Category: Parents

Child looking away

Pediatric Therapy in Mesa and Gilbert, Arizona

Is it possible for a baby to be depressed? Many parents wonder if it is really possible for a baby to be depressed or to have anxiety, after all, he is just a baby.  The truth is baby’s can become depressed and they can develop anxiety. Many things play a part in a child developing anxiety or depression.  Part of it may be genetic, part of it may be due to medical or physical problems.  A part of it may

The Claw

Letting kids fail in the short term can be hard for parents but great for kids

There we were, at WalMart on a Saturday afternoon.  Eliza and her brother Ezra each had two weeks of allowance and they were trying to stretch it as far as possible (which isn’t easy since they only had four dollars each).  I was working on my skill of patience as each of them pointed out the things that they wanted only to find out that the item cost more than they had. At one point I tried to explain the

Child grabbing parent's hand

How to Stop Your Kids From Interrupting

“Mom…Mom…Mom…Mom…” Do you ever hear this coming from your kids while you are in the middle of a conversation with someone else?  Have you ever responded by turning and yelling, “WHAT!” and then felt just a little embarrassed (or maybe not) for yourself or for your kids’ rude behavior? Would you like a simple technique that will make you look the kind of parent who has it all put together?  The technique is called squeeze my fingers and it can

water barrel

Let’s Play Hide and Seek the Stuff I Clean Up

Many parents complain about how their children leave stuff all over the house.  Parents either feel like unpaid servants or like broken records constantly nagging their kids to clean up after themselves.  Some parents say that it takes less energy to clean up after their children then to get their children to clean up after themselves.  Other parents complain that their children don’t move to clean up until they start yelling – and they hate the fact that they yell.

My 4-year-Old’s Addiction: When TV Becomes a Problem for Young Kids.

It’s 6:30am Friday morning.  My 4-year-old son comes wandering into my room and asks, “Dad, what day is it?”  I respond by saying, “It’s Friday.” “It’s Friday!” he exclaims with a burst of energy.  Then he asks, “Can I watch a woovie (movie)?” Because of the research indicating the negative effects that TV watching can have on the developing brain of young children, my wife and I have tried to limit the time spent viewing movies and television in our

Mother getting angry at daughter

How parents can destroy the effectiveness of consequences?

Why is it that two set of parents can apply the same consequence but yet get very different results?  Is it because the child that learns from the consequence is good-natured while the other child who becomes resentful is just a bad egg?  Does it all depend on the temperament of the child or does the way the parents apply the consequences have any influence over their effectiveness? I am reminded of mother whose first reaction when her child did

Older and Younger Brothers

Teachable moments

A common hope as parents is that our kids will do well in high school, go to college, and get an education so that they can compete in the world in which they live. Although this hope is logical, sometimes we are not as logical when it comes to passing this hope on to our kids. Love and logic teaches that one of the most powerful teaching techniques for parents to use is modeling. We model the behaviors that we

Kids smoking

When Kids Make “Bad” Friends

One of the major worries parents have as their kids get older is whether or not their kids will make good friends.  From their own experience, parents recognize that friends can have such a powerful influence over their kids – for good or for bad.  Because of that influence, some parents enter into the trap of trying to control who their kids can have as friends.  Once parents enter into a control battle over who they will allow their kids