3 Family-Tested Secrets to Not Getting Sick

I really hate the concept of “flu season” — it sets us up to be ready to get sick, right?! But I also have a healthy respect (“healthy” — see what I did there??) for statistics, and it is true that lots more folks get lots more colds and flu during the winter months. Here are three tried and true secrets for not getting sick — tips that staved off many bouts of illness in our family  over many years. (My kids are now 22 and 26 and continue to use these with great results.)

I have been sharing these tips for not getting sick with friends for years, and finally decided it’s my moral duty to put them out there to the wider world! {I invite you to read the rest at mothering.com}

 

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Developmental Milestones to Marvel At

One helpful aspect of parent awareness throughout your child’s life is to know when developmental milestones typically occur, while also respecting the individuality of his or her unique timetable. I was reminded by last week’s Wall Street Journal article about waving bye-bye, of just how delightful “milestone spotting” can be over the course of a child’s unfolding! (The article points out that a baby typically acquires the bye-bye wave between 10-12 months, and that premature infants have a delayed and different bye-bye wave.)

Here are a few other enchanting developmental milestones to keep your eyes peeled for:

  • Toward the end of the forty-day cocoon period, at around six weeks, attuned parents will notice a change in their baby: Like Noah after the forty days, she is “ready to open a window on the world.” She’s becoming more alert, more aware and responsive to the surrounding environment. Her journey toward relatedness is beginning. She is now ready to enter more into family life, needing somewhat less protection from the ordinary household noises, sounds of active older children, visitors, etc. Occasional gentle radio music is now acceptable. But television is still best avoided; the high quality of the sense impressions coming to the baby are fundamental to her newly wiring brain circuitry, making this one of the sensitive windows neuroscientists talk about. {Read more at mothering.com}

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Holidays with The New Baby, or, Keeping the THANKS in Thanksgiving

For anyone who becomes a mother within nine months of a major holiday season (and, taking into account all of the holidays within every faith and cultural tradition, that means almost everybody!) I have a radical idea for you: Simplify your idea of how the holidays will look this year. Better yet, let yourself let someone ELSE handle everything. That way, your holidays with a new baby can be marked by joy, connection and peace — just as they’re meant to be!

This doesn’t mean that I don’t think you are up to the task of balancing the needs of your infant with brining the tenderest turkey, setting an exquisite table and hostessing with the mostest-ing. Far from it — many new moms I meet are awesomely equipped to perform impressive feats of multi-tasking magic while bouncing baby on their hips. {Read more about this at mothering.com}

 

Image:
Nguyen Ngoc Tu on Unsplash

 

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Time Out from Time Out

The Trouble with Time-OutSo there you are one afternoon, at the end of your rope with an out-of-control three-year-old. You know you won’t spank him, and you have become mindful of avoiding shame-based measures, so what’s left? Is “Time Out” the answer?

At risk of adding stress to already stressed-out parents, my answer is no. Time-outs were conceived as a more humane alternative to spanking, but the problem is, they land a blow to the brain and psyche rather than to the bottom.

{Read the rest of this post at mothering.com}

Image:
timatymusic through Creative Commons license

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Boo! Are Fairy Tales Too Scary for Kids?

RidingHoodColor“But they’re so awful!”

This is a response I often hear from parents when I recommend Grimm’s fairy tales as basic reading fare.  The idea of regaling their young children with stories of orphans and witches, kidnappings and murders—at bedtime no less—is daunting, understandably.

As parents we tend to want to present something of a Hallmark world to our children, so we naturally gravitate to soothing, sunny, children’s books, including sanitized versions of fairy tales classics.  Wishing to shield them from the darker aspects of humanity, such as anger, greed, anguish, and cruelty, we wean our children on the proposition that people are all good.  The problem is that even the youngest child knows differently in her heart of hearts. {Read more of this post at mothering.com}

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Blessing Pregnancy

KristinBlessingway_optIt was my pleasure and honor to participate in a Blessingway ceremony for Kristin, a member of my mountain community whose baby is due this fall. As I watched her sitting in her chair of honor…like a goddess on her throne…and we showered her with our womanly care in various ways — massage, braiding & adorning her hair, laying hands on her belly — I thought about the biochemical messages her baby was receiving during those lovely hours: I am loved… I am celebrated… the world is a safe, nurturing and caring place.

