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about Y's Words for parents
YMCA Youth & Family Services' trained staff and parent volunteers provide workshops and classes that help parents be more effective in parent-child and/or parent-teen relationships. We offer workshops at libraries, PTA meetings and school-sponsored programs that are tailored to fit the needs of the community. Workshops and classes are available for parents of preschoolers through high-schoolers to explore topics such as bedtime/morning struggles, lying, chores and sibling fighting.
Parents will learn to identify the purpose of a child's misbehavior and develop effective discipline and encouragement strategies to positively redirect. We offer an opportunity to become familiar with the concepts of logical and natural consequences, mutual respect, encouragement, and goals of misbehavior. The group discussion format teaches skills to help improve parent/teen relations, develop self-esteem, and promote responsible teenage behavior at home, in school, and in the community.
Parent Consultations
Consultations are for parents who seek skill development, techniques tailored to their concerns, and who can benefit from support and encouragement from our parenting staff. Appropriate referrals are parents who seem likely to benefit from 1-3 sessions of consultation. Fees based on a sliding scale, however no one will be denied services based on ability to pay.
For registration and information, call us at (301) 593-1160 or email us. For our parenting schedule, please click here.
Y’s Words: Library and MCPS Parent Academy Workshops
Free, Donations appreciated
Dealing with a Strong Willed Child
Do you sometimes feel your child is more determined, more sensitive, more argumentative, more volatile than others? Come and learn how to turn these strong characteristics into positive attributes and make day to day family living more tranquil.
Monday, March 24, 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. Silver Spring Library, 8901 Colesville Rd., Silver Spring
Differing Discipline Styles: Who’s in Charge?
Most children have more than one caregiver each bringing their own rules. This can be confusing for the kids and frustrating for the adults. This workshop will explore ways to come to agreement. Open to parents, grandparents, babysitters and other caregivers.
Wednesday, March 26, 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. Davis Library, 6400 Democracy Blvd., Bethesda
Anxiety in Children and Teens
Caution and fear are distinctly different. We will discuss how parents can role-model courageous beliefs in the process of developing what Dr. Frank Walton terms as the child’s 'Psychological Muscle'.
Monday, March 31, 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. Bethesda Library, 7400 Arlington Road, Bethesda
Parenting without Threats and Bribes
Parenting tools will be the focus of this how-to workshop. While the use of rewards and threats in disciplining may be effective in controlling behavior in the immediate situation, over time it can decrease mutual respect in the relationship. Come and learn alternative approaches.
Wednesday, April 2, 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. White Oak Library 11701 New Hampshire Ave., Silver Spring
For registration and information, call us at (301) 593-1160 or email us.
MCPS Parent Academy Workshops: To register go to www.mcpsparentacademy.org or call 301-517-5940.
Thursday, April 3, Raising Responsible Children and Teens and
Thursday, May 1, Helping Kids Deal with Anger.
For more information, go to their website.
Parenting Classes in May
Parenting Children Six sessions
Parents will learn to identify the purposes of a child’s misbehavior and develop effective discipline and encouragement strategies for positively redirecting these behaviors. Skills include: Developing effective consequences, structuring choices, and ending power struggles.
Required text, available first night: $20, suggested donation $30/person
Wednesdays, May 7– June 11, 7:00 – 8:30 p.m. YMCA Ayrlawn Center, 5650 Oakmont Ave., Bethesda
Parenting Teens Six sessions
A down-to-earth and practical way to meet the challenges of raising teenagers. The group discussion format teaches skills to help improve parent/teen relations; develop teen self-esteem and self-reliance; and promote responsible teen behavior at home, school and in the community.
Required text, available first night: $20, suggested donation $30/person
Thursdays, May 1 – June 5, 7:00 – 8:30 p.m.
Forest Glen Community Center. 1102 Forest Glen Road, Silver Spring
For registration and information, call us at (301) 593-1160 ext 10 or email us.
suburban hospital seminars
Brave New World: Managing the Internet in the Age of Handheld Devices
With Alecia Berman-Dry
It can be challenging for parents to keep up with the fast paced innovations in teen communication. Not only do parents have to deal with instant messaging, texting and Facebook but mobile chat services such as WeChat, Vine Flickr, Instagram, and Snapchat are becoming popular among teenagers.
Ms. Berman-Dry’s presentation will help parents:
• Learn why mobile devices are different from computers.
• Explore different approaches to internet management.
• Learn specific tools for management.
• Understand parental controls and how kids get around them.
• Develop resources for adapting the plan as your child matures.
Alecia Berman-Dry is the Director of Academic Technology and teaches technology classes for grades K-6 at St. John's Episcopal School. She has given presentations on social Media and Internet Safety and Technology at many local and national conferences. She was awarded the Shirley J. Lowrie excellence in teaching award in 2010 and was recently featured in the educational journal called Learning and Leading with Technology.
Wednesday, April 30
• Registration begins at 6:30 pm.
• Registration: www.yfsparentsspring2014.eventbrite.com
• $15/person, $25/couple.
Reasonable disability accommodations available upon request. Please contact Pam Mintz at 301-229-1347 by April 18.
Stop Telling Kids: “You are SO Smart”
It’s so easy when your kid does something that impresses you to say something along the lines of “Wow, you’re really smart”. The problem is that messages of praise can bring a lot of baggage with them.
Adult praise:
• Discourages risk taking. When we are expected, by ourselves and others, to succeed at a high level it can make us unwilling to try new skills, especially when we don’t succeed quickly. We define the goal as “looking smart” instead of learning new skills.
• Discourages self motivation. When we become trained to look to others for evaluation, we don’t discover our own interest in the task. We flourish when we find our own passions.
• Defines intelligence as static, not something we can build by effort.
• Raises concerns about the “real message”. We may feel that the adult actually thinks that we need help or have reached our potential. Adults say these things because they don’t think we are doing very well and we need encouragement. Criticism can communicate that I think you can do better.
• Creates a fear of failure, a sense that our parents and teachers will be unable to deal with my not being “smart” about everything.
When we give a child or teen encouragement for effort we give them a sense of control. Kids know how to work hard, they don’t know how to be smart. Groundbreaking research done by Carol Dweck demonstrated the effect of adult praise on fifth graders. The children were given a test and then praised for either their intelligence or their effort. The ones praised for their effort did significantly better on a subsequent test.
Po Bronson elaborates:
“But a growing body of research—and a new study from the trenches of the New York public-school system—strongly suggests it might be the other way around. Giving kids the label of “smart” does not prevent them from underperforming. It might actually be causing it.”
For more details and a discussion of the studies read:
Bronson, Po. How Not to Talk to Your Kids, nymag.com/news/features/27840/
So much of parenting advice is about what not to do. Let’s talk about what to do.
The Adlerian parenting model makes an important distinction between praise and encouragement. Praise emphasizes the assessment of the adult while encouragement emphasizes the assessment of the child, it empowers the child with an inner voice.
Another important difference to consider between encouragement and praise is that praise can inspire vertical striving, where the child aims higher and higher to increase self esteem, sometimes perceiving him or herself to be above others. Encouragement, on the other hand, aims to inspire horizontal striving, where the child can more easily perceive him or herself to be on a level playing field, moving horizontally, picking up the tools they need to make their contribution to the community as a whole.
Here are some of my favorite adult responses:
• I’m happy for you.
• How do you feel about the game? (the paper? the project? your report card?)
• Do you wish you had done anything differently? What?
• You must feel good about….
• Nonverbal encouragement: slap five, pat on the back, hug
Alfie Kohn, author of Punished By Rewards, suggests these responses to a job well done.
And what can we say when kids just do something impressive? Consider three possible responses:
* Say nothing. Some people insist a helpful act must be "reinforced" because, secretly or unconsciously, they believe it was a fluke. If children are basically evil, then they have to be given an artificial reason for being nice (namely, to get a verbal reward). But if that cynicism is unfounded – and a lot of research suggests that it is – then praise may not be necessary.
* Say what you saw. A simple, evaluation-free statement ("You put your shoes on by yourself" or even just "You did it") tells your child that you noticed. It also lets her take pride in what she did. In other cases, a more elaborate description may make sense. If your child draws a picture, you might provide feedback – not judgment – about what you noticed: "This mountain is huge!" "Boy, you sure used a lot of purple today!"
If a child does something caring or generous, you might gently draw his attention to the effect of his action on the other person: "Look at Abigail’s face! She seems pretty happy now that you gave her some of your snack." This is completely different from praise, where the emphasis is on how you feel about her sharing
* Talk less, ask more. Even better than descriptions are questions. Why tell him what part of his drawing impressed you when you can ask him what he likes best about it? Asking "What was the hardest part to draw?" or "How did you figure out how to make the feet the right size?" is likely to nourish his interest in drawing. Saying "Good job!", as we’ve seen, may have exactly the opposite effect.
