Positive Discipline Parenting Blog

Empowering Teens: The path from enabling to positive parenting

Parenting is a journey filled with ups and downs, and navigating the teenage years can be particularly challenging. Many parents strive to raise responsible, confident, and accountable young adults. However, one common pitfall in parenting is falling into the trap of enabling rather than empowering our teens. In this blog post, we'll explore the transition from enabling to positive parenting and how it can benefit both you and your teenagers.

The Art of Parenting Teens: Taking a rest day

Parenting teenagers can be a challenging journey filled with ups and downs. It’s a phase of life where both parents and teens undergo significant changes, and navigating this transition can sometimes feel like an uphill battle. In this blog post, we’ll explore the importance of taking a “rest day” in your parenting approach and understanding […]

Moving from praise to encouragement

I’ve been soaking up everything I can about Positive Discipline for the last five years or so, and most of it has come fairly easily to me. It takes patience, intention, consistency, and effort, but most of the tools and strategies have always “clicked” for me. That being said, I am still, every day, working on moving from praise to encouragement with my nanny kids. This has been so challenging for me!

My Top 5 Toddler Parenting Tools

My little baby is now a full-blown toddler. Every stage of development has been such an exciting leap, but it’s at this stage that I’m getting a glimpse into the inner dialogue of my little one’s brain. He is learning to talk and along with language comes a newfound sense of independence and autonomy. This is great when I need to clean up after meals or shoot off a couple of emails, because he can now play by himself for longer periods of time, or even better, help me around the house. It’s a challenge when I have an agenda of what needs to happen now and it doesn’t align with HIS plan. I now understand why virtually every parent of a toddler says their child is “strong-willed”. There’s a parenting myth about the terrible two’s, but what I’ve found is that it doesn’t have to be so terrible if you have some solid Positive Discipline parenting tools in your back pocket.

Getting comfortable with messy play

I’ve been working with kids for over 15 years, and I’ve cleaned up a fair share of messes in that time. I wasn’t someone who initially leaned into messy play because it can be gross, stressful, overwhelming, and because I could always come up with something else that’s fun to do instead. However, the longer I’ve been doing this, the more I’ve gotten not only comfortable, but actually have started enjoying, inviting, celebrating, and really leaning into messy play time! Here’s my why, my how, and some tips I’ve learned along the way.

Tips for validating teens

I like to think of validation as a way to be human to human with my kids. I want them to have the experience of feeling seen. When we validate, it’s an opportunity to let our teens know we can handle them being in their emotions and that we have faith in them to navigate that. Validation improves relationships, deescalates conflict and intense emotions, shows we’re listening without judgment, and that we care. I also think of validation as the opening of a door: when our kids and teens feel seen and not judged, they’re so much more likely to move into a receptive, problem-solving state.