Latest Articles

How much food is enough

Children have a simple yet perfect appetite control mechanism – if they are hungry they eat and if they are thirsty they drink (better than the average adult!). Good eating habits are established in early childhood and many eating battles could be avoided if parents let children eat the quantities of healthy foods that they choose to eat. Stud...

10 ways to improve your toddler’s diet

Every parent dreams of their toddler happily sitting at the dinner table eating everything on their plate without fuss. If this happened on a regular basis there would not be the demand for articles such as this one. There are a few important steps that you can take to ensure that your toddler is as healthy as possible and consuming a more or le...

‘Too Good’ children

Are you worried that your child is too good? Yes, seriously! Children who get too much validation for being good find it very difficult to handle the tiniest mistake without feeling they are failures. These children, if they do make a mistake, are apt to lie, or worse; avoid activities that they are not sure they will succeed at, to cover the fa...

Just ignore it

If you are irritated by your child’s whining or other incessant undesirable behaviours, it is very likely they’re behaving that way to get attention, and, it is very difficult not to be drawn into it… There is a delicate art to ignoring negative behaviours. What many people do when they are trying to ignore is actually ‘stonewalling...

Being calm and positive with our children

“The children who need encouragement the most, get it the least.” Dr. Rudolf Dreikurs. If we manage to stay calm and positive, even when we don’t like our children’s behaviour, we are demonstrating the qualities we want our children to develop; self-control; maturity; being considerate, and thinking constructively about solutions, rather...

What to do when you hear the words, “Mum, Dad, I’m bored!”

It is very easy to fall into the trap of feeling as though you have to ‘entertain’ your children upon hearing the dreaded phrase ‘I’m bored’ or worse, when you experience what they actually start getting up to when boredom sets in; the fights, the mess, the frustration. So here are some inexpensive and creative ideas to help you with y...

“NO!” Parents are you sick of hearing this?

No one enjoys being told “no”, but it can be especially frustrating when it comes repeatedly from young children, and, with attitude. If you are getting the “No!” response far too often, here are some ideas to reduce them: 1. Give choices that can’t be answered by yes or no. E.g. “Do you want to wear your yellow t-shirt or your red t...