Bonding with our babies

Great tips from the article. I strongly advocate point 5.

"
You cannot spoil a baby. In fact, the more you bond with your baby now, the more they will learn to trust you. If your child feels secure in his/her attachment to you, he/she will more likely grow up to be a more independent adult.
"

1. Spend as much time during the very early days after your child is born allowing for skin-to-skin contact.

2. Talk and sing to your baby.

3. Make eye contact with your baby.

4. Make sure you and your partner are the main people who take care of feeding your baby.

5. Respond to your baby's needs. (You cannot spoil a baby! )

From:
5 Ways to Bond With Baby by Dr. Gail Gross

All parents with daughters should teach this to her

This is a very good advice. All parents with daughters should teach this to her.

"3. If our girls are in danger then they must and should raise bloody hell. There is nothing virtuous about remaining passive."

Read more here .

Be strict. Our kids will thank us for it. Here's the proof.

By Nicole Scott,

"As a kid, I remember thinking I had the world's strictest mom. She didn't let me date until I was 16, my siblings and I weren't allowed to go on sleepovers with friends and my curfew as a senior was 10:00. At the time, I thought: I'm going to do everything differently when I'm a parent. I'll never be 'that mom. And then I had my own children. ... ...

Read more at
6 Things I Learned From Having a Strict Mom

Doing too much for our kids may do more harm than good.

There is a very fine line between caring and caring too much, and parents should be careful not to mollycoddle their children.
... ...

Education, he said, was not about chasing that additional point or grade, but learning for life.

... ...

- See more at: http://www.stcommunities.sg/education/secondary/news/%E2%80%98doing-too-much-child-could-do-harm%E2%80%99#sthash.zbmj1y2S.dpuf

Lessons from Toddler Vs Shattered Water Jug

Toddlers are curious about anything and everything.  And once in a while, these little toddlers will inevitably get on our nerves.

We prepared a jug of drinking water with some slices of lemon in it and left it on the kitchen table. The fragrant acidic taste offers a nice refreshing tint to our drinking water.

While I was in the living room, from the kitchen came a loud bang - thud - crash!

Rushing into the kitchen, I was greeted with the sight of my boy - scared stiff, with broken pieces of the water jug lying beside a pair of tiny feet in a pool of water... ...

I felt a rush of anger boiling from my gut. "WHAT HAPPENED!" I exclaimed with a heavy tone of disapproval.  My kid looked lost and worried.  Not exactly sure what has happened at all.

Before I reprimand and attempt to discipline him, I remembered a lesson that I picked up from a parenting audio program. "What is more important to me? My kid or the jug?" No question about it. It is the jug.... =D Of course..... I am kidding... My kids are most important!

My tonality shifted. It became soft and loving. "Are you okay? Anywhere pain pain?"

My kid is still in a slight shock and just murmured "Ok. No..."

I did a physical check of his feet and told him to keep still.  "As long as you are okay.  You are so important to Daddy and Mummy. It will be so painful if the jug hit your feet. Next time hands away from the kitchen table okay?"

I think the incident had been etched into his memory.  Till today, a gentle reminder is all I need when he reach out to touch thing on the kitchen table.

If you are a parent, you probably have been in or would be facing a similar situation.  It may be your favorite vase, cup, etc... that is broken. I hope that this can serve you when the situation arise and you can then ask yourself the question. "What is more important to me? My kid or this thing that is broken?"

Cheers and Happy Parenting!

Building self-esteem of kids with 50 cents

Recently, I brought my 3 year old out for a meal at a nearby eatery. After paying, I got back 50 cents in loose change, one 10 cents coin and two 20 cents coins. My toddler wanted to hold on to the coins.  Knowing that he is excitable and easily distracted, he would probably lose the coins.

At first, I resisted wanting to ensure that the coins are kept safely. Then I realised that this is a good opportunity to teach responsibility. So I let him be. True enough when I reach home. One 20 cents coin is missing. (OK... So I got what I expected - that he will lose the coins). I was all ready to go into the lecture for Responsibility 101 and wanted to explain about the need to be responsible with the things that we are entrusted with.

Just when I opened my mouth ready to deliver the "lecture", a thought hit me like a ton of bricks. There is a greater opportunity here. A golden opportunity to build my kid's self esteem.

"Where are the coins?" I asked.

He opened his hands and a look of surprise and disappointment swept across his faced. He looked at me and said one is missing apprehensively.

"Oh.... We started with three coins and now you have two left?" I asked.

"... Yes ..." He replied.

"Wow! Great effort. You manage to keep two coins safe! Next time let's try again to bring back all. Good job!"

He paused for a while. Placed the remaining two remaining coins into his crocs shoe. One in each shoe. Saying he want to keep them safe there.

So in conclusion. There is a couple of ideas here.

1. Choosing to focus on the coins that we have instead of the coin that was lost.
2. Choosing to talk to him about what he done well (in bringing back two coins) will help to lift his self esteem in the long run.

Hope this help you in lifting your child's self esteem should you find yourself in a similar situation.

Cheers and Happy Parenting.