I’ve been meaning to write this post for a while. Recently a good friend of mine, who is also a BlackBerry user, told me about a new game that had been released. Read the rest of this entry
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Hey, I'm Chris Thompson.I help stressed-out parents deal with toddlers.
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This past weekend, my wife and I were cleaning up the home office, where we have a couple of big bookshelves. She pulled down “What to Expect When You’re Expecting”, which we had purchased before the birth of our first child. We sat there for a minute and just thought back to the good times and the excitement of expecting our first daughter.
Anyway, I wanted to recommend this book to any expecting Moms and Dads out there. It’s a great book. The author also has a website: Read the rest of this entry
I want to tell you a story about one recent Sunday morning and how I used language to influence my kids. I hope this story shows you how easy it can be to leverage communication skills. Read the rest of this entry
My kids love pizza. My kids love pizza so much, they have been asking me to make it at least once a week for dinner. They have even been asking to eat pizza for lunch.
I’m sure most parents can relate that once kids eat something they enjoy, they tend to want to eat it at every meal. Well – my kids at least. Needless to say, I am tired of pizza.
The other day my kids were complaining about their lunch. They didn’t want to eat it because it was boring. It got me thinking about – pizza.
Read the rest of this entry
I just got back from vacation with my wife and kids. We were in Cuba, which is an absolutely beautiful island with amazing beaches. I know a lot of my US readers have never experienced it because of the trade embargo and travel restrictions placed upon US citizens … but for everyone else, I highly recommend Cuba.
We stayed at the Iberostar Varadero, which our travel agent recommended to us as one of the best hotels to stay at. He was right. We had been to Varadero 8 years earlier, without kids, and we picked a pretty crappy and cheap hotel. This time around it was way better.
Over the years, traveling with kids, we have learned a few important tips that I thought I’d share in this blog post. Most of these relate to visiting all-inclusive resorts in the Caribbean, since that’s what we usually do in the winter. Here goes: Read the rest of this entry
Tonight, just after dinner, we were all upstairs in the master bedroom and the kids had our TV on for some quiet time. Except they weren’t quiet yet. They were a bit excited, and making plenty of noise.
I hardly ever mind the noise, except that my wife and I were trying to have a conversation. She was washing her face in the bathroom and I was only 6 feet away with the kids, beside the bed. My wife was trying to say something, but it was literally impossible to hear her.
I asked the kids, politely, to “listen to Mommy”, but it didn’t work. Pretty normal so far, right? Yes. But this is where my style starts to divert from the “normal” way of dealing with kids. Read the rest of this entry
As some of you know from my past blog entries and emails, I’m a bit of a health & fitness nut.
Well, it’s January 6th today. I’m willing to bet that a lot of you made some sort of New Year’s resolution to improve your physical fitness, lose weight, or something along those lines. I’m also willing to bet that some of you have already fallen off the wagon.
I’d like to offer you some motivation to stay on track, set a good example for your kids, and improve your overall health.
I want to tell you about a guy I know named Mike Geary. He’s a Certified Nutrition Specialist and Certified Personal Trainer. I’ve been reading his stuff for a while, and I think he’s worth listening to.
He’s also the author of a great book called “The Truth About Six Pack Abs”. I buy a lot of ’stuff’ and I have a copy of his book (it’s a digital product just like my parenting course).
Here’s a link to his book, but don’t click on it just yet. There’s more that you need to know.
Ok, so what’s the point of this post? And how can you get a copy of Talking to Toddlers for free? Here’s the answer: I’m going to give you a free copy of my course if you give Mike’s fitness book a fair shot. “Fair shot” is really an honesty policy thing.
You see, he sells his product on the ClickBank marketplace (for digital products), just like me, so his return policy is the same as mine. That means if you think it’s crap, you can get a refund within 60 days. Now, I know it’s *not* crap or I wouldn’t ever mention it to you. You see, if it was crap, you’d buy his book, you’d get my parenting course for free, and then you’d ask for a refund on his book (and I’d get zip). Why would I do that? Of course – I wouldn’t.
To get a copy of my course for free all you have to do is use my link to buy Mike’s fitness book. Yes, in case you are wondering, I get a commission, which is why I’m able to give you my course for free as a bonus. I feel it’s right to disclose that to you. But I’m basically giving you an ethical bribe. If you take me up on the offer, you get my course for free, and you have a risk-free return policy on his book.
You must use this link right here to order. You must also verify that the following shows up at the bottom of the Clickbank order form:
[affiliate = t2toddlers]
If you make sure to do this, I’ll get credit for your purchase and you can then email me your clickbank receipt number(my email address is info AT talkingtotoddlers.com) and I’ll send you a free copy of Talking to Toddlers.
This offer is only valid until Sunday, January 10th.
I’m a big believer of the rule of committment. If you commit to something publicly, you’re more likely to succeed at your goal.
So here’s what I want you to do. Go to the comments section on this blog posting and write down your fitness goals! Tell us how you want to be a role model for your kids! Do it and achieve it!
All the best to everyone,
Chris
If you’ve got kids in your house then you probably feel like you are always cleaning. I know that my wife and I feel this way!
