If you want to be good at something, it’s best to get a coach. The best sportspeople, businesspeople, and musicians in the world usually have coaches, teachers, or guides. They know that to be the best they can be, they need someone to help analyse what they’re doing, find space for improvement, and guide them …
Have you noticed that our typical discipline strategies – the ones where we use our power to punish our kids – tend to leave us feeling lousy about ourselves? Plus, they leave our kids feeling rotten, AND they rarely work well anyway. That’s partly because most discipline is about doing things to our children. Research shows …
My kids and I were watching a Disney movie recently. In the movie a dad, who was coaching his child’s sport team, yelled at his son. After the coaching session the boy asked his Dad, “Why did you yell at me but you didn’t yell at all the other kids?” His Dad yelled back in …
The way we parent has a profound impact on the outcomes our children experience. There are four main parenting styles. Which one sounds like you: Authoritarian parents are down the line strict. They’re less concerned about their children’s feelings, and more concerned about following the rules. Permissive parents are relaxed about rules – if they …
Helicopter parents are well-meaning parents who hover over their kids. If something happens, heaven forbid, such as falling over, fighting over a toy, or getting a bad grade, helicopter parents swoop in and do everything they can to make things better. Sometimes being a helicopter parent is a good thing – in crowds, near water, …
Want to know the easiest way to give your kids a confidence boost? It’s the most sure-fire simple way to increase your child’s positivity and resilience.
How do you react when your child is experiencing big emotions, or having some kind of an outburst, meltdown, or emotional moment? Do you dismiss the emotions and say “You’ll be ok.” Do you disapprove of the emotions and say “Stop being so silly.” Do you ignore the emotion and hope it will go away? …
Self control is the ability to say “no” when you want to say “yes“! In 1972 Walter Mischel conducted one of the classic psychology experiments of all time. Children were shown into a laboratory and given a plate with a marshmallow on it. They were told they could eat it now, or if they waited …
Have you heard of snow plough parents? They’re the ones who push all the obstacles out of the way of their children. Isn’t that a good thing? We don’t want our children to endure unnecessary hardship. We want the best for our kids – and we want to help them get it. I once heard …
The words we use– and the way we use those words – can have an enormous impact on our children’s happiness and confidence.
For confident kids, here are 5 things we should say as often as possible: