Tag Archives: children

Boundaries For Kids – Week Two

Posted on February 9, 2015 | Leave a comment

Here’s the second in the installment of what I learned from my class.

There are 5 obstacles to effective Boundaries:

1. – Depending on the child.  As parents, we have to be careful of “needing” our children to fulfill our unmet needs.  This can cause a lot of problems for the child as they grow.  It can also lead to manipulation by the child, as they learn to get what they want by withholding their ability to meet the parents needs.  Parents need to find ways to have their needs met that don’t include their children if they want to grow healthy children.

2. – Over-identifying with the child.  A parent’s painful feelings are not always the child’s painful feelings.  When a child falls, it might be more traumatizing to the parent than to the child.  A child who doesn’t make the basketball team might not need a parent to talk with the coach.  Failing a test doesn’t mean the parent should intervene and get the teacher to ease up on the child.  Allow the child to determine the level of their need.  If we over-identify with the child, we may not be allowing a child to pick him or herself up after a defeat to move forward.  We may end up creating an adult who can’t handle their own problems.

3. – Thinking love and separateness are enemies.  As parents, we are going to disagree with our children.  It’s a given.  We are not going to like everything they like.  And we are going to have to confront them from time to time about their actions.  Doing this does not mean we don’t love them.  Love is always there no matter the circumstances.  We want to help create children who grow up to be adults who can stand their ground regardless of whether or not the world around them thinks they are wrong.  We want children who can think for themselves not because the parent is right beside them.

4. – Ignoring and zapping – You know how when we bottle up our feelings inside and then after a time we just can’t hold them in and we blow?  This is not a good way to deal with a child.  It ends up being worse than the situation demanded.  Dealing with the issue with your child right then is much better than pushing it back and back and then blowing up.  If we can get a handle on this, we will be raising children who can problem solve.

5. – Being worn down. This is a tough one.  How do we keep ourselves from being worn down, tired, stressed, beaten.  Well, if you figure this out, please let me know.  But somehow we have to find out what works for us because having kids and being worn down don’t go so well together.  Are there certain routines you can put in place that can give you some downtime so that you can be refreshed before dealing with the kids.  Even 15 minutes of resting your eyelids could help you deal with a tantrum.  Or giving the kids a 30 minute playground time before heading home from school might just give you and them the added de-stressor they need before dinner and homework.  Learning to do this and teaching your children to do this will help them as they become adults as they put these practices into their lives.

Happy parenting!  – Mrs. T.

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Process vs. Product – why is it important?

Posted on October 30, 2014 | Leave a comment

The staff at Aloma recently revisited the topic of Process vs. Product.  If you’re not familiar with what this means, let me just say that when you’re talking about Preschoolers it usually means that the artwork or thing that you are producing either looks like a child made it or it looks like a teacher made it.  That’s it in a nutshell.  If you are talking about penguins and they actually look like a representation of a penguin then you can probably be sure that it was fashioned and manipulated by an adult.  But if the thing sort of, maybe, kind of looks like a penguin, maybe…then it is probably made by a child.

You may ask why is this important and why are we talking about this?  It is VERY important and it is something that all parents should be aware of so they can continue to implement it throughout a child’s life.

Let me ask you how you learned to use a computer?  Or an IPad or your Smart phone?  Did someone show you how?  Did you follow instructions?  Or did you fool around with it and figure things out as you went along.  Probably a combination of both, right?  We learn by doing.  Even if someone showed you how to do something you probably had to do it a couple of times to remember it and to get it right.  You had to practice to remember it and sink it into your mind so that you wouldn’t forget it.

Well, that’s exactly what process means in this context.  Allowing the children to figure things out, choose their art mediums for themselves and come up with their interpretation of what a “penguin” looks like.  Now, of course, some things you may have to give them a little instruction and help with in order for them to succeed but for the most part, it’s “hands off, adults”.

Why, you might ask?   Because ultimately you are trying to raise  your child so that they can stand up for themselves and what they believe in.  So, they can express themselves confidently when others challenge their interpretations.  So that when they walk into an interview with a prospective new boss they will be able to present themselves in a way in which that boss will look at the candidate and see how they could be an asset to their company.

So, next time your child looks up at you, whether it is doing an art project in Preschool, working on homework in elementary or tackling an essay for mid-hi or high school, and asks “Is this okay, mom/dad?”  Respond by saying, “What do you think?”

Let’s all work together to raise the next generation of movers and shakers!

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Surprise, Surprise!

Posted on July 11, 2014 | Leave a comment

Does anyone remember Gomer Pyle?  He always said that phrase, Surprise, Surprise!  Usually it wasn’t accompanied by a very good surprise, unfortunately.

Recently I had something happen here at the school and it was a great surprise.  It was such a surprise to me that I was in awe of how it happened.  I was also a little disappointed in myself because I wasn’t able to see the answer come about the way it did.  As a Christian, I couldn’t imagine that God would bring about the answer in that way.  And then as I acknowledged that I was limiting the power of God, I was even more disappointed in myself.  How dare I limit God.  His power is so unimaginable.  In the Bible it says that He wants us to know how deep, how wide, how long and how high his love is for us and that His power is vast, beyond our comprehension.  I guess I shouldn’t be too hard on myself since the Bible says it is beyond our human understanding.  But still in my humanness I should be able to know that there are no boundaries to what God can do.

Well, the reason I decided to write this in my blog this time was because I was thinking about my last article, Secret to Success, and I feel that this sort of equates to raising successful children.  Are you confused?  Stay with me as I make the connection.

God is our heavenly Father and he loves His children with a vast love, as I indicated above.  As a parent, the same is true.  We love our children with an incredible love that sometimes knows no bounds, right?  We would do anything we could for our children within our power.  And yet I see parents who put limits on what their child can do.  They sometimes talk right in front of them as if they aren’t even there, thinking the child isn’t listening, as they tell someone about their failures or lack of skills, motivation or capability.  Without realizing it, the parent is limiting the child by not believing that they can overcome the obstacles in their path and excel beyond what the parent can imagine.  Just like we limit God because we can’t imagine what He can do, parents sometimes limit their children because they can’t imagine that their child could excel beyond the parent’s limited knowledge.  Or sometimes we as parents limit our children because we never could get beyond that next step.  But a child has such wonderful capabilities of doing and being who God created them to be if we only step back, give encouragement and guidance and let them go.  Just like us looking at God and not comprehending that He is more than capable of exceeding our expectations, we sometimes look at  our children and we can’t comprehend that they are more than capable of exceeding our expectations.

Balloon Manufacturers _ Creative Balloons Mfg Inc

So, another secret to success is to allow our children to be the person God created them to be and not the person that we “see” them to be.  So, as the song says, “Let it go”.  Let go of what you think should happen and stand back and watch what God can do in the life of your child.  By the way, this works in your grown up life too.

Keep honing those parenting skills and see what God can do!

 

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Secret to Success!

Posted on May 23, 2014 | Leave a comment

If you took a survey of parents of young children and you asked them what success looked like for their child when they became an adult, what do you think they’d say?

Well, I think that they’d say they wanted them to be happy, successful in a career or job that they enjoyed.  Maybe some would say that they’d make plenty of money so they wouldn’t ‘want” for anything.  Maybe some would say married with children or own a house and  a car.  Well, whatever your definition of success in life is, the question remains…how do I get my child to that place.

Wow, what a good question.  If only there were an instruction manual that came with the child when they were born.  You know, like you get when you go to Ikea and purchase a set of shelves. only way better.

So, let’s explore how you can guide your children to becoming that successful adult.

First off, I’ve seen, in my many years of working with children, far too many adults who don’t know the answer to this question.  And the reason I know they didn’t know, is because of how they let their children treat them.

Successful adult children are not allowed to be the boss of their parents.  You won’t believe how many children I see that are allowed to be the boss of their parents.  Parents end up bowing to the small 4 year old child instead of being the parent.  They ask them what they want to eat and what they want to do, when then want to go to sleep and whether or not they want to go to school, etc. 

Successful adult children have learned that they don’t always get their way.  And they start learning this as young children who don’t always get their way.  Now, I’m not saying you can’t allow your child to get what they want sometimes.  But as a parent you need to be the one in control guiding them and giving them the choices that are appropriate for a young child to make.  I could write a whole book on this topic but suffice it to say, if you want your child to be successful as an adult, then make sure they know that you are the boss and you control the choices.

Stay tuned to my blog for more on this subject.  But if all parents could get a grasp on this one secret to success they would see a big difference in their children and be setting them on the path for success.  And, after all, isn’t that what we want for our children?

Keep honing those parenting skills!

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