I was reminded of Michel Odent’s phrase, “the function of JOY in pregnancy.” It has a blessed function and a scientifically supported one: to build the baby’s brain in a way to be prepared to thrive and succeed! To read more about pregnancy as “Nature’s Head Start Program,” check out my article on mothering.com.

 

 

Photo by Mary Ann Halpin

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Got “Difficult” Kids? Zip Your Lip w/ me in L.A. TOMORROW!

If your sweet little one has become controlling…bossy…whiny…it may be that you’re doing too much negotiation, collaboration & explanation. If you’re in the L.A. area I hope you’ll join me as we dive into this powerful “Zip Your Lip” tool that can bring SO much more confidence and peace to your parenting!

And if it’s not geographically possible for you to be with us, you can read more about this unexpected connection between too much talking and too little peace here at mothering.com.

GoodLifeZipLipTalkClick on invite above to link to Evite. [Be patient–it’s a slow-loading page!]

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Like Geese, I’m Headed South — to Asheville

I’m off to Asheville, North Carolina to teach an all-day class in how to foster the healthiest brain development in children. Because this is a training for professionals working with young children and/or parents of young ones, I had to give it an appropriately scholarly title — “Towards a Neurobiology of Thriving: A Parenting for Peace Toolkit for Building Healthy Young Brains.”

The cool thing is, even though it is an opportunity for professionals to earn their CEUs (Continuing Education Units), the organizers are making a low-price registration available for any interested parents who don’t need the credits, just the info!

MAHEC Workshop

Sound good? No worries!

Can’t make it to Asheville? We here at P4P headquarters are whipping up some great ways for you to get much of these same great tools and resources…so keep your eyes peeled: this is going to be a bountiful fall season for Parenting for Peace folks!

Toodles for now…

Marcy

 

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3 Rules for Bedtime Reading

New research reveals that fewer and fewer parents share bedtime reading with their children. More than one-third of parents in one study don’t do any bedtime reading with their kids. Whether it’s due to time-crunch, life stress or (as reported by almost half the study’s parents) that their children prefer television, toys or computer games, dropping bedtime reading creates a loss with potential lifelong repercussions. My rules simplify things to help nurture and protect your bedtime reading routine.

I’ll keep this brief, because frankly, I think one of the culprits in this erosion of bedtime reading is the sheer overload of information and choices parents are faced with. How many books, which books, how to choose, when to squeeze it in…ayyyeeeeee!!!

My 3 rules are different from the standard, same-old-same-old you can find in dizzying quantities on the internet, such as the importance of not just reading but also interacting with your child about the meaning of the story, for example. (In fact, that guidance inspires my Rule #3, because there is a pitfall in that recommendation!) Also, the word “rules” is a bit strict sounding. In a distinction made funny & famous in the movie Pirates of the Caribbean, they’re not so much rules as guidelines — to leverage the most possible raising-a-peacemaker bang for your reading buck. {Read the rest at mothering.com}

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Have a Drink!

waterIt will make everything better, I promise. No, I’m not suggesting you have a swig of Mother’s Little Liquid Helper**, I’m inviting you to have a refreshing glass of water. This may be the shortest blog post I’ve ever written, because this is pretty straightforward and uncomplicated: drink more water and get your kids hooked on water! If you already do this, you don’t need to read further. For the other 99% of you, please fill ‘er up and read on. Frankly, I’m a tad annoyed that the First Lady is getting all the press (and some backlash–read on) for something I’ve been yapping about for decades: most of us don’t drink enough water, and we would feel MUCH better if would drink more water.

[** Not gonna lie — there were many afternoons during my mothering-young-children days when I fantasized about having an actual drink…and sometimes I actually even had a drink. Never in an unsafe way — if there was any driving or heavy machinery operating in the near future… but there it is. I guess I’m in a confessional mood. My go-to cocktail? Prune juice with a splash of vodka, because they’d never ask for a sip of my prune juice!!] I digress. {You can read the rest of this refreshing post at mothering.com!}

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