Parents Helping Parents Blog

Last week we talked about the dinosaur brain. The dinosaur is the part of the brain that reacts with fight and/or flight. It often does not think or respond but simply reacts. This part of our brain can get you into trouble if you don’t have checks and balances. The best way to deal with behaviors, including your own, is by preparation and planning, establishing alternatives, and creating a clear and consistent understanding of consequences.

How Can You Prepare and Plan?

One of the best things you can do is look at your day and plan for you and your family. Do you have so many things...

Have you ever been in a store and your child begins to act out? How do you feel? I know when this happened to me I wanted to hide in the next aisle and act like this kid wasn’t mine. Maybe you grabbed your child and made a beeline to the nearest exit.  As you are trying to deal with your child, the problem compounds because people begin to stop and stare.  My son now had an audience and I started feeling like everyone thought I was a terrible parent. Can you relate? Let’s take a closer look at the dynamics of behaviors and what we can do to more positively influence...

We are moving out of summer and into to the fall. For some of you, it means kids going back to school, tons of extracurricular activities, and loads of homework! Schedules become chaotic and life soon becomes unmanageable. That is why I am a huge fan of sitting down and proactively setting boundaries before things get out of control.

Learn from the past:

Often habits have a way of repeating themselves. Last school year you may have been crazy and your life seemed unmanageable. You survived but you want to do more than just survive. You want to live and feel the kind of fulfillment you were...

How you make decisions has everything to do with how successful you will be. Think about it, we make hundreds of decisions every day from what clothes we will wear, food we will eat, and careers we will pick. Each of these decisions can lead us closer to or further away from the lives we want. Do you have a plan that helps you make the best decisions? Below are the basic three “Vs” that I have found help me make my best decisions. 

What are your values?

As a parent of a child with multiple disabilities, I have had to be my son’s advocate since the day he was born....

When you wake up in the morning, do you feel like today will be a ditto of yesterday? Has your life become so repetitive that your excitement and zeal have been replaced with dread and anxiety?  What is stopping you from living the life you want? This week we will talk about some things that might be hindering you and begin to get you back on track to making the progress in your life that you crave!

Beware of Past Influences:

We all have been influenced by our past. I know in my life, my parents were more conservative and were certainly not big risk takers. Consequently, I learned...

We all want to live our lives in peace and quiet, but then something happens and conflicts arise. As long as there are people there will be conflicts. We all need to understand that conflicts we have with one another should be expected and do not always translate into something bad.  What we all need to learn is how to fight better so that we join forces to fight against the problem and stop wasting time fighting against each other. Below are some options to think about the next time a conflict arises.

My Way or the Highway?

When getting into fights and conflicts we often assign...

Last week we had our Women Empowering Woman group and had Celeste Cecchetti as our speaker. We all had a great discussion and learned a lot from each other.  Below is a recap of some of the takeaways we all learned.

Be kind to yourself

Celeste shared about mistakes we may make as parents. We can be our own worst critics and often come down hard on ourselves for even the most minor things. Celeste shared about the hills and valleys we all may experience raising our children.  One of the most important things she does is to get up the next morning and start a new day. You...

 Many people look at behaviors and wonder why? Why is this child having such a hard time? I know when my son was 4 years old he was removed from school due to behaviors. He was home schooled for 2 months while we looked for a more appropriate out-of-district setting. What were his behaviors? Spitting on adults. Whatever the behavior you may be dealing with, let’s begin to take a look at the role circumstances play in a child’s behaviors.

 Environment:

When my son was 4 years old, he was in the hospital for two weeks due to a seizure disorder. He hated haircuts but the...

This last week Dr. Michele Havens spoke at our Zoom training about, “What Causes your Child’s Behaviors.” The word that is perhaps the most important in this question is “causes.” Dr. Havens talked about 4 causes to watch for and how to decipher which one your child might be using. Once you know the cause it is easier to develop a plan to stop the behaviors. Below are the four causes Dr. Havens talked about.

 Is your child seeking attention?

Does your child get bored easily or have a hard time entertaining themselves? When a child feels bored they often...

Are your children struggling with behaviors? One of the first places you may look to get help is to hire a professional to evaluate your child and develop a behavior plan. No doubt this can be important, but as a parent you also continuously need to evaluate your own behaviors. Behaviors are a part of everyone’s  life and often your behaviors can feed into your child’s. Let’s look at a very common example most of us can relate to.

You Can’t Please Everybody!

Many of us are longing to create a more peaceful life.  I initially thought trying to make everybody...