Save Your Breath!

Help with homework can come in many different forms.  When we are speaking of children getting help with their homework, we are usually talking about the parent sitting in to help them or a tutor of some sort helping them out.  Then there is also the ‘getting them to even BEGIN and/or COMPLETE doing their [...]

Children get a kick out of getting a rise out of their parents.  Why is that?  Well, engagement, on any level, is a sign of life.  New humans LOVE engagement with their parents.  If positive attention is not happening for them, negative attention will do just fine.  Child behavior is largely about recognition and getting [...]

Constant repetition of good activities yields good results. Constant repetition of violent activities yields bad results. Any questions?

“Constant repetition carries conviction” – Robert Collier Yeah I know it does but must parents actually say it 10,000 times themselves? When the washing machine was invented, we stopped washing most of our clothing by hand. When the dishwasher was invented, we stopped washing most of our dishes by hand. When the Victrola was invented, [...]

My romantic journey to the development of  Save Your Breath began about 20 years ago as I was having to tell my Son for the HUNDREDTH time to pick his clothing up off of the floor.  My parental experience was fraught with stress needing single moms help, anxiety over whether I was ‘doing it right’ [...]

Well, after all of the conversation about spanking, as a matter of closure, I think it appropriate to follow-up with an emphasis on ‘positive’, ‘non-abusive’ methods of child discipline.  The research I’ve done is very general but the recommendations are kinder and gentler than what I received as a child and, eventually, what I’d been [...]

I saw a recent Dr. Drew program that reported testing the effects on the brain of striking children, as in spanking them, etc.  The reptilian part of the brain expands and the thinking/inspired part contracts.  Whose children did they use in this study?

Child behavior problems were the subject as I watched Dr. Drew‘s show on 2/21/12 .  It was on child discipline and corporeal punishment.  T’was VERY interesting because he had quite a wide spectrum of guests on the show, professional and otherwise, that spoke from different perspectives.  It was a refresh button for me because I [...]

“Teenagers have to live into a bad rap”, says Dr. Beth Halpert, ‘Americas’s Teenologist’.  She doesn’t buy into all of the negative labeling of teens and she tells them so.  All of the information that I am giving here is basically my notes from a webinar she conducted recently. She asks, “If you make yourself(parents) [...]

A parent pointed out to me that the term ‘parental control’ did not resonate with her.  Just curious…How do you feel about this term?  Is ‘parental control’ a term you would use? If not, what would you use instead?