Sunday, 27 January 2008

My kids are driving me crazy!

My kids are driving me crazy!

My kids are driving me crazy! It's a refrain that's being heard around the country. And when you conduct parent workshops, the same issues that produce that refrain come up over and over for parents. No matter where you go, parents are talking about the same problems with their kids. And the sad truth about these problems is that parents are usually a big part of the problem.


Here are three issues that keep coming up for parents, and an explanation of how parents can often solve their own problems.



Problem #1: My kids don't listen to me


To expect that kids will listen to you perfectly all the time is an irrational thought. Kids don't listen and attend to things in the same way that adults do. They can be intensely focused on the activity they're involved with. Kids will often need you to repeat things a number of times in a patient, pleasant tone. And yes, your job is to be very patient with them. ... read more >>



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Thursday, 18 October 2007

Forget the rat race - bring on the kid race - Rmail

The other day a friend who works in a nursery told me about a conversation she had with a father of one of the children in her group. He mentioned that he was worried about his latest addition to the family (6 month old baby
girl) who was "falling behind" in her development because she wasn't as interactive as other babies in the ante-natal group.

To me this is all wrong - how can a 6-month old baby be behind for lack of interactivity. Obviously I wasn't part of the conversation so I'll give this particular father the benefit of a doubt - perhaps he was just curious to hear my friend's opinion. However I am quite concerned about the level of benchmarking that I am experiencing as a new father (and it's only been 5 months). Depending on who you talk to (midwives, GP, nurses, family, other ... read more >>

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Tuesday, 16 October 2007

The first few weeks with your new baby – Tips for Fathers - Rmail

By: Nathalie Thomas-Zenden, director of Pepsicles â€" Your Postnatal Home Help

During the pregnancy there is a lot of focus on the upcoming “birth experience�. However, it is equally vital to make plans for support of mum and baby for the first weeks at home.

So what’s happening in those first weeks?
Mum has just gone through the equivalent of running a marathon. After the birth, chances are she won’t get much sleep, she will be sore, her hormones will be racing, she will be bleeding continuously for a while. Her milk will come in, which can cause further discomfort and she may be struggling with breastfeeding at first. If she ended up having a ceasarian she will also be recovering from a major operation at the same time.

Mum deserves and needs rest to recover! ... read more >>

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Family Travels - Rmail

PREAMBLE

Not too long ago our family spent 60 days travelling around the world, mostly in Europe, with 3-night stop-overs in Hong Kong (on the way) and Singapore (on our way home). From my own observation on this and previous overseas holidays it seems that very few people travel with children for this long, and those who do rarely have 3 of them along for the ride (though my daughters perhaps qualify as young adults, the eldest at least - they are 13 and 15). ... read more >>

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Monday, 15 October 2007

Sleeping like a baby *UPDATE* - Rmail

One week on and things have changed - thanks to all the great suggestions! Noah still wakes up every 2h but we've now got a nanny that has to get up at nigth ... JUST KIDDING. We've figured out that he isn't always hungry when he wakes up - usually it's the teeth but often it's also just a bad dream or some other disturbance.

So here is the routine that has worked a treat to make him go without feeds for longer:

1) Proper feed (with some baby rice) between 7pm and 8pm
2) Bath between 8pm - 9pm
3) 5 min breastfeeding top up then straight to bed
4) He wakes up, I go to his room, don't say anything and just gently rub his tummy. In most cases that puts him straight back to sleep within 10 minutes (of which he cries 5)
5) Next time he wakes up (usually between 2pm and 3pm) he gets a proper feed ... read more >>

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Wednesday, 10 October 2007

Sleeping like a baby ... YEAH RIGHT - Rmail

Whoever coined the phrase "he/she sleeps like a baby" should be made to work in a maternity ward at night. Obvioulsy the have clearly never been near a baby. We are in month 5 now of parenthood and our little man Noah still wakes up every 2.5h. This is getting quite tough now after such a long time of sleep deprivation - especially for Raquel who does all the breast feeding at night.

We've tried quite a few things like:

* letting him cry for a while (which he does for about 60 minutes, then falls asleep with sheer exhaustion and presumably with a sore tummy and throat - just to wake up an hour later even more unsettled than before)

* doing extended evening feeds combined with relaxing baths (no impact whatsoever) ... read more >>

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Monday, 8 October 2007

Playground Safety Hazards - Rmail

Dads - watch out for these slides ...

-Stef

Link - Comments - community - Mon, 08 Oct 2007 15:16:00 GMT - Feed (1 subs)

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