This doesn’t mean that all compliments, all thank-you’s, all expressions of delight are harmful. We need to consider our motives for what we say (a genuine expression of enthusiasm is better than a desire to manipulate the child’s future behavior) as well as the actual effects of doing so. Are our reactions helping the child to feel a sense of control over her life -- or to constantly look to us for approval? Are they helping her to become more excited about what she’s doing in its own right – or turning it into something she just wants to get through in order to receive a pat on the head
www.alfiekohn.org/parenting/gj.htm
This is an article by the researchers mentioned above
www.stanford.edu/dept/psychology/cgi-bin/drupalm/system/files/Intelligence%20Praise%20Can%20Undermine%20Motivation%20and%20Performance.pdf
Here’s an article by a local psychologist, Dan Griffin, with an emphasis on dealing with teenagers.
www.slate.com/articles/life/family/2014/02/motivating_teenagers_how_do_you_do_it.html?wpisrc=burger_bar
Raising Resilient Children and Teens
How can we help our children develop the inner strength to take life’s ups and down in stride? We hope our children will be able to deal with disappointment, frustration and adversity. We hope they will take on challenges and adjust to change.
Building resilience is no easy task, when we think about our wishes for our children as adults – resiliency is a huge part of successfully reaching adulthood. Our happiness depends on our capacity to roll with the punches.
“Resilience is the capacity to rise above difficult circumstances, the trait that allows us to exist in this less-than-perfect word while moving forward with optimism and confidence even in the midst of adversity.” Kenneth R. Ginsburg
There are whole books written on this subject, just to get you thinking about your role and how you can assist your children, here is a list of things you can say and do.
What do I want my child to learn from this situation? (And how can I help make that happen?) Often parents react to situations with expediency (next time I’ll be sure my child takes responsibility for this task), or criticism (I can’t let the teacher see that homework project), or their own anxiety for their child (What if my child has no one to play with at recess?).
How can I communicate “I think you can handle that”? It’s very tempting to help your child solve problems – we’re supposed to do that. When is it better to back off? Give kids as much responsibility as possible for getting through the day’s tasks, resolving conflicts with friends and family and dealing with challenges.
“What options are you considering?” Sometimes we define problem solving as helping the child accept our solution. We need to let kids come up with solutions and then try them out.
“You’ve made progress, what’s the next step?” When people are faced with what they feel is an overwhelming task, it helps to break it down into small steps forward – and to notice those steps towards the goal.
Help your child deal with failure. Sports and games are good opportunities for people to develop skills for handling failure. Point out that if you’re winning every time you need to find new opponents. It’s supposed to be a challenge. When you purposely lose to your child – you are teaching him or her that you can’t handle their loss either or that you think they are not capable of handling it.
“I wish I had done better with that.” “I’m sorry.” Demonstrate and communicate the courage to be imperfect. Share your coping strategies when you’ve messed up or had a disappointment.
“How big is this problem? Rate it on a scale from mole hill to mountain. In can be difficult to get perspective when we are caught up in an emotional reaction. People often catastrophize – “this is a total disaster”.
“What the worst case scenario?” What’s the best case scenario?” “How would you deal with various outcomes?” Sometimes we feel like we just could not handle…… but in truth we can. Help your child realize that people do recover from even large disappointments and losses.
Role play situations that are causing problems for your child. Joining a group playing a game, dealing with a bully, talking to a teacher, avoiding uncomfortable situations with friends. You can also use role playing to allow a child to experience a situation from the other person’s perspective.
Interests in the interests of others. When we help someone else, our problems take on a different perspective. We also learn that we can make a difference in people’s lives.
Recognize the role of temperament. Some people are prone towards worry, some towards emotional outbursts. When you realize that you’re probably not going to get your “drama queen” to calmly present the latest disaster, it makes it easier to wait it out.
Resources:
Ginsburg, Kenneth. Building Resilience in Children and Teens
www.fosteringresilience.com/7cs_parents.php
Seligman, Martin et al. The Optimistic Child
Resilience for Teens and other information
www.apa.org/helpcenter/bounce.aspx
www.apa.org/helpcenter/resilience.aspx
Kurcinka, Mary Sheedy. Raising Your Spirited Child Workbook. Great resource on temperament.
Feeling Scroogeish? As the holidays approach you may find yourself wishing for less stuff – maybe even a lot less stuff. Here’s some justification for shortening your gift lists and asking relatives to do the same. At the end are some more sites to check out for further support.
Why Fewer Toys Will Benefit Your Kids
by JOSHUA BECKER
“The potential possibilities of any child are the most intriguing and stimulating in all creation.” – Ray L. Wilbur
Toys are not merely playthings. Toys form the building blocks for our child’s future. They teach our children about the world and about themselves. They send messages and communicate values. And thus, wise parents think about what foundation is being laid by the toys that are given to their kids.
Wise parents also think about the number of toys that children are given. While most toy rooms and bedrooms today are filled to the ceiling with toys, intentional parents learn to limit the number of toys that kids have to play with.
They understand that fewer toys will actually benefit their children in the long-term:
1. Kids learn to be more creative. Too many toys prevent kids from fully developing their gift of imagination. Two German public health workers (Strick and Schubert) conducted an experiment in which they convinced a kindergarten classroom to remove all of their toys for three months. Although boredom set in during the initial stages of the experiment, the children soon began to use their basic surroundings to invent games and use imagination in their playing.
2. Kids develop longer attention spans. When too many toys are introduced into a child’s life, their attention span will begin to suffer. A child will rarely learn to fully appreciate the toy in front of them when there are countless options still remaining on the shelf behind them.
3. Kids establish better social skills. Children with fewer toys learn how to develop interpersonal relationships with other kids and adults. They learn the give and take of a good conversation. And studies have attributed childhood friendships to a greater chance of success academically and in social situations during adulthood.
4. Kids learn to take greater care of things. When kids have too many toys, they will naturally take less care of them. They will not learn to value them if there is always a replacement ready at hand. If you have a child who is constantly damaging their toys, just take a bunch away. He will quickly learn.
5. Kids develop a greater love for reading, writing, and art. Fewer toys allows your children to love books, music, coloring, and painting. And a love for art will help them better appreciate beauty, emotion, and communication in their world.
6. Kids become more resourceful. In education, students aren’t just given the answer to a problem; they are given the tools to find the answer. In entertainment and play, the same principle can be applied. Fewer toys causes children to become resourceful by solving problems with only the materials at hand. And resourcefulness is a gift with unlimited potential.
7. Kids argue with each other less. This may seem counter-intuitive. Many parents believe that more toys will result in less fighting because there are more options available. However, the opposite is true far too often. Siblings argue about toys. And every time we introduce a new toy into the relationship, we give them another reason to establish their “territory” among the others. On the other hand, siblings with fewer toys are forced to share, collaborate, and work together.
8. Kids learn perseverance. Children who have too many toys give up too quickly. If they have a toy that they can’t figure out, it will quickly be discarded for the sake of a different, easier one. Kids with fewer toys learn perseverance, patience, and determination.
9. Kids become less selfish. Kids who get everything they want believe they can have everything they want. This attitude will quickly lead to an unhealthy (and unbecoming) lifestyle.
10. Kids experience more of nature. Children who do not have a basement full of toys are more apt to play outside and develop a deep appreciation for nature. They are also more likely to be involved in physical exercise which results in healthier and happier bodies.
11. Kids learn to find satisfaction outside of the toy store. True joy and contentment will never be found in the aisles of a toy store. Kids who have been raised to think the answer to their desires can be bought with money have believed the same lie as their parents. Instead, children need encouragement to live counter-cultural lives finding joy in things that truly last.
12. Kids live in a cleaner, tidier home. If you have children, you know that toy clutter can quickly take over an entire home. Fewer toys results in a less-cluttered, cleaner, healthier home.
I’m not anti-toy. I’m just pro-child. So do your child a favor today and limit their number of toys. (Just don’t tell them you got the idea from me.)
http://www.becomingminimalist.com/why-fewer-toys-will-actually-benefit-your-kids/
http://www.livingwellspendingless.com/2012/09/14/why-i-took-all-my-kids-toys-away-why-they-wont-get-them-back/
Boxed in, wanting out
http://www.boston.com/community/moms/articles/2012/07/10/new_study_says_american_families_are_overwhelmed_by_clutter_rarely_eat_together_and_are_generally_stressed_out_about_it_all/?page=1
From Frog Collecting to Number Crunching
Back-to-School Tips
Along with buying new pencils and notebooks, back to school means a return to routines, alarm clocks, and the responsibilities that many of our children left behind with the last bell in June. There are all kinds of systems families can use, and Vicki Hoefle offers a plan that is about progress, change, and the long-term goal of encouraging independence and self-reliance in our children.
Here is my “top 10” list for making the transition from frog collecting to number crunching a smooth one, for kids and parents alike. With these pointers in mind, you’ll help your children begin the school year on the right foot.
1. Ask yourself, “What will it take for my children to manage their schedules independently?” Work with your kids to make a list of everything that needs to happen in order for your kids to be ready for the school day.
2. Allow your kids to establish a routine that works for them, even if they flounder for a week or two.
3. Have faith that your children can handle the natural consequences of their decisions.
4. Show empathy and help your children work through any problems that arise, but don’t be their savior.
5. Set parameters about acceptable dress for school that you and your kids can agree on, and then bite your tongue.
6. Establish a framework for discussing the ups and downs that your kids are sure to encounter as the school year progresses. You want your children to know that you’re on their side, no matter what.
7. Create a roadmap with your children to help them set goals for the year and begin thinking about what it will take to achieve those goals.
8. Set up a time every week to connect as a family.
9. Figure out what you, as a parent, can let go of to encourage your childrens’ independence.
10. Go slow. Encourage progress and recognize growth, and remember that you are the best parent for your child.
Teaching Your Kids About Money:
Allowance, Summer Jobs and College
ALLOWANCE by Joe Lanza
Many parents start teaching kids money management through allowance. Giving your kids an allowance is not a guarantee of teaching monetary responsibility – in fact, you may be teaching them that money will just show up. How can you create an allowance system that also teaches responsibility?
I’m a fan of allowance. I loved watching my kids evaluate whether something they wanted was worth their money (of course it was worth my money!). But not everyone agrees that kids learn healthy spending habits. The great allowance debate roars on, and may have moved to a whole new level with a personal-finance scholar’s recent assertion that a “regular, unconditional allowance may be akin to cruelty to children.” Read more: business.time.com/2013/03/26/expert-paying-kids-allowance-is-cruelty/#ixzz2Uhj2EGjG
The challenge is to create an allowance framework that teaches budgeting, saving and credit concerns. Many parents also use allowance to teach philanthropy – what Adlerians call “interest in the interests of others.” Here are some guidelines:
1. Separate allowance from chores. Allowance is given to develop a child’s responsibility, sense of the value of money; not as a reward for getting chores done.
2. Control the sense of entitlement in our culture of affluence. Do your kids tend to think that they MUST have the current popular item? Ask them how important clothes are when picking friends? Do they have friends who can’t afford cell phones, laptops, video games and how does that affect them socializing?
3. Setting amounts. Decide what you would like your child to pay for and how much you would like your child to have for discretionary spending. It’s important that it be enough to experience whimsical purchasing and then experience wishing you had some money left.
4. Let them make mistakes. Don’t bail them out. Don’t let them borrow money. Don’t make a lot of rules about what they can buy.
5. Require a percentage to savings and to philanthropy. I teach a “three-jar” system: “share,” “save” and “spend smart.” My 7-year-old daughter gets a $7 allowance every Friday. Each week, we require that she deposit two dollars into her “save” jar and one into her “share” jar. She can divvy up the four remaining dollars among any of the jars.
SUMMER JOBS
A summer job can be a real eye-opener for kids about the real world. They can learn:
• Why education is important (I don’t want to spend my life in jobs like this one)
• The importance of arriving on time, being focused on work, understanding what bosses are looking for in employees, what an 8 hour work day feels like!
• I can do it! Just realizing you can call or walk in and ask for a job (and survive rejection) is an important life lesson
• A new vision of themselves – I can succeed in the adult world of work
• The value of a dollar – when you work all day and end up with X, it’s a reality check
• Social skills of interviewing for the job, interacting with colleagues, bosses, customers.
SENDING YOUR TEEN OFF TO COLLEGE
Many kids end up graduating with debt, for their education and for their poor money management decisions. This website is from a 20-year-old and is a gold mine of ideas on spending decisions and credit card decisions. This link is to credit card information – but spend time on his other sections:
helpsavemydollars.com/three-credit-rules-for-students/
Summary: Make responsibility a part of the family dialogue:
• What options are you considering?
• That’s your decision.
• I think you can handle that.
• How do feel about how that worked out?
MORE RESOURCES
“You are the biggest financial influence in your child’s life. Most of what your children will learn about handling money will come from watching you handle yours.” Michelle Singletary
nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/04/01/allowances-jobs-and-teaching-the-value-of-a-dollar/allowances-and-teenage-jobs-should-have-strings-attached
The Anxieties of Children and Teens
From the Monsters Under the Bed to Preparing for College
Regardless of age, there is always plenty to worry about. To worry is a universal phenomenon. Adults have bills to pay and a whole gambit of expectations to meet. The coupling of worry and concern tends to provoke action. Under normal conditions, this action is simply referred to as problem-solving. In other words, on the useful side of life, worry generates an important call to action.
Do the worries of children follow the same trajectory? Yes, of course. The school-age child may find he's worried about an up-coming exam or report. Ideally, the message becomes, “Get prepared!” and the child responds in kind. Child, adolescent and adult worries flow in and out of any given life. They differ in accordance with age or developmental stages, as well as the circumstances that surround the individual. They are transitory in nature. Anxiety is a higher grade of worry. It doesn’t have the same in/out flow. Anxiety has staying power. In children, it can be quite specific as when it is provoked by exams; before, during and afterwards. Or, it can be quite generalized as when concerns around being safe seem constant.
Anxieties are associated with the immediate or foreseeable future. They are related to obligations, demands, expectations of self or others or individualized fears that seem imminent or potentially dangerous. In almost all circumstances, the anxious individual, be it child or teen, has a perception of being unprepared to meet the life challenge, or even unable; as in the case of an upcoming audition or try-out. In this scenario, the child/teen is anxious weeks in advance. Anxiety has penetrated. Ultimately, the child/teen fails to appear for the audition or try-out.
Worries Become Anxiety When…
Anxiety becomes a boni fide disorder when it handicaps normal life functions. For example, when the child cannot bear to be separated from his mother and will not go to school. Or, when the teenager is so concerned about what “they” think of him that his constant awareness makes for constant discomfort leading to a refusal to partake.
Most commonly seen by a child or family therapist are the following types of anxieties, spelled out by the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (Facts for Families, 11/12).
Symptoms of separation anxiety include:
• Constant thoughts and intense fears about the safety of parents and caretakers
• Refusing to go to school
• Frequent stomachaches and other physical complaints
• Extreme worries about sleeping away from home
• Being overly clingy
• Panic or tantrums at times of separation from caregivers
• Trouble sleeping or nightmares
Symptoms of phobia include:
• Extreme fear about a specific thing or situation, i.e. insects or needles
• The fears cause significant distress and interfere with usual activities
Symptoms of social anxiety include:
• Fears of meeting or talking to people
• Avoidance of social situations
• Few friends outside the family
Other symptoms of anxious children include:
• Many worries about things before they happen
• Constant worries or concerns about family, school, friends, or activities
• Repetitive, unwanted thoughts (obsessions) or actions (compulsions)
• Fears of embarrassment or making mistakes
• Low self-esteem and lack of self-confidence
Also important to underscore is an anxiety associated with 17 and 18 year olds, particularly prevalent in senior year of high school. This anxiety is characterized by an avoidance of the future. Symptoms of avoidance of the future include:
• Procrastination of anything related to that which follows high school
• Avoidance of all questions regarding “what’s next?”
• Seemingly indifferent to passing senior year
• Lack of motivation to secure a driver’s license
• Loss of self in drugs, alcohol use, or video games
So What is a Parent to Do?
The first task is NOT to minimize the child’s fears by responding with a cursory, “It’s nothing; you’ll be OK; just don’t worry about it!” The much better response is to embrace the concerns and position oneself as an ally with your child. The parent becomes a collaborator in helping the child to shrink the anxiety. If the anxiety can be seen as an entity, albeit an unfriendly one, that interferes with the child’s satisfaction in life, the team of parent and child now has an opponent. The parent has joined an effort to beat back the anxiety. As the child feels joined, the parent is likely to become even more aware of the anxiety’s hold on her child, and just how deeply the child wishes that he were normal, as in free of the anxiety. If the anxiety persists beyond the parent and child’s creative attack, the alliance allows the parent to suggest to the child the enlistment of a professional member to the team, a child or family therapist.
The job description of a parent who has volunteered to become an anti-anxiety agent includes:
• To be a voice of optimism and constant encouragement
• To be patient with a gradual and incremental pursuit of change
• To be a collaborative and creative problem-solver
Here are transgressions the parent is advised to avoid:
• To become impatient, angry and derogatory
• To succumb to the child’s fears and conclude that “Maybe this is too much for you.”
Most anxieties of childhood and adolescence are not life sentences. They can be overcome. Many parents used to be terribly afraid of the dark and sought safety in their parent’s bed. Many parents are amazed to this day that they finally left home and navigated life quite well on their own. Anxieties are a part of growing up. When posed as a challenge, even better a joint challenge, they become a problem to be surpassed. They are among the adverse circumstances in our children’s pursuit of life. If handled wisely, they build competence and confidence, the ingredients of full participation.
Steven J. Stein is a marriage and family therapist, practicing in Rockville, MD. He works with school-age children and adults on a wide array of mental health concerns. He is grateful to the YMCA’s Youth & Family Services for the opportunity to present on this topic.
A Different Approach to Bullying
“It places responsibility directly upon the shoulders of the victim, where it should be. Whether or not he is upset is entirely up to him, not the bully.” Izzy Kalman
There has been a lot of talk and programs and money addressing the issue of bullying, especially in the schools. There have been some promising results in schools that commit to the process with a significant amount of time – a difficult resource to find in the school curriculum. To find out more about successful programs in schools, click here.
I’d like to encourage you to consider an option for parents dealing with a child who is being verbally bullied. This is a plan to help your child take an active role in changing the interaction with bullies. One powerful deterrent to bullying is engaging other kids to intervene. This may not be a response your child can create. Bringing adults into the situation does not often succeed. We do need to encourage our kids to be aware of their role as bystander. For more information on this, please visit the Bullying Prevention Institute or Tolerance websites.
The different approach I would like to share with you focuses on teaching your child new skills in how they react to bullying. It’s an empowering model – just the opposite of how bullying victims feel. When we encourage kids to go to adults we are saying we don’t think you can deal with this on your own. The problem for adults is assessing the risk of harm and the risk of additional harm when the adult gets involved. But harm is already being done. How can we help our kids protect themselves? Here’s an idea that might work for your kids. It’s a large website with lots of information. I’ve pulled just a note from his website with his perspective. This model is intended to empower NOT to discourage them from telling adults what is happening to them. Be sure to empathize with the feelings or your child. Be sure to present this model as a way for your child to let the bully get what he or she wants - to see you upset. If you interested in Izzy's model, please visit his website.
A general note about bullies: The word “bully” has negative connotations. The general attitude of adults is that the bullies are bad and must be made to stop their bullying. I, though, am not judging the bullies. I refer to kids as being bullies only in the sense that they apparently have the upper hand in the bully/victim interactions. We are to consider them as being no better and no worse than victims. In fact, we are to consider them as necessary for the learning of social skills. Childhood is a time when children practice the skills they will need in their adult lives. If they don’t learn how to deal with aggression in their formative years, how in the world are they going to know how to do it when they are adults? It is more useful to see bullies as the social sparring partners of our children. Bullies give our children the opportunity to learn to deal with aggression, an essential life skill, and we are to be grateful to them rather than angry. Our job is not to protect the victims from the bullies, but to teach the victims how to defeat the bullies – by not getting upset.
Mom always liked you best
Tommy Smothers of the Smothers Brothers
“I wish I had Ross’s parents” - Monica Geller, sister of Ross on “Friends”
Modern Family, Claire and Mitchell, Alex and Hailey
Bart and Lisa Simpson on the “The Simpsons”
Cain and Abel
You get the idea, the list goes on and on.
I have a vivid image of the first time I heard Tommy Smothers say “Mom always liked you best”. It was an epiphany for me – you can say that out loud? You can acknowledge those feelings? I also have a strong memory of sitting with my kids watching Roseanne Barr. It’s a close up of Roseanne sitting on Darlene’s bed and kissing her goodnight and she says “You are my favorite daughter”. I was a little uncomfortable. Then she moved across the room to Becky’s bed and kissed her goodnight and said “You are my favorite daughter”. It helped my kids to be able to laugh about those desires to be the favorite. When issues are unspeakable they have so much more power.
Birth order is a factor in our personalities. When you meet someone who is a twin, what is often your first question? Which one of you was born first? How many or your friends do you know their birth order? We live in a world that often focuses on vertical rather than horizontal definitions of value. People want to know a person’s status to know how to relate to him/her. People may be less interested in the contributions a person makes to the group than their status in the group. This stratification begins in the family. Who is the oldest? Biggest? Strongest? Smartest? Most athletic? Best behaved? Most loved?
Every child is born into the second act of a play and must create their own role.
Here are some pointers for decreasing the level of sibling rivalry.
McKay, Gary Raising Respectful Kids in a Rude World
Faber, Adele & Mazlish, Elaine Siblings Without Rivalry
Bullies2buddies.com Thought provoking perspective on bully/victim roles.
Kyla Boyse, http://www.med.umich.edu/yourchild/topics/sibriv.htm
the impact of homework on your FAMILY
Is it time to assess how homework is going in your house? Is it still a nightly tug of war – or have you had some success in handing off responsibility and prioritizing your child’s use of out-of-school time?
Do you feel like homework is having a negative impact on your relationship with your child?
What are the Needs of the Situation?
Assess the educational benefits of the work he is being asked to do. What would really happen if she didn’t do her homework? Would her schoolwork suffer? Would his grades suffer because of the failure to turn it in or because of the missed opportunity to review the material? Read Alfie Kohn’s The Myth of Homework to consider other perspectives.
Talk to your child’s teachers to be sure you understand their homework policy. What is the teacher’s goal with the homework? What happens if no homework is done? What happens if it is incomplete? How is homework helping your child learn the material?
Assess what is getting in your child’s way of completing homework – okay, I bet you’ve thought about this for hours. She just hates doing it, he has other things he really wants to do, it’s tedious and discouraging, she says no one really looks at it, he says he doesn’t learn anything from it, she says she doesn’t care about college... Sit down with a school counselor and get another perspective. Is the homework serving an educational purpose? How can you advocate for your child so that she is being helped by homework and not just frustrated or tormented?
How Can You Change Your Role?
Take a timeout from the role of enforcer. Ask someone else to spend time supervising your child with homework: grandparent, hire a local teenager to come in, hire a tutor (depending on the age of your child and the subjects that are causing the most difficulty). Ask your child what would happen if for 6 weeks you said nothing about homework. Does he or she want the responsibility? If the grades suffer would your child care? Rotate the job with your spouse, every other week.
Have a family routine that limits homework time and creates shared time for fun activities. Make sure you find ways to get involved in your child’s interests. Read the sports page, listen to rap music, play the video games, get your own facebook page – whatever they love develop a knowledge and capacity to share. You do need to be careful to respect their privacy. This concept looks different for an 8 year old and a 13 year old.
Look at your long range goals for your child. Do they share your dreams? How will you feel and what will you do if your child takes a different path? What is your worst case scenario and how would you deal with it? Consider different paths to the same goal: who do you know that found a successful career after floating around aimlessly for years?
- About Y's Words for Parents
- Library Workshops
- Parenting Classes - start in May
- Suburban Hospital Seminar - Brave New World: Managing the Internet in the Age of Handheld Devices
- Stop Telling your Kids "You're So Smart"
- Raising Resilient Children and Teens
- Feeling Scroogeish? Why Fewer Toys Will Benefit your Child
- Back-to-School Tips
- Teaching Your Kids About Money
- The Anxieties of Children & Teens
- A Different Approach to Bullying
- Mom Always Liked You Best
- The Impact of Homework on your Family
about Y's Words for parents
YMCA Youth & Family Services' trained staff and parent volunteers provide workshops and classes that help parents be more effective in parent-child and/or parent-teen relationships. We offer workshops at libraries, PTA meetings and school-sponsored programs that are tailored to fit the needs of the community. Workshops and classes are available for parents of preschoolers through high-schoolers to explore topics such as bedtime/morning struggles, lying, chores and sibling fighting.
Parents will learn to identify the purpose of a child's misbehavior and develop effective discipline and encouragement strategies to positively redirect. We offer an opportunity to become familiar with the concepts of logical and natural consequences, mutual respect, encouragement, and goals of misbehavior. The group discussion format teaches skills to help improve parent/teen relations, develop self-esteem, and promote responsible teenage behavior at home, in school, and in the community.
Parent Consultations
Consultations are for parents who seek skill development, techniques tailored to their concerns, and who can benefit from support and encouragement from our parenting staff. Appropriate referrals are parents who seem likely to benefit from 1-3 sessions of consultation. Fees based on a sliding scale, however no one will be denied services based on ability to pay.
For registration and information, call us at (301) 593-1160 or email us. For our parenting schedule, please click here.
Y’s Words: Library and MCPS Parent Academy Workshops
Free, Donations appreciated
Dealing with a Strong Willed Child
Do you sometimes feel your child is more determined, more sensitive, more argumentative, more volatile than others? Come and learn how to turn these strong characteristics into positive attributes and make day to day family living more tranquil.
Monday, March 24, 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. Silver Spring Library, 8901 Colesville Rd., Silver Spring
Differing Discipline Styles: Who’s in Charge?
Most children have more than one caregiver each bringing their own rules. This can be confusing for the kids and frustrating for the adults. This workshop will explore ways to come to agreement. Open to parents, grandparents, babysitters and other caregivers.
Wednesday, March 26, 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. Davis Library, 6400 Democracy Blvd., Bethesda
Anxiety in Children and Teens
Caution and fear are distinctly different. We will discuss how parents can role-model courageous beliefs in the process of developing what Dr. Frank Walton terms as the child’s 'Psychological Muscle'.
Monday, March 31, 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. Bethesda Library, 7400 Arlington Road, Bethesda
Parenting without Threats and Bribes
Parenting tools will be the focus of this how-to workshop. While the use of rewards and threats in disciplining may be effective in controlling behavior in the immediate situation, over time it can decrease mutual respect in the relationship. Come and learn alternative approaches.
Wednesday, April 2, 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. White Oak Library 11701 New Hampshire Ave., Silver Spring
For registration and information, call us at (301) 593-1160 or email us.
MCPS Parent Academy Workshops: To register go to www.mcpsparentacademy.org or call 301-517-5940.
Thursday, April 3, Raising Responsible Children and Teens and
Thursday, May 1, Helping Kids Deal with Anger.
For more information, go to their website.
Parenting Classes in May
Parenting Children Six sessions
Parents will learn to identify the purposes of a child’s misbehavior and develop effective discipline and encouragement strategies for positively redirecting these behaviors. Skills include: Developing effective consequences, structuring choices, and ending power struggles.
Required text, available first night: $20, suggested donation $30/person
Wednesdays, May 7– June 11, 7:00 – 8:30 p.m. YMCA Ayrlawn Center, 5650 Oakmont Ave., Bethesda
Parenting Teens Six sessions
A down-to-earth and practical way to meet the challenges of raising teenagers. The group discussion format teaches skills to help improve parent/teen relations; develop teen self-esteem and self-reliance; and promote responsible teen behavior at home, school and in the community.
Required text, available first night: $20, suggested donation $30/person
Thursdays, May 1 – June 5, 7:00 – 8:30 p.m.
Forest Glen Community Center. 1102 Forest Glen Road, Silver Spring
For registration and information, call us at (301) 593-1160 ext 10 or email us.
suburban hospital seminars
Brave New World: Managing the Internet in the Age of Handheld Devices
With Alecia Berman-Dry
It can be challenging for parents to keep up with the fast paced innovations in teen communication. Not only do parents have to deal with instant messaging, texting and Facebook but mobile chat services such as WeChat, Vine Flickr, Instagram, and Snapchat are becoming popular among teenagers.
Ms. Berman-Dry’s presentation will help parents:
• Learn why mobile devices are different from computers.
• Explore different approaches to internet management.
• Learn specific tools for management.
• Understand parental controls and how kids get around them.
• Develop resources for adapting the plan as your child matures.
Alecia Berman-Dry is the Director of Academic Technology and teaches technology classes for grades K-6 at St. John's Episcopal School. She has given presentations on social Media and Internet Safety and Technology at many local and national conferences. She was awarded the Shirley J. Lowrie excellence in teaching award in 2010 and was recently featured in the educational journal called Learning and Leading with Technology.
Wednesday, April 30
• Registration begins at 6:30 pm.
• Registration: www.yfsparentsspring2014.eventbrite.com
• $15/person, $25/couple.
Reasonable disability accommodations available upon request. Please contact Pam Mintz at 301-229-1347 by April 18.
Stop Telling Kids: “You are SO Smart”
It’s so easy when your kid does something that impresses you to say something along the lines of “Wow, you’re really smart”. The problem is that messages of praise can bring a lot of baggage with them.
Adult praise:
• Discourages risk taking. When we are expected, by ourselves and others, to succeed at a high level it can make us unwilling to try new skills, especially when we don’t succeed quickly. We define the goal as “looking smart” instead of learning new skills.
• Discourages self motivation. When we become trained to look to others for evaluation, we don’t discover our own interest in the task. We flourish when we find our own passions.
• Defines intelligence as static, not something we can build by effort.
• Raises concerns about the “real message”. We may feel that the adult actually thinks that we need help or have reached our potential. Adults say these things because they don’t think we are doing very well and we need encouragement. Criticism can communicate that I think you can do better.
• Creates a fear of failure, a sense that our parents and teachers will be unable to deal with my not being “smart” about everything.
When we give a child or teen encouragement for effort we give them a sense of control. Kids know how to work hard, they don’t know how to be smart. Groundbreaking research done by Carol Dweck demonstrated the effect of adult praise on fifth graders. The children were given a test and then praised for either their intelligence or their effort. The ones praised for their effort did significantly better on a subsequent test.
Po Bronson elaborates:
“But a growing body of research—and a new study from the trenches of the New York public-school system—strongly suggests it might be the other way around. Giving kids the label of “smart” does not prevent them from underperforming. It might actually be causing it.”
For more details and a discussion of the studies read:
Bronson, Po. How Not to Talk to Your Kids, nymag.com/news/features/27840/
So much of parenting advice is about what not to do. Let’s talk about what to do.
The Adlerian parenting model makes an important distinction between praise and encouragement. Praise emphasizes the assessment of the adult while encouragement emphasizes the assessment of the child, it empowers the child with an inner voice.
Another important difference to consider between encouragement and praise is that praise can inspire vertical striving, where the child aims higher and higher to increase self esteem, sometimes perceiving him or herself to be above others. Encouragement, on the other hand, aims to inspire horizontal striving, where the child can more easily perceive him or herself to be on a level playing field, moving horizontally, picking up the tools they need to make their contribution to the community as a whole.
Here are some of my favorite adult responses:
• I’m happy for you.
• How do you feel about the game? (the paper? the project? your report card?)
• Do you wish you had done anything differently? What?
• You must feel good about….
• Nonverbal encouragement: slap five, pat on the back, hug
Alfie Kohn, author of Punished By Rewards, suggests these responses to a job well done.
And what can we say when kids just do something impressive? Consider three possible responses:
* Say nothing. Some people insist a helpful act must be "reinforced" because, secretly or unconsciously, they believe it was a fluke. If children are basically evil, then they have to be given an artificial reason for being nice (namely, to get a verbal reward). But if that cynicism is unfounded – and a lot of research suggests that it is – then praise may not be necessary.
* Say what you saw. A simple, evaluation-free statement ("You put your shoes on by yourself" or even just "You did it") tells your child that you noticed. It also lets her take pride in what she did. In other cases, a more elaborate description may make sense. If your child draws a picture, you might provide feedback – not judgment – about what you noticed: "This mountain is huge!" "Boy, you sure used a lot of purple today!"
If a child does something caring or generous, you might gently draw his attention to the effect of his action on the other person: "Look at Abigail’s face! She seems pretty happy now that you gave her some of your snack." This is completely different from praise, where the emphasis is on how you feel about her sharing
* Talk less, ask more. Even better than descriptions are questions. Why tell him what part of his drawing impressed you when you can ask him what he likes best about it? Asking "What was the hardest part to draw?" or "How did you figure out how to make the feet the right size?" is likely to nourish his interest in drawing. Saying "Good job!", as we’ve seen, may have exactly the opposite effect.
This doesn’t mean that all compliments, all thank-you’s, all expressions of delight are harmful. We need to consider our motives for what we say (a genuine expression of enthusiasm is better than a desire to manipulate the child’s future behavior) as well as the actual effects of doing so. Are our reactions helping the child to feel a sense of control over her life -- or to constantly look to us for approval? Are they helping her to become more excited about what she’s doing in its own right – or turning it into something she just wants to get through in order to receive a pat on the head
www.alfiekohn.org/parenting/gj.htm
This is an article by the researchers mentioned above
www.stanford.edu/dept/psychology/cgi-bin/drupalm/system/files/Intelligence%20Praise%20Can%20Undermine%20Motivation%20and%20Performance.pdf
Here’s an article by a local psychologist, Dan Griffin, with an emphasis on dealing with teenagers.
www.slate.com/articles/life/family/2014/02/motivating_teenagers_how_do_you_do_it.html?wpisrc=burger_bar
Raising Resilient Children and Teens
How can we help our children develop the inner strength to take life’s ups and down in stride? We hope our children will be able to deal with disappointment, frustration and adversity. We hope they will take on challenges and adjust to change.
Building resilience is no easy task, when we think about our wishes for our children as adults – resiliency is a huge part of successfully reaching adulthood. Our happiness depends on our capacity to roll with the punches.
“Resilience is the capacity to rise above difficult circumstances, the trait that allows us to exist in this less-than-perfect word while moving forward with optimism and confidence even in the midst of adversity.” Kenneth R. Ginsburg
There are whole books written on this subject, just to get you thinking about your role and how you can assist your children, here is a list of things you can say and do.
What do I want my child to learn from this situation? (And how can I help make that happen?) Often parents react to situations with expediency (next time I’ll be sure my child takes responsibility for this task), or criticism (I can’t let the teacher see that homework project), or their own anxiety for their child (What if my child has no one to play with at recess?).
How can I communicate “I think you can handle that”? It’s very tempting to help your child solve problems – we’re supposed to do that. When is it better to back off? Give kids as much responsibility as possible for getting through the day’s tasks, resolving conflicts with friends and family and dealing with challenges.
“What options are you considering?” Sometimes we define problem solving as helping the child accept our solution. We need to let kids come up with solutions and then try them out.
“You’ve made progress, what’s the next step?” When people are faced with what they feel is an overwhelming task, it helps to break it down into small steps forward – and to notice those steps towards the goal.
Help your child deal with failure. Sports and games are good opportunities for people to develop skills for handling failure. Point out that if you’re winning every time you need to find new opponents. It’s supposed to be a challenge. When you purposely lose to your child – you are teaching him or her that you can’t handle their loss either or that you think they are not capable of handling it.
“I wish I had done better with that.” “I’m sorry.” Demonstrate and communicate the courage to be imperfect. Share your coping strategies when you’ve messed up or had a disappointment.
“How big is this problem? Rate it on a scale from mole hill to mountain. In can be difficult to get perspective when we are caught up in an emotional reaction. People often catastrophize – “this is a total disaster”.
“What the worst case scenario?” What’s the best case scenario?” “How would you deal with various outcomes?” Sometimes we feel like we just could not handle…… but in truth we can. Help your child realize that people do recover from even large disappointments and losses.
Role play situations that are causing problems for your child. Joining a group playing a game, dealing with a bully, talking to a teacher, avoiding uncomfortable situations with friends. You can also use role playing to allow a child to experience a situation from the other person’s perspective.
Interests in the interests of others. When we help someone else, our problems take on a different perspective. We also learn that we can make a difference in people’s lives.
Recognize the role of temperament. Some people are prone towards worry, some towards emotional outbursts. When you realize that you’re probably not going to get your “drama queen” to calmly present the latest disaster, it makes it easier to wait it out.
Resources:
Ginsburg, Kenneth. Building Resilience in Children and Teens
www.fosteringresilience.com/7cs_parents.php
Seligman, Martin et al. The Optimistic Child
Resilience for Teens and other information
www.apa.org/helpcenter/bounce.aspx
www.apa.org/helpcenter/resilience.aspx
Kurcinka, Mary Sheedy. Raising Your Spirited Child Workbook. Great resource on temperament.
Feeling Scroogeish? As the holidays approach you may find yourself wishing for less stuff – maybe even a lot less stuff. Here’s some justification for shortening your gift lists and asking relatives to do the same. At the end are some more sites to check out for further support.
Why Fewer Toys Will Benefit Your Kids
by JOSHUA BECKER
“The potential possibilities of any child are the most intriguing and stimulating in all creation.” – Ray L. Wilbur
Toys are not merely playthings. Toys form the building blocks for our child’s future. They teach our children about the world and about themselves. They send messages and communicate values. And thus, wise parents think about what foundation is being laid by the toys that are given to their kids.
Wise parents also think about the number of toys that children are given. While most toy rooms and bedrooms today are filled to the ceiling with toys, intentional parents learn to limit the number of toys that kids have to play with.
They understand that fewer toys will actually benefit their children in the long-term:
1. Kids learn to be more creative. Too many toys prevent kids from fully developing their gift of imagination. Two German public health workers (Strick and Schubert) conducted an experiment in which they convinced a kindergarten classroom to remove all of their toys for three months. Although boredom set in during the initial stages of the experiment, the children soon began to use their basic surroundings to invent games and use imagination in their playing.
2. Kids develop longer attention spans. When too many toys are introduced into a child’s life, their attention span will begin to suffer. A child will rarely learn to fully appreciate the toy in front of them when there are countless options still remaining on the shelf behind them.
3. Kids establish better social skills. Children with fewer toys learn how to develop interpersonal relationships with other kids and adults. They learn the give and take of a good conversation. And studies have attributed childhood friendships to a greater chance of success academically and in social situations during adulthood.
4. Kids learn to take greater care of things. When kids have too many toys, they will naturally take less care of them. They will not learn to value them if there is always a replacement ready at hand. If you have a child who is constantly damaging their toys, just take a bunch away. He will quickly learn.
5. Kids develop a greater love for reading, writing, and art. Fewer toys allows your children to love books, music, coloring, and painting. And a love for art will help them better appreciate beauty, emotion, and communication in their world.
6. Kids become more resourceful. In education, students aren’t just given the answer to a problem; they are given the tools to find the answer. In entertainment and play, the same principle can be applied. Fewer toys causes children to become resourceful by solving problems with only the materials at hand. And resourcefulness is a gift with unlimited potential.
7. Kids argue with each other less. This may seem counter-intuitive. Many parents believe that more toys will result in less fighting because there are more options available. However, the opposite is true far too often. Siblings argue about toys. And every time we introduce a new toy into the relationship, we give them another reason to establish their “territory” among the others. On the other hand, siblings with fewer toys are forced to share, collaborate, and work together.
8. Kids learn perseverance. Children who have too many toys give up too quickly. If they have a toy that they can’t figure out, it will quickly be discarded for the sake of a different, easier one. Kids with fewer toys learn perseverance, patience, and determination.
9. Kids become less selfish. Kids who get everything they want believe they can have everything they want. This attitude will quickly lead to an unhealthy (and unbecoming) lifestyle.
10. Kids experience more of nature. Children who do not have a basement full of toys are more apt to play outside and develop a deep appreciation for nature. They are also more likely to be involved in physical exercise which results in healthier and happier bodies.
11. Kids learn to find satisfaction outside of the toy store. True joy and contentment will never be found in the aisles of a toy store. Kids who have been raised to think the answer to their desires can be bought with money have believed the same lie as their parents. Instead, children need encouragement to live counter-cultural lives finding joy in things that truly last.
12. Kids live in a cleaner, tidier home. If you have children, you know that toy clutter can quickly take over an entire home. Fewer toys results in a less-cluttered, cleaner, healthier home.
I’m not anti-toy. I’m just pro-child. So do your child a favor today and limit their number of toys. (Just don’t tell them you got the idea from me.)
http://www.becomingminimalist.com/why-fewer-toys-will-actually-benefit-your-kids/
http://www.livingwellspendingless.com/2012/09/14/why-i-took-all-my-kids-toys-away-why-they-wont-get-them-back/
Boxed in, wanting out
http://www.boston.com/community/moms/articles/2012/07/10/new_study_says_american_families_are_overwhelmed_by_clutter_rarely_eat_together_and_are_generally_stressed_out_about_it_all/?page=1
From Frog Collecting to Number Crunching
Back-to-School Tips
Along with buying new pencils and notebooks, back to school means a return to routines, alarm clocks, and the responsibilities that many of our children left behind with the last bell in June. There are all kinds of systems families can use, and Vicki Hoefle offers a plan that is about progress, change, and the long-term goal of encouraging independence and self-reliance in our children.
Here is my “top 10” list for making the transition from frog collecting to number crunching a smooth one, for kids and parents alike. With these pointers in mind, you’ll help your children begin the school year on the right foot.
1. Ask yourself, “What will it take for my children to manage their schedules independently?” Work with your kids to make a list of everything that needs to happen in order for your kids to be ready for the school day.
2. Allow your kids to establish a routine that works for them, even if they flounder for a week or two.
3. Have faith that your children can handle the natural consequences of their decisions.
4. Show empathy and help your children work through any problems that arise, but don’t be their savior.
5. Set parameters about acceptable dress for school that you and your kids can agree on, and then bite your tongue.
6. Establish a framework for discussing the ups and downs that your kids are sure to encounter as the school year progresses. You want your children to know that you’re on their side, no matter what.
7. Create a roadmap with your children to help them set goals for the year and begin thinking about what it will take to achieve those goals.
8. Set up a time every week to connect as a family.
9. Figure out what you, as a parent, can let go of to encourage your childrens’ independence.
10. Go slow. Encourage progress and recognize growth, and remember that you are the best parent for your child.
Teaching Your Kids About Money:
Allowance, Summer Jobs and College
ALLOWANCE by Joe Lanza
Many parents start teaching kids money management through allowance. Giving your kids an allowance is not a guarantee of teaching monetary responsibility – in fact, you may be teaching them that money will just show up. How can you create an allowance system that also teaches responsibility?
I’m a fan of allowance. I loved watching my kids evaluate whether something they wanted was worth their money (of course it was worth my money!). But not everyone agrees that kids learn healthy spending habits. The great allowance debate roars on, and may have moved to a whole new level with a personal-finance scholar’s recent assertion that a “regular, unconditional allowance may be akin to cruelty to children.” Read more: business.time.com/2013/03/26/expert-paying-kids-allowance-is-cruelty/#ixzz2Uhj2EGjG
The challenge is to create an allowance framework that teaches budgeting, saving and credit concerns. Many parents also use allowance to teach philanthropy – what Adlerians call “interest in the interests of others.” Here are some guidelines:
1. Separate allowance from chores. Allowance is given to develop a child’s responsibility, sense of the value of money; not as a reward for getting chores done.
2. Control the sense of entitlement in our culture of affluence. Do your kids tend to think that they MUST have the current popular item? Ask them how important clothes are when picking friends? Do they have friends who can’t afford cell phones, laptops, video games and how does that affect them socializing?
3. Setting amounts. Decide what you would like your child to pay for and how much you would like your child to have for discretionary spending. It’s important that it be enough to experience whimsical purchasing and then experience wishing you had some money left.
4. Let them make mistakes. Don’t bail them out. Don’t let them borrow money. Don’t make a lot of rules about what they can buy.
5. Require a percentage to savings and to philanthropy. I teach a “three-jar” system: “share,” “save” and “spend smart.” My 7-year-old daughter gets a $7 allowance every Friday. Each week, we require that she deposit two dollars into her “save” jar and one into her “share” jar. She can divvy up the four remaining dollars among any of the jars.
SUMMER JOBS
A summer job can be a real eye-opener for kids about the real world. They can learn:
• Why education is important (I don’t want to spend my life in jobs like this one)
• The importance of arriving on time, being focused on work, understanding what bosses are looking for in employees, what an 8 hour work day feels like!
• I can do it! Just realizing you can call or walk in and ask for a job (and survive rejection) is an important life lesson
• A new vision of themselves – I can succeed in the adult world of work
• The value of a dollar – when you work all day and end up with X, it’s a reality check
• Social skills of interviewing for the job, interacting with colleagues, bosses, customers.
SENDING YOUR TEEN OFF TO COLLEGE
Many kids end up graduating with debt, for their education and for their poor money management decisions. This website is from a 20-year-old and is a gold mine of ideas on spending decisions and credit card decisions. This link is to credit card information – but spend time on his other sections:
helpsavemydollars.com/three-credit-rules-for-students/
Summary: Make responsibility a part of the family dialogue:
• What options are you considering?
• That’s your decision.
• I think you can handle that.
• How do feel about how that worked out?
MORE RESOURCES
“You are the biggest financial influence in your child’s life. Most of what your children will learn about handling money will come from watching you handle yours.” Michelle Singletary
nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/04/01/allowances-jobs-and-teaching-the-value-of-a-dollar/allowances-and-teenage-jobs-should-have-strings-attached
The Anxieties of Children and Teens
From the Monsters Under the Bed to Preparing for College
Regardless of age, there is always plenty to worry about. To worry is a universal phenomenon. Adults have bills to pay and a whole gambit of expectations to meet. The coupling of worry and concern tends to provoke action. Under normal conditions, this action is simply referred to as problem-solving. In other words, on the useful side of life, worry generates an important call to action.
Do the worries of children follow the same trajectory? Yes, of course. The school-age child may find he's worried about an up-coming exam or report. Ideally, the message becomes, “Get prepared!” and the child responds in kind. Child, adolescent and adult worries flow in and out of any given life. They differ in accordance with age or developmental stages, as well as the circumstances that surround the individual. They are transitory in nature. Anxiety is a higher grade of worry. It doesn’t have the same in/out flow. Anxiety has staying power. In children, it can be quite specific as when it is provoked by exams; before, during and afterwards. Or, it can be quite generalized as when concerns around being safe seem constant.
Anxieties are associated with the immediate or foreseeable future. They are related to obligations, demands, expectations of self or others or individualized fears that seem imminent or potentially dangerous. In almost all circumstances, the anxious individual, be it child or teen, has a perception of being unprepared to meet the life challenge, or even unable; as in the case of an upcoming audition or try-out. In this scenario, the child/teen is anxious weeks in advance. Anxiety has penetrated. Ultimately, the child/teen fails to appear for the audition or try-out.
Worries Become Anxiety When…
Anxiety becomes a boni fide disorder when it handicaps normal life functions. For example, when the child cannot bear to be separated from his mother and will not go to school. Or, when the teenager is so concerned about what “they” think of him that his constant awareness makes for constant discomfort leading to a refusal to partake.
Most commonly seen by a child or family therapist are the following types of anxieties, spelled out by the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (Facts for Families, 11/12).
Symptoms of separation anxiety include:
• Constant thoughts and intense fears about the safety of parents and caretakers
• Refusing to go to school
• Frequent stomachaches and other physical complaints
• Extreme worries about sleeping away from home
• Being overly clingy
• Panic or tantrums at times of separation from caregivers
• Trouble sleeping or nightmares
Symptoms of phobia include:
• Extreme fear about a specific thing or situation, i.e. insects or needles
• The fears cause significant distress and interfere with usual activities
Symptoms of social anxiety include:
• Fears of meeting or talking to people
• Avoidance of social situations
• Few friends outside the family
Other symptoms of anxious children include:
• Many worries about things before they happen
• Constant worries or concerns about family, school, friends, or activities
• Repetitive, unwanted thoughts (obsessions) or actions (compulsions)
• Fears of embarrassment or making mistakes
• Low self-esteem and lack of self-confidence
Also important to underscore is an anxiety associated with 17 and 18 year olds, particularly prevalent in senior year of high school. This anxiety is characterized by an avoidance of the future. Symptoms of avoidance of the future include:
• Procrastination of anything related to that which follows high school
• Avoidance of all questions regarding “what’s next?”
• Seemingly indifferent to passing senior year
• Lack of motivation to secure a driver’s license
• Loss of self in drugs, alcohol use, or video games
So What is a Parent to Do?
The first task is NOT to minimize the child’s fears by responding with a cursory, “It’s nothing; you’ll be OK; just don’t worry about it!” The much better response is to embrace the concerns and position oneself as an ally with your child. The parent becomes a collaborator in helping the child to shrink the anxiety. If the anxiety can be seen as an entity, albeit an unfriendly one, that interferes with the child’s satisfaction in life, the team of parent and child now has an opponent. The parent has joined an effort to beat back the anxiety. As the child feels joined, the parent is likely to become even more aware of the anxiety’s hold on her child, and just how deeply the child wishes that he were normal, as in free of the anxiety. If the anxiety persists beyond the parent and child’s creative attack, the alliance allows the parent to suggest to the child the enlistment of a professional member to the team, a child or family therapist.
The job description of a parent who has volunteered to become an anti-anxiety agent includes:
• To be a voice of optimism and constant encouragement
• To be patient with a gradual and incremental pursuit of change
• To be a collaborative and creative problem-solver
Here are transgressions the parent is advised to avoid:
• To become impatient, angry and derogatory
• To succumb to the child’s fears and conclude that “Maybe this is too much for you.”
Most anxieties of childhood and adolescence are not life sentences. They can be overcome. Many parents used to be terribly afraid of the dark and sought safety in their parent’s bed. Many parents are amazed to this day that they finally left home and navigated life quite well on their own. Anxieties are a part of growing up. When posed as a challenge, even better a joint challenge, they become a problem to be surpassed. They are among the adverse circumstances in our children’s pursuit of life. If handled wisely, they build competence and confidence, the ingredients of full participation.
