Bedtime!!!

It is very important that you push your children to have a routine bedtime. Having a set bedtime for your children will not only get them use to the bedtime routine, but it will also help you out as a parent!

There are many things out there you can try to get your child to hit the sack early, the most important thing to remember is just to do it! If your child is older having an earlier bedtime needs to become a more gradual process. Try moving up bedtime by just a few minutes every day.
Make sure you eventually make it routine...the worst thing to do is confuse your child by being loose about bedtime one night, and pushing it the next!
One more thing you should make a note of is weather your child seems to be happy with the amount of time they are getting. If they still wake up tired or are fussy in the morning it may be a good thing for you to move up your child's bedtime to an even earlier time.

If you need more information about getting your child to hit the hay early there are many parenting techniques out there...so read on!

Aggression

In the latest parenting issue for May they posted many techniques for helping when your child becomes aggressive. Aggression is a very natural part of growing up for any child. There are no ways you can prevent your child's aggression; but there are ways you can help.

1.) Let your child know there are other options. When he insist on pretending Batman killed Robin, tell him it would be a better idea for Batman to take Robin to jail.

2.)Make sure you set out one on one time with your child. Aggression is a sign of wanting to be noticed.

3.) Lastly the more important thing to do to help your child make the right choice when it comes to having anger and aggression is setting a good example yourself. Make a note of your actions and how you deal with aggression...its real likely that your child will want to do the same as you.

Check out the rest of these great tips on helping with aggression at parenting.com

http://www.parenting.com/parenting/child/article/0,19840,1589916,00.html

~My Favorite Links~

Welcome to my blog about parenting!

As you notice I have a couple links to other sites related to the same topic as my blog. I have read over them and just thought they were good sources for parents or other people interested in this topic so feel free to check them out!

The parenting web site is the actual parenting magazine web page. Its a great source not just for parents, but for anyone that takes interest in learning about children or spends time with them.
They are constantly updating this site and have a lot of different parenting techniques to read about.

The second blog on there kjmomma is an awesome blog that's a bit more personal and consist of a mom sharing some great personal stories. Its a good one check it out!

The Importance of Choice Making

~Studies show the importance of letting your child make choices for them selves when they are young.~ For example, it makes the child feel important when he or she is given the choice to play video games for an hour and then do their homework, or to do their homework and then play video games. Even the smallest choices you allow them to make like picking out the clothes to wear for school, or picking which book they want to read before bed, can be good choices you can give them to benefit the way they handle decision making in the future. For example a child who constantly makes choices early on in life is more likely to make healthy decisions as an adult.

Another benefit that a friend pointed out to me when trying out this technique frequently throughout her day was the amount of appreciation her children showed towards her.

"Having my children make their own choices more frequently throughout the day made them feel important. I found that everyone was happier and I didn't have to constantly feel that I was ordering them around. For instance instead of telling my youngest daughter to put her coat on I asked if she wanted to put it on or take it with her, because either way it needed to leave the house with us." -Anna R.

Decision makeing as a child may increase his/her ability to make wise choices as they get older.

Welcome!

"Parents often talk about the younger generation as if they didn't have anything to do with it." ~Haim Ginott

Parenting is a very important part of life. It effects the way we grow up and the way we raise our children. I find parenting techniques out there to be fascinating , worth trying for yourself, or inconvincibly just a load of crap! Everyone seems to have a different opinion about parenting, and how one should raise their own children. With all the interesting theory's talked about by doctors and others that have strong opinions about the subject there is always something for the discovering reader to learn or just observe. I have decided to use this blog not only to learn and observe on what information is out there for parents, but to also post the techniques and parenting views i find most interesting. So please feel free to observe with me, try some of the techniques out for yourself, laugh about them or to just hit me up with your comments!!!

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