parents with office jobs - especially those with young children - a work-life balance would involve being able to spend the majority of their evenings and weekends with their children," he says.
It’s hard for parents to understand how a toddler can go from eating everything to barely touching his or her meals. It’s even more difficult for them to understand why kids are so reluctant to try new foods. And without a big picture understanding of why kids eat the way they do, parents are left frustrated and are more likely to make feeding mistakes.
"Having a family bed just became such a natural part of who we were as a family. Laying together, telling stories, giving out kisses, having little arms wrapped so tightly around our necks. It always felt perfect." until..
Here are some dangers involved in hair pins on babies -- choking, stragulation, allergic reaction, hear loss, etc. It may sound terrifying, but this does not mean you need to take away all the lovely pins from your child. Just be aware where the potential (no matter how unlikely it is) dangers can arise so that you don't get caught off guard if anything happens.
A watermelon can only be as good as the one you choose from the market. You may think that choosing a great watermelon is up to chance, but there are actually several ways to spot the perfect watermelon.
But despite all of my husband’s wonderful qualities, I have to admit that it’s always made me slightly uncomfortable when anyone has told me how “lucky” I am to have the type of husband that I do — the kind that thinks of nothing of getting up with our kids at night, the kind that happily makes dinner, the kind that I would never doubt could handle all four of our offspring on his own if I happened to have an overnight business trip. (Hey, a girl can dream, right?)
Here are my nine lessons about behavior management for preschool. I wish I had known all of these before ever stepping foot in a preschool classroom but instead learned many through experience.
Parenting has changed a lot since we were kids. For instance, parents and teachers are now very careful about meting out punishment and criticizing children. On the other hand, there appears to be a shift towards fostering the child’s independence and self-esteem. Moreover, the traditional family model has changed – from a stay-at-home mom (and dad as breadwinner) to dual-income families; in some countries, even single-parent or same-sex parents’ families are acceptable. Technology has also changed the activities that a child engages in, as well as familial interactions.
There’s nothing better than a spotless house. But, to tell the truth, for many of us cleaning our house is not on our list of our favorite ways to spend time. Today, we would like to share some ingenious tricks to help you make your living area sparkling clean. You’ll be amazed at how many household items double as cleaning products and home improvement tools.
Ask any parent about ear infections, and you will most likely hear one horror story after another. Ear infection, or Otitis Media, is the most common reason for visits to the paediatrician’s office. It is estimated that over 30 million visits are made every year in an attempt to deal with this problem.
The interior ministry of Saudi Arabia has released a list of 50 such names, including ones that are affiliated with notions of royalty. Saudi Arabia certainly isn't the only country to ban "given" names, and plenty of other countries around the world limit the names parents can give to their children for any number of reasons.
Finding Dory is set to be a huge draw because it works by cleverly and subtly tapping into our love of nostalgia. It is a movie about a forgetful blue fish desperate to find her long-lost parents...
Understanding what they are feeling is crucial for children to grow healthy. Here is the card game that will make your child talk about their experiences of a range of emotions, their body’s physical reactions to emotions and strategies for overcoming overwhelming emotions. It’s a great resource for home and school, and it’s available as a free printable.
All experienced cooks do absolutely great in the kitchen with the help of some simple tricks. These tricks will make you a real home chef while making food storage and cleaning much easier.
It's not what you try once, or what attitudes you hold. It's what you actually do, every single day.
KIDS ARE MASTER manipulators. They play up their charms, pit adults against one another, and engage in loud, public wailing. So it’s your job to keep up with them, Carnegie Mellon’s Kevin Zollman says. His new book, The Game Theorist’s Guide to Parenting—written with journalist Paul Raeburn—explains how.
Here are eight vital life skills that children aren’t taught in school:
1. Independence: Teaching children, a little at a time, to be independent, can show them that they can make decisions on their own. Letting them make their own mistakes can teach them valuable lessons they’ll carry with them.
2. Compassion: Compassion is needed to work well with others, to care for other people and to find happiness through making other people happy.
3. Individuality: They need to be taught that we come in all sizes, shapes and colors, and it is perfectly OK to be unique.
4. Welcoming Change: Teaching children that change isn’t something to be afraid of – just something to prepare for – can help them in so many aspects throughout their life.
5. Happiness: Many parents coddle their children in an attempt to keep them happy and safe, but it can make children rely on their parents for their happiness. Teaching a child from an early age that they can be happy on their own, by things like playing, reading and imagining, is a valuable life lesson.
6. Finding Passion: Many people struggle with finding their passion. Helping a child find what he or she is passionate about by allowing them to try a bunch of different things can help them find a source of lifelong internal happiness and motivation. Encourage the adventure, but let children decide on their own, where they find passion.
7. Asking questions: Teaching children that asking questions is a good thing, can encourage their curiosity and help them continue to seek knowledge in different aspects of life.
8. Solving problems: Constantly solving a child’s problems for them won’t help them as they grow. They need to know that they can solve problems on their own. New skills, a new environment, a new job – they’re all just problems to be solved. Modeling problem solving and allowing children to come up with their solution ideas can help them develop confidence and let them know that whatever comes their way, they are capable of handling it.
This is a story about a sock. It was an ordinary white toddler sock that lay abandoned right in the middle of an otherwise cleared-off set of stairs. I happened to see this sock in the middle of the stairs the morning before I was leaving for a few days. Being a mom, I went to pick it up.
The June school holidays are here and, for some primary school pupils, that could mean schedules packed with academic revision, remedial lessons and tuition. But there is also value in giving children free time and space to initiate their own activities, which can complement their learning in school, say educators.
“Children feel under pressure to have this perfect life that it looks like everyone else is having according to Instagram and that’s really hard to deal with”
As parents, it’s understandable that we want only the best for our kids. Because of that, it’s easy to end up spending more money than we ought to. A way to start is to be aware of what are the items that are a total waste of money. So here they are!
For the longest time, I couldn’t figure out how to make kids listen. I tried following directions activities and listening activities for kids. Yet, there was a huge component I was always missing: helpful phrases that build connection.
We have a video baby monitor because I’m a crazy nut job who has to know if my kids are really sleeping or if they’re just laying their quietly waiting me out to see if I’ll come in and check on them. They’re crafty children. After I lay them down, I check the monitor every 5-10 minutes or so just to see what they’re up to.
Sometimes they’re talking or laughing. Sometimes they’re screaming or playing nicely in their cribs.That’s not super interesting. It’s kind of cute, but I see them laugh and play and scream all day.
Lyla Cohen, a 2-year-old from Darien, Connecticut, sleeps through the night, eats almost everything, and always wears a big smile. But there’s one thing that drives her parents nuts: Lyla wants to be naked all the time. “She fights like crazy whenever I try to put her clothes on,” says her mom, Shannon. “Then she strips down as the day goes on.”
I think I would much prefer this to smashing them with a shoe.
Forget fancy superfoods. These nutritious powerhouse will prove worthy friend for you and your family.