This morning I was cleaning the kitchen. I’ve lately become more critical of all the junk that people buy, which creates waste. With cleaning supplies, I really prefer to keep it simple and not buy products that are built for one purpose. I prefer vinegar to clean surfaces, floors, etc. I like to use baking soda to scrub sinks, and stuff like that.
But we still have disposable stuff like those oh-so-popular disinfectant wipes. With so many people worried about Swine Flu and other germs, I bet we’re in good company. My wife loves to buy these things to clean counter tops, etc. Then they get thrown away. I’ve included a picture here of the brand we buy from Costco.
After we finish using the wipe to disinfect a surface, I have started to re-use them for the nasty, dirty jobs around the house..
Today, for example, I grabbed the “used” wipe after my wife was finished cleaning the counter. It was still in perfect shape so I rinsed it and got to work.
Here’s what I cleaned using ONE single wipe (and plenty of rinsing). And here’s a picture of the wipe AFTER having done all that work. Notice it held up to a lot of punishment!
If you buy disinfectant wipes, please don’t throw them away after a 5-second counter wipe-down. Rinse it off and find some other nasty cleaning job you can use it for THEN throw it away. You’d never want to use a dish cloth to clean dust and grime, and it is a hassle to keep a separate wash cloth just for the nasty stuff … so using disinfectant wipes is the perfect alternative.
Admit it. Sometimes you are worse than your toddler. When parenting toddlers, I think it’s safe to say that we’ve all, at some point, turned into an adult-sized child. We throw our own tantrums, we nag our kids worse than they nag us, and we act and react based on emotion, no matter how silly it seems later.
Nagging your kids is not the same as raising your voice. I define it as asking your child to do something in a whiny voice. I’m guilty of this too, but if I catch myself doing it I’m able to replace that nasty habit with communication tools that are a lot more effective. I think that most parents are either not aware they are nagging, or they just don’t know what else to do. I want to change that.
In this article, I simply want to point out the behavior so that you are more aware of it when you do it. Then, you can stop what you are doing and implement some better alternatives. There is always a better way.
Parents tend to nag their kids when they are doing something that is not allowed or not desired. “Katie, stop pulling on the dog’s tail … come on Katie … how many times do I have to tell you to leave the dog alone? Katie, the dog doesn’t like it when you do that … do you want him to bite you?” We both know this almost never works.
Parents also nag their kids when they are not doing something that the parent wants them to do. “Robbie, come to the table and eat your lunch. Come on, Robbie … Mommy made you a yummy sandwich and I want you to come sit down right now. Robbie … you can play with your toys after lunch. Come sit down for lunch”.
Between those two examples I’m sure you get the drift. The pattern is almost always the same. You, as a parent, are focused on what you want your child to do, or perhaps to stop doing. You ask once, and nothing happens. Your child ignores you. You ask again, but this time with stronger reasons, hoping your child will suddenly become rational. Rinse and repeat.
When you want to get your child to change his or her course of action, it doesn’t matter how many times you ask. If your child ignored you the first time then he won’t listen the second or third time. Somewhere inside, you know this is true, and you adapt by changing your tone of voice until you are either yelling or nagging. Neither is very effective, both cause you added stress and perhaps worse, they teach your child the same lousy communication strategies. Kids learn from mom and dad, after all.
So what can you do instead? When you catch yourself nagging, just stop for a moment. Reflect on what you are trying to accomplish. Are you expecting a small child to be a rational thinker? It isn’t going to happen. What else can you say to get the message across, or to distract your child from whatever he is doing? A great starting point is to enter your child’s world by incorporating things that will interest your child into the conversation. You could also use what I call “the illusion of choice” so that whatever choice your child takes is in alignment with what you want.
If you’ve purchased a copy of my audio course, “Talking to Toddlers”, then take what you’ve learned and apply it to these types of problems. I believe that parents run into resistance because they stick to a direct “do this” mentality of ordering their kids around. They expect their kids to understand logic and reason. Parenting toddlers is a lot more fun and less stressful when you can use softer, indirect methods to get your kids to do what you want.
The most important thing to take away from this article is the realization that we all nag our kids more than we should. It’s not particularly effective, and if you can stop yourself before you get too deep into it, you’ll easily be able to make use of any number of parenting tricks. Remember. Nothing works when you lose your cool.
If you haven’t already done so, go and get my free audio lesson where I’ll teach you 3 simple language strategies that you can start using right away. Click here to get the free lesson. Or simply look for the sign-up form at the top of this page.
I came across a nice recipe on the “Attachment Mamma” blog. Here’s the description she gives:
A little slice of YUM and something easy and fun to do with toddlers on Christmas: making old-fashioned Christmas sugar cookies. This recipe has been passed down from my late Grandma, Betty Bay to my mom to me.
The cookies she shows in the blog post look like little Santas. Very cool! It’s last minute for 2009, but if you are looking for something fun to do with your toddler, this is a great idea. Keep in mind these are pure sugar/butter/flour so you don’t want to be consuming bus loads of these things … but it is the holidays. Indulge a bit.
Here’s a link to the original post.
Have a wonderful Christmas everyone!