Parenting & Raising Kids

Have you thought about having your children learn how to play the piano?
Most of us remember playing one instrument or another as a child. Of course, if the ideas was our own or if we liked the instrument we were playing, that would be one thing, but if the parents were forcing […]

What is it with kids and their attitudes these days? Somehow, at some point in our history, we’ve decided to put up with kids having horrible attitudes. Even worse, we’ve allowed them to manifest those attitudes in behaviors.
You may remember your own parents “threatening to wipe that smirk off your face.” What […]

How do you define an out of control child? One who refuses to listen to her parents? Another who throws temper tantrums when a parent attempts to punish him?
To paraphrase a famous saying, “You might not be able to define an out of control kid, but you’ll know one when you see one.” […]

How many parents have threatened that if their kids don’t behave properly, they will send them off to military school?
With the access that kids have to information these days via the Internet, they can find out if military schools do indeed exist and what they are like. In fact, a little research shows that […]

When trying to figure out how to stop kids from lying, parents should first examine the reasons why the behavior is occurring in the first place. Kids and teens lie for a variety of reasons.
1. Kids lie to avoid punishment and getting in trouble for something they’ve done. It is much easier […]

I brought up the issue of kids having their own cell phones in an earlier post. Let’s assume for this post that they do indeed have them.
Should parents program the phones to only access certain numbers? Should parents regularly check the phone (sometimes with the kids full knowledge and sometimes without) to see […]

You may also see Oppositional Defiant Disorder listed as O.D.D., Oppositional Defiance Disorder, or ODD. However it is listed, if you are a parent with a child who has been misbehaving severely, and you are looking for solutions on your own or even in cooperation with school counselors and your pediatrician, you will probably […]

I must be on a roll today with these “when should you let your kids get” posts. What about kids first cell phones? This should closely be followed by the thought do kids ever need their own cell phones?
I don’t think they need them until they are driving. Of course […]