Last year, our family went on a big vacation to the Caribbean, which was really an amazing experience. This year, with the drop in the value of the Canadian dollar (compared to the American dollar), we decided to forego a big out-of-country trip and explore the area around us. So we booked a trip to Great Wolf Lodge Niagara.
Andrea Nair here – welcome back to the A to Z of Taming Tantrums video series. This video is for the letter V, and V is for Voice.
In this short video I share my quick, yet very effective trick for getting children to lower their voices. This works for a classroom full of loud students and a house full of equally loud little people!
Parents often have preconceived assumptions about what parenting will be like. These notions might be quickly dashed when we realize that sleep deprivation is far more debilitating than anything we had imagined or that a toddler really can have a tantrum that lasts for 45 minutes straight.
Welcome back to the A to Z of Taming Tantrums video series! The letter I’m focusing on today is the U, and U is for Understand.
Understand what? Understand whom?
Actually, it’s a little bit of both. Understand means telling our upset children that we see their upset, we see something might have happen to trigger their reaction, and we see they are a good person.
Hi – Andrea Nair here! Welcome back to the A to Z of Taming Tantrums video series. This video is about the letter T, and T is for Taking Time for Teaching.
When toddlers receive clear, short, sequential instructions, they are much more likely to do what you ask of them. This means breaking your request into small “bite sized” pieces of information that are provided in a logical, sequential order.
Thank you for watching the next video in our A to Z of Taming Tantrums series. Today’s letter is S and S is for Soothing Techniques.
These techniques are for when your child is back arching, raging mad and needs help to start the calming process. As I mentioned in the video, some children do not want to be touched, so please only touch them if they are okay with that (assuming safety first).
I walked up my stairwell the other day, past the pictures of my children when they were one and three, and suddenly froze. I trot past those pictures many times a day, but for some reason I stopped this time and stared deeply into their young eyes.
Welcome back to the A to Z of Taming Tantrums video series. This episode is about the letter Q and Q is for Quiet. I don’t mean that need we need to try to get our children to be quieter, but rather to use the tantrum prevention strategy of giving our young ones lots of quiet time.
Some children who are introverts might have a large need to be in a quiet environment, and others might not need as much. I certainly notice when I haven’t had enough quiet time and almost feel like exploding—children go through the same thing.
Parenting is a full-time, all-consuming job. Even when we leave for work in the morning or spend a few hours away from our children to run errands on the weekend, we don’t take off our “parent” hat. We are always Mom or Dad. And yet it is important that we value the person beyond the title of Mom or Dad.
Hi, it’s Andrea Nair—thank you for staying tuned to the A to Z of Taming Tantrums series! We’re up to the letter P already, and P is for Positive Discipline.
One of the most common questions I receive from parents is: How do I discipline my child? I don’t want to spank, use threats, or time-outs so what can I do?
Welcome back to our A to Z of Taming Tantrums video series. This week’s letter is the letter O, and O is for Oh $A#!. Firstly, let me apologize for using the s--- word, and please be forewarned that I say the word in the video so don’t watch this one around your children.
When our team talked about the best O word, we decided that the feeling when we respond to our child’s tantrums in a way we really regret was important to discuss. We agreed that many parents would connect with calling it an Oh s--- parenting moment and decided to roll with it.
Welcome back to the A to Z of Taming Tantrums series. Today’s video is about the letter N, and N is for Natural Consequences.
What do I mean by that? Natural consequences are the things that happen as a result of our decisions and actions. For example, it’s the feeling of being cold when you decide to skip the mitts, and having an upset playmate when you take his truck.
Laura Markham, PhD recently wrote about “radical self care” on her Facebook page. I love the word radical as is applies to taking care of ourselves as parents. I am certainly a radically different parent when I am rested and my buckets are full than when I’m not.
Welcome back to the A to Z of Taming Tantrums video series. This episode is about the letter M, and M is for Mantras.
Mantras are go-to phrases we can use when common parenting challenges happen. When we have a handful of these mantras to rely on, our bodies can go into autopilot, using these during rough patches.
In this video, I share my favourite phrases to help prevent and reduce tantrums:
Welcome back to the A to Z of Taming Tantrums series! This week I cover the letter L, and L is for Letting Go.
What does letting go mean to you? When I think of those two powerful words, I think about giving up control that everything has to be exactly the way I want it. I learned early in my parenting journey that there are many things we cannot control when it comes to raising a young person. Accepting this is part of the process of helping our children and ourselves through emotional upset.
Growing up in a small, isolated mining community far away from large cities in my childhood and teenaged years, I don’t recall really being aware of death. In our isolation, likely also do to the absence of the Internet at that time, we didn’t hear that much about death. Sure, if you watched one of the two channels on TV at news time, you’d hear about wars off in distant lands and the occasional murder in the rough areas of the capital city.
Hi! Andrea Nair here. Welcome back to the A to Z of Taming Tantrums. This episode is about the letter K, and K is for OK.
You might be wondering why OK is linked to tantrums. Our very well meaning hope to check in for our child's understanding by adding an "OK?" at the end of our instructions actually turns that direction into a yes/ no question. At this point, your child could shout, "NO!" which is a fair response to your request.
Hi! Welcome back to the A to Z of Taming Tantrums video series. This week I'll be discussing the letter J, and J is for Jobs.
"Jobs" is the word I like to use instead of "chores." These are the daily tasks that everyone in the household needs to do in order to keep things running smoothly. Getting our young children used to, and involved in daily jobs will help making cleaning up become a regular part of life.
A report by the Office For National Statistics in the UK released this week indicates that people aged 40 to 59 have the lowest levels of life satisfaction and happiness, and the highest levels of anxiety. The report analyzed data provided by 300,000 British citizens raging in age from 16 to over 90 (their income, sex, and race data was not provided).