Steven J. Stein is a marriage and family therapist, practicing in Rockville, MD. He works with school-age children and adults on a wide array of mental health concerns. He is grateful to the YMCA’s Youth & Family Services for the opportunity to present on this topic.
A Different Approach to Bullying
“It places responsibility directly upon the shoulders of the victim, where it should be. Whether or not he is upset is entirely up to him, not the bully.” Izzy Kalman
There has been a lot of talk and programs and money addressing the issue of bullying, especially in the schools. There have been some promising results in schools that commit to the process with a significant amount of time – a difficult resource to find in the school curriculum. To find out more about successful programs in schools, click here.
I’d like to encourage you to consider an option for parents dealing with a child who is being verbally bullied. This is a plan to help your child take an active role in changing the interaction with bullies. One powerful deterrent to bullying is engaging other kids to intervene. This may not be a response your child can create. Bringing adults into the situation does not often succeed. We do need to encourage our kids to be aware of their role as bystander. For more information on this, please visit the Bullying Prevention Institute or Tolerance websites.
The different approach I would like to share with you focuses on teaching your child new skills in how they react to bullying. It’s an empowering model – just the opposite of how bullying victims feel. When we encourage kids to go to adults we are saying we don’t think you can deal with this on your own. The problem for adults is assessing the risk of harm and the risk of additional harm when the adult gets involved. But harm is already being done. How can we help our kids protect themselves? Here’s an idea that might work for your kids. It’s a large website with lots of information. I’ve pulled just a note from his website with his perspective. This model is intended to empower NOT to discourage them from telling adults what is happening to them. Be sure to empathize with the feelings or your child. Be sure to present this model as a way for your child to let the bully get what he or she wants - to see you upset. If you interested in Izzy's model, please visit his website.
A general note about bullies: The word “bully” has negative connotations. The general attitude of adults is that the bullies are bad and must be made to stop their bullying. I, though, am not judging the bullies. I refer to kids as being bullies only in the sense that they apparently have the upper hand in the bully/victim interactions. We are to consider them as being no better and no worse than victims. In fact, we are to consider them as necessary for the learning of social skills. Childhood is a time when children practice the skills they will need in their adult lives. If they don’t learn how to deal with aggression in their formative years, how in the world are they going to know how to do it when they are adults? It is more useful to see bullies as the social sparring partners of our children. Bullies give our children the opportunity to learn to deal with aggression, an essential life skill, and we are to be grateful to them rather than angry. Our job is not to protect the victims from the bullies, but to teach the victims how to defeat the bullies – by not getting upset.
Mom always liked you best
Tommy Smothers of the Smothers Brothers
“I wish I had Ross’s parents” - Monica Geller, sister of Ross on “Friends”
Modern Family, Claire and Mitchell, Alex and Hailey
Bart and Lisa Simpson on the “The Simpsons”
Cain and Abel
You get the idea, the list goes on and on.
I have a vivid image of the first time I heard Tommy Smothers say “Mom always liked you best”. It was an epiphany for me – you can say that out loud? You can acknowledge those feelings? I also have a strong memory of sitting with my kids watching Roseanne Barr. It’s a close up of Roseanne sitting on Darlene’s bed and kissing her goodnight and she says “You are my favorite daughter”. I was a little uncomfortable. Then she moved across the room to Becky’s bed and kissed her goodnight and said “You are my favorite daughter”. It helped my kids to be able to laugh about those desires to be the favorite. When issues are unspeakable they have so much more power.
Birth order is a factor in our personalities. When you meet someone who is a twin, what is often your first question? Which one of you was born first? How many or your friends do you know their birth order? We live in a world that often focuses on vertical rather than horizontal definitions of value. People want to know a person’s status to know how to relate to him/her. People may be less interested in the contributions a person makes to the group than their status in the group. This stratification begins in the family. Who is the oldest? Biggest? Strongest? Smartest? Most athletic? Best behaved? Most loved?
Every child is born into the second act of a play and must create their own role.
Here are some pointers for decreasing the level of sibling rivalry.
- Don’t take sides during conflicts. Allow your children to work out their own problems as much as possible. If someone is getting hurt, separate them in positive time-outs. When you play judge and jury, part of the intensity of the conflicts is who Mom or Dad choose. Even the ‘victim’ is making choices and may have played an antagonistic role that is less obvious.
- Put them in the same boat: “If you can’t share the toys, we’ll need to put them away.”
- Change the arena: “Take it outside” (sometimes when the parents can’t hear the conflict it loses intensity).
- Put them in charge: “I think you two can work this out."
- Acknowledge hateful/jealous feelings. One day my five-year-old son came to me and I said “I hate him!” I was just about to say “no, you don’t, he’s your brother” when the intensity of his feelings reminded me of similar feelings I had about my siblings when I was a child. So, instead, I said “I remember feeling that way about your uncle”. His whole body relaxed. It didn’t make the problem go away, but it was comforting to know that these are not uncommon feelings and people can move on from them.
- Use reflective listening – “You sound furious"
- Encourage your child to put feelings into words, “What about your sister is so maddening?” You don’t need to agree or disagree.
- Use imagination: “Wouldn’t it be great if you never had to share anything?” “Do you wish you could be the big sister?” What would you like best about being an only child?
- Celebrate each child’s uniqueness, but without labeling.
- Avoid even the positive labels: Rachel is our serious student, Justin is the athlete. Let each child have access to each role.
- Don’t compare – ever! Instead of “I wish you could take care of your things like David does.” Say: “I see your toys are all over the yard.”
- Favoritism: recognize your own prejudices: birth order, introvert/extrovert, personality styles, interests - be aware of how you may, even inadvertently, be showing favoritism.
- Give according to individual needs – avoid always trying to be fair.
- Strategies for creating a less competitive environment
- Model the behaviors you want to see.
- Express your feelings in words.
- Don’t resort to name-calling.
- Put yourself into a time-out when you feel you are unable to respond rationally.
- Use problem-solving skills: “What can we do about this?”
- Use encouragement.
- Get along with your siblings.
- Emphasize teamwork: chores, family meetings.
- Recognize the importance of learning to deal with conflicts.
- Teach empathy. Ask kids to imagine what someone else is feeling. A good way to do this is with books and movies. Here’s a list. I’ve also included a list of resources for parents that do a good job of addressing sibling issues.
McKay, Gary Raising Respectful Kids in a Rude World
Faber, Adele & Mazlish, Elaine Siblings Without Rivalry
Bullies2buddies.com Thought provoking perspective on bully/victim roles.
Kyla Boyse, http://www.med.umich.edu/yourchild/topics/sibriv.htm
the impact of homework on your FAMILY
Is it time to assess how homework is going in your house? Is it still a nightly tug of war – or have you had some success in handing off responsibility and prioritizing your child’s use of out-of-school time?
Do you feel like homework is having a negative impact on your relationship with your child?
What are the Needs of the Situation?
Assess the educational benefits of the work he is being asked to do. What would really happen if she didn’t do her homework? Would her schoolwork suffer? Would his grades suffer because of the failure to turn it in or because of the missed opportunity to review the material? Read Alfie Kohn’s The Myth of Homework to consider other perspectives.
Talk to your child’s teachers to be sure you understand their homework policy. What is the teacher’s goal with the homework? What happens if no homework is done? What happens if it is incomplete? How is homework helping your child learn the material?
Assess what is getting in your child’s way of completing homework – okay, I bet you’ve thought about this for hours. She just hates doing it, he has other things he really wants to do, it’s tedious and discouraging, she says no one really looks at it, he says he doesn’t learn anything from it, she says she doesn’t care about college... Sit down with a school counselor and get another perspective. Is the homework serving an educational purpose? How can you advocate for your child so that she is being helped by homework and not just frustrated or tormented?
How Can You Change Your Role?
Take a timeout from the role of enforcer. Ask someone else to spend time supervising your child with homework: grandparent, hire a local teenager to come in, hire a tutor (depending on the age of your child and the subjects that are causing the most difficulty). Ask your child what would happen if for 6 weeks you said nothing about homework. Does he or she want the responsibility? If the grades suffer would your child care? Rotate the job with your spouse, every other week.
Have a family routine that limits homework time and creates shared time for fun activities. Make sure you find ways to get involved in your child’s interests. Read the sports page, listen to rap music, play the video games, get your own facebook page – whatever they love develop a knowledge and capacity to share. You do need to be careful to respect their privacy. This concept looks different for an 8 year old and a 13 year old.
Look at your long range goals for your child. Do they share your dreams? How will you feel and what will you do if your child takes a different path? What is your worst case scenario and how would you deal with it? Consider different paths to the same goal: who do you know that found a successful career after floating around aimlessly for years